Team Diary Tuesday 31st March 2009
Another early start to the day saw the team out on the range for another 7.30 start in the Dalrymple Cup- a 2 and 10 at 300m and a 2 and 11 at 600m. Relatively easy conditions saw some pretty good scores coming off the range, but Matty Ensor continuing some formidable form (despite the rather bemused look on his face as to why he was shooting so well) stole the competition with a 105.16, to make it his second individual win of the meeting so far. Another mention goes to El Capitano who managed a 50.10 at 300m, showing the rest of us how it’s done!
The rest of the morning was spent shooting the exotically named “Dave Smith” cup at 900m. It was typical that the wind started to fishtale for the long range whilst the wind flags gave little representation of the conditions and the mirage was changing too quickly to be of much help. A few members of the team managed some impressive scores given the conditions and knocked in some 47s and 48s. The more unlucky of us were holding the low forties, not helped by a few slow butt markers, painfully slow partners and the scorching temperature that everyone agreed seemed to have been the most extreme we had experienced since we arrived. Each shot seemed rather more like a sighter than a calculated wind judgement (ha!) and the general discussion was more about the number of crows per shoot than the number of point dropped, amongst many a cry of ‘It changed in the aim’.
After lunch, the team shot the Rhodes Cup, effectively our last chance to nail the team match set up before the RSA international tomorrow. A much more impressive team effort (combined with full use of the headsets this time!), saw the top twelve scorers beat the MacKinnon record by 11 points.
The Tuesday aggregate finished with Lane Buxton of the USA with a 154.13 in first place followed by England’s J Underwood with a 153.16 and PA Haasbroek of South Africa came third with a 153.15. Matty, Lucky and Paul also made the top ten all with 152’s with 17, 15 and 13 V bulls respectively.
Parag’s lunch lecture that we should only be eating one half of his ‘specials’ at lunchtime in order to improve our afternoon’s shooting meant that a very tired and hungry team were eager for an early dinner and bedtime. After a team meeting to announce the team for the RSA International Match tomorrow, half the team returned to the Waterfront for an early meal (this time without the fateful springbok shots!), while the other half went out for what was meant to be an early supper with the American team. It seemed that the scheme of choosing the set menu to speed up time was not as ingenious as it seemed. The point was clearly made that South African time could not be rushed in any circumstances and the group found themselves back at the lodge rather past their bedtimes- a subsequent nomination saw the Captain win ‘Mug of the Day’ for his rather optimistic time management!
Results
Tuesday Aggregate (ex 205.31)
1 L Buxton (USA) 154.13
2 JC Underwood (England) 153.16
3 PA Haasbroek (South Africa) 153.15
5 M Ensor (England) 152.17
7 DC Luckman (England) 152.15
8 P Sykes (England) 152.13
Dalrymple Cup (2 & 10 @ 300m, 2 & 11 @ 600m)
- Matt Ensor (England) 105.16
- Jon Underwood (England) 105.13
- Peter Bramley (South Africa) 105.13
Dave Smith (2 & 10 @ 900m)
- J Maritz (South Africa) 50.7
- L Buxton (USA) 50.4
- P Welgemoed (South Africa) 49.4