The start of the final day of the West Indies Individual Fullbore Championships was rather unremarkable. Unremarkable as the top 3 places in the Grand Aggregate remained with England, Ed Feast leading by a measly three points from Kit Crabtree.
With the sun shining fiercely and a cool northerly breeze, the team got down to business. For the first time in Antigua, Ed faltered with a 48. Thanks to an incredible 50.2 from Kit, the lead narrowed to only one point, with the chasers ahead on V-bulls. Felix, one of our youngest members on tour, shot his first ever possible with 3 V’s, beating even Kit by a V. This diarist had his hopes up for a 47, only to finish with a curious miss for his last to count…suboptimal.
The next distance brought with it stronger winds and changing sight pictures due to intermittent cloud cover. Still, possibles prevailed, in addition to one oddly loose grub screw in a rearsight, effortlessly fixed by the Adj before the next shoot. Rupert’s superb performance earned him a “clean” 500 yards Aggregate.
With all eyes on Ed to finish off a strong Grand, he did not disappoint. Holding off Varma Rambaran’s 74.10, he put in the only possible on the range to win yet another shoot. A 75.9 at 600 yards on an ICFRA target is an achievement in itself, but handling the pressure of being the leading man and only dropping 7 points in 9 shoots on a new range is nothing to scoff at.
The Vice Captain did his best to put a spanner in the works by firing his last shot of the Grand on Ed’s target, but Ed’s calmness prevailed.
After celebrating his victory, Ed got the luxury of his own room for the night before heading back to the UK to attend a family wedding.
The rest of the team joined in with the celebrations, affectionately congratulating each other with “Merry Ed Feastmas”, while the management had a lengthy discussion about the impending Short Range International Match teams. Finally, the target teams were announced. Clearly, everyone had had a long day out in the sun, as the format for the White team was declared as “2 firers and 8 coaches”!
Later in the evening, the Captain led a heroic charge into the ocean to help the team cool off. Not wanting to break the routine, most of us then settled down to prepare for the last day of R&R.
Lollipops awarded: 8 (almost all for excellence!)
Lollipops to date: 58