Team Diary Wednesday 25th March 2009
Picking up from last night, following the usual award ceremony for “mug of the day”, another presentation was made to Stuart Young. He had turned up on a training weekend a few weeks ago with a cardigan of questionable taste and after many comments went back to change. Sensing an opportunity, a very similar cardigan was purchased and sent off with the team kit for embroidery. The photo alongside shows the proud owner of the new article of clothing.
For most of the team, dinner was at the Famous Butchers Grill where huge steaks were consumed and copious amounts of wine drunk. This did take quite a while to arrive so it was quite a late night all in all and a few members of the team were not feeling so well the following morning. Whether this was due to the relatively cheap wine or the large chunks of cow in their stomachs as they went to bed remains a hotly contested debate.
Back at the hotel everyone went to bed leaving Watty and the Captain to await the impending delivery of the ammunition. Just after midnight they received a call from the truck driver who was lost somewhere in Bloemfontein. By the time they fetched him from the centre of Bloem and then unloaded the thousands of rounds it was one o’clock. James went to bed but Tom stayed up for another hour sorting ammo before catching forty winks. He was up again at 4am to push the ammunition to the correct length for the team, ably assisted by David Dyson. A heroic effort by any regard, but just another day in the life of the Captain!
Wednesday was the Orange Free State Championships and we left the hotel early to get to the range for the usual prayers before the first detail. General Mac Alexander had arrived and presided over the day’s shooting with his customary calming but authoritative tones. We shot the short range match in the morning over two details, with the majority of the team in the first detail. At 300m there were a number of 50’s from the team on the very tight South African targets. At 600m the air was heating up and the notoriously fast changing winds arrived. The bracket was 2 to 7½ right with large changes enough to push shots into the magpie. Parag however managed to read these changes and came off with a perfect score to win the morning’s competition with a 105.13 five v bulls ahead of Ty Cooper, one of the American team (for some reason, the South Africans like to shoot 11 to count to make the score out of 105!).
The first of the two long ranges was shot before lunch. If 600m had been testing, then 800m was decidedly difficult. More magpies ensued as the bracket increased from 1¾ to 7½. David Richards is worthy of a mention as he managed to locate the centre of the target for all ten of his shots where the next best from the team appears to be a 48.
We lunched in one of the shelters protected from the African sun and were amply catered for by Maz and Jane who took and made individual sandwich orders for each team member.
James Lothian was rather unimpressed that a certain South African mistook him and Andrew, his dad as brothers!
The fickle winds continued at 900m, the bracket was 6 to 10½ and although there were a number of 50s, it was a shoot out of 55 – so anything above 50 was considered good. With a relatively early finish to the day’s shooting, the buses made a bee-line for the hotel swimming pool where Holly judged a belly-flop competition. After a quick shower, the team divided up to attend to various duties; ammo pushing, food shopping, diary writing, scorecard analysis and the Free State Championships prizegiving and reception.
The “mug of the day” award went to Andy Wilde for his various ammunition based mishaps, but just as the presentation was being made, Holly knocked her G&T across the bar shattering the glass and providing another distraction – too late for the day’s nominations but she could be in with a shout tomorrow!
The prize-giving was held after a modest stats delay of about an hour and a half which gave the attendees enough time to sample another slab of Castle beer with the other visiting teams and then enjoy a rib-sticking lamb curry venison hash and other sundry vegetables followed by sticky toffee pudding and custard all for the princely sum of 70p a head. The prize-giving ceremony when it started proved to be quite an entertaining event. Several male participants appeared to be winning prized in the ladies only competitions. This included “Kate” Pugh and “Emily” Praslick. Following the formalities, our representatives bid their farewells and returned to the hotel – not without incident however, as the vice captain while proudly announcing that “it was easier to do it on instruments” flattened an enormous flower pot urn whilst reversing into the hotel parking space.
Results
Freestate Short Range (2&10 @300m, 2&11 @600m)
- Parag Patel (England) 105.13 (50.8 & 55.5)
- Ty Cooper (USA) 105.8 (50.4 & 55.4)
- Emil Praslick (USA) 104.16 (50.9 & 54.7)
- David Calvert (Ireland) 104.14
- Mike Black (UK Individual) 104.13
- David Luckman (England) 104.12
- Jane Messer (England) 104.11
- Andy Wilde (England) 104.11
- Bill Richards (England) 104.8
- Terry Trigg (Australia) 103.14
Freestate Long Range (2&10 @800m, 2&11 @900m)
- C Clark 103.8
- Alwyn McLean (Ireland) 102.7
- Parag Patel (England) 101.8
Freestate Overall Championship
- Parag Patel (England) 206.21
- Emil Praslick (USA) 205.16
- David Luckman (England) 205.14
In other prizes that were presented, Jane Messer won the ladies short range aggregate and Holly Foster was second.