Saturday 7th September | Written by Jem Hinde
The first competition team shooting day for this tour. The England squad were all split into separate teams – Red, White, Rose and Crown – to compete in the first day of team matches. This match was made up of an Empire match shot at 300, 600, 900 and 1000x, 2 and 10 at each range. The day dawned clear and cloudless, and relatively still first thing in the morning. The morning cannon salute and national anthem ceremony was followed by a brief prize giving. Well done to Simon Hayton for winning the long range, and to Pete Holden who was third overall on the day yesterday.
And so to business, everyone down to 300 yards and the whole team focus was obvious and evident in bucket loads. Light winds at 300 which then followed the usual Raton pattern of gradually picking up during the day. 600 was followed by lunch, and then 900 and 1000 in the afternoon. By that time the wind had become very tricky at times with a number of stops being called during the worst patches. Another hot day but we did manage to avoid what looked like a torrential downpour in the next valley.
Maximum effort by all gives us the following highlights:
Top team were the English Crowns (1586.86), followed by the American USNRT team (1583.77).
Top individuals within the teams were Jon Underwood ENG (398.29), followed by Curt Bohlman USA (398.25).
Back to individual shooting tomorrow.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on. This is worse than the Tracer app!”
