Wednesday 11th September | Written by Amy Xu
Into the third and final day of team shooting before the America match! We arrived bright and early yet again at the range, after being very well fed by Ali and Keisha with chicken curry and brownies. Today’s Colours ceremony was followed by a minute’s silence in memory of 9/11, and the flags were kept at half mast all day.
In the prizegiving, Matt and Pete took 3rd and 2nd in the short range yesterday, Pete took 2nd in the long range, and therefore Pete won the day overall and the Freedom Trophy Match!
With the wind benign, Keisha decided to take matters into her own hands, and shot before Jason, her coach, had even started to say the target number! Amy made a friend with a grasshopper who stayed on her cap for her entire shoot – voluntarily, unlike Simon who kidnapped one with a broken leg. Simon was also suitably fined for dropping his last…twice, though he was also hard done by Jason converting his 10 X sighters for a 100.9.
Another day, and even more broken golf tees. The match was nail-bitingly close – we thought we’d give the Americans some hope before taking it away – obviously the English Crowns came out on top yet again, for a totally clean sweep of the team matches – a truly remarkable feat. As they were now coached by Jon Cload instead of coaching/shooting in pairs, they were unfortunately ineligible for the actual team aggregate which went to Scotland Claymore – the only team left whose composition hadn’t changed over the week. The win was by just Xs, with 1591.93, and the third placed team was only 1 point behind and with more Xs. It all suggests some exciting competition coming up! Special mention must go to Pete Holden who was clean all day with 400.23 (the joint highest score on the range).
Luckily, we managed to dodge the largest storm clouds and enjoyed a relatively early finish on the range – especially as it started to thunder and rain just as we were driving back to our accommodation. The team made use of the late afternoon in different ways, with some cleaning rifles, doing laundry, going for a run and doing some rock-lifting, and exploring the historic Santa Fe Trail marker and memorial just inside the NRA Whittington Centre.
An evening meeting saw everyone listening in eager anticipation for the touring captain Jon Underwood announcing the team for the America Match – 15 strong with a match captain & vice-captain, 8 firers, 2 line coaches and a main coach, and 2 reserves. A massive congratulations to everyone selected! The teamsheet will be posted separately – stay tuned.
Tomorrow is the last day of individual shooting and the last day before the America Match. With Simon, Jon Underwood, Matt, and Pete in the top 7, the Grand Aggregate is all to play for!