7th September 2008
Sunday saw us launch into our first proper shooting day as we split into four teams representing regions of England, (albeit with slightly dubious boundaries)!
The day started with ‘colours’ consisting of all the competing countries raising their flags while the national anthems were played. There was a quick scramble as we hurried to swap the union flag for the St. George’s cross and much debate followed about whether land of hope and glory should be played instead, it seems the jury Is still out on this one!
The match consisted 2 sighters and 10 counting shots at 300, 500, 600 and 900 yards with register keeping and competitor marking keeping the team busy for most of the day. 300 yards proved a promising start with most teams faring well. The Eastern and Home Counties team achieved 400 ex 400. The heat of the day had not yet hit and the wind was calm.
JJ ‘you’re cranking my chain’ Jackson paid us another visit to enquire about the quality of the ammo, Dave D making the most of the opportunity to complain that it didn’t read the wind! 500 and 600 yards proved steady with the teams trying to establish good zeroes, getting used to the very different sight pictures and the coaches getting to grips with the wind blowing madly on very light flags.
Lunch was held back at the ‘Eagles nest’ and vast quantities of iced tea and water were drunk and more sun cream slapped on before we headed out to the final distance of 900 yards, where Webbie assured us matches would be won and lost. The scores were of course lower but the coaches did awesomely well, waiting for the worst gusts and saving us from the 9 ring and worse on many occasions.
Scores were close with the Bald eagles winning the day with 1589.83x, Emil Preslick’s team (USA blue) came in second with1588.95x and Dennis Flaherty’s team (USA red) were third with a 1586.87x. Our teams were not far behind with the South and South Western counties team consisting of David L, Ed, John P and Andy being coached by Jeremy coming 4th with1586.87x. The eastern and home counties came in fifth with a 1585.74 (Stephen, Holly, James W, Alex coached by Nick T). Jon coached Jane, Susie, David A and Kelvin to 7th place with a 1579.78x for surrey and London counties. They were closely followed by the northern counties in 8th consisting of Emma, Webbie, Tom, Dave D coached by Nick H with a score of 1576.66.
So all in all, not a bad day for our first team shoots on American soil. There were also outstanding individual performances by David A and Alex who both finished with 399’s ex 400 and Stephen and David L getting 398’s. We hope they gave a big pat on the back to their coaches as well for some pretty incredible wind reading.
In the evening, the team went out to an olde westerny restaurant for supper and dined amongst Jesse James bullet holes with the menu advertising that if you wanted the waiter, you were not to shoot him as funeral costs were expensive for the staff! Dave D gave Kelvin some invaluable advice about how to stop roommates snoring- Dave assured him that giving them a full on kiss would shut them up for the rest of the night!