Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Archive for October, 2019

Two weeks after the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama,  the Bathurst Rifle range was back in operation and humming for their annual Open Prize Meeting.  Bathurst is just under 3 hours away, but that was far enough away that only two intrepid Roseville RC members made the jaunt. Mark Buchanan was shooting in Target Rifle and Janet Beale in FTR.

The day was sunny without any sign of rain clouds; not surprising given the drought. The wind started out mild and increased a bit through the day – when it was blowing it was mostly coming straight across the range from the paddock to the right; and of course there was mirage to deal with once it warmed up. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds, there was some “twitchiness” to the fickle winds/mirage and, being a country range, the flies were ever present.

There were three details to the day’s events: two of 2+10 at 500yds, and one of 2+15 at 600yds.

Congrats to Mark who came 3^rd in 2 ranges (500yds and 600yds) and came 4^th overall in TR-A.

Congrats to Janet who came 1^st at 600yds and came 3^rd overall in FTR.

Certainly our country hosts did a great job – thanks to Bathurst RC for putting on this great event.

Janet Beale

In late Sept, the State F-Class teams headed nearly 4000km from Sydney to the lovely city of Perth and then headed north to the slightly less scenic Pinjar Range.  The Pinjar range is unusual in that the firing point is in a constant place near the modern club house and the butts are positioned in sections at various distances. A couple of other things that are quite noticeable are that the flies on the mound are ever present, the firing point (complete with artificial grass) is nicely sloped for TR (which becomes a bit awkward for rear bags for F-Class), and the terrain is very flat with not a lot of the lush green grass we are used to at Hornsby (but the wild flowers are very pretty).  One other major factor at Pinjar is the mirage!

The National F Class Team Matches commenced with Match One being shot at 900 metres. Match Two commenced with the winds making it interesting for all teams. In the NSW representative teams were the following Rosevillians:

• F-TR: Eva Patrick and Alan Patrick (with “Gosford Gary”)
• F-STD: Peter Walters

NSW tried hard but the winners were the Victorian F Open Team, West Australian F Standard team and Queensland FTR Team. Special congrats to the NSW FTR team that came 2^nd.

Staying on for the WARA Queens was Alan and Eva Patrick.

Roseville is very proud of our State team competitors!

Janet Beale

The NSWRA 143^rd Open Championships (the NSW Queens and the McIntosh) was shot from 9^th to 13^th October. Numbers from Roseville this year were a bit down due to

1. a) a lot of people having just returned from the WARA Queens & F-Class team championships and
2. b) others who were unavailable due to work or family commitments.

The intrepid Rosevillians that started in the leadup (McIntosh) were Mark Buchanan (TR-A), Phill Hodder (TR-A), Rob Trodden (TR-B), Ian Palmer (FTR), Allan Humbert (FTR) and  Janet Beale (FS-B).

The McIntosh was challenging with strong winds from the West and rain constantly threatening. Congratulations to Mark, Phill, Rob, Ian and Allan who each got at least one 1^st place range prize in the McIntosh. Below are the positions at the end of each day and the grand aggregate for the McIntosh.

Mark :  3rd day 1 / 1st day 2 / 2nd McIntosh   Phill : 10th day 1 / 11th day 2 / 9th McIntosh   Rob : 10thday 1 / 10th day 2 / 10th McIntosh   Ian : 1st day 1 / 2nd day 2 / 2nd McIntosh   Allan : 4th day 1 / 4th day 2 / 4th McIntosh   Janet : 4th day 1 / 1st day 2 / 2nd McIntosh

Roseville certainly enjoyed the tough conditions at the McIntosh leadup and looked forward to the next days of the Queen’s competition with Sam Houston and Michael Cuda joining the Roseville representatives.  However, the winds changed and to say they became fickle was an understatement. With winds coming up from the south, the flags full and the unpredictable “strong right wind” moving to “strong left wind” mid-shoot (and back again) the decimation was noticeable amongst the non-Malabar veterans.

Home range advantage reared its head leaving the Roseville contingent outside of most medals for Day 1 and Day 2 of the Queens. Michael Cuda unfortunately retired on Day 2 but he did not go home empty handed as he had won a 1^st place range prize on Day 1. Fortunately, Day 3 of the Queens was far kinder; 800m and 1/4 min of wind with the occasional puff meant scores reverted to some semblance of normality. Congrats to Janet who won a 1^st place range prize on Day 3.

Congrats to Mark and Ian who each came 2^nd in the Grand Aggregate in their respective disciplines – tough conditions but they prevailed!

(Special congrats to FTR Queens winner Gary Faulkner (aka “Gosford Gary”)  who was shooting under Roseville’s colours).

Roseville entered a TR team in the prestigious Sargard Teams match and also an F Std Team, but due to the lack of any other teams entered in F Class they unfortunately couldn’t compete. This year the match was held on the last day of the Queen’s at 800m. Scores for the TR team were:

Mark 73.7

Phill 71.8

Rob 66.3

Sam 68.2

Janet Beale

7^th of July dawned and many Rosevillian’s were competing in the City vs Country competition held at Malabar. Due to heavy fog, the day stared out with everyone relaxing and just waiting for the time when the flags and eventually the targets would become visible. Not even the whales from the previous day could be seen. As a result of the delay at the start, the competition was modified to 10+2 shots at each of 500, 600 and 800m (dropping the 700m range altogether).

The City Target Rifle team was captained & Coached by Jim Bailey (Holsworthy RC) with additional coaching by Peter Thurtell (also of MDRA) and Michael Millen (Mosman Neutral Bay RC). The team included our own Phill Hodder, Pat Jacombs and Adam Beale as reserve (oh yes there were other people there from other clubs too!). Due to illness on Phill’s part, Adam and Phill swapped places so Adam was the shooter and Phill the reserve. The team did well beating their Country competitors by 9 points, although Country had a higher centre count. This was the first time City has prevailed over Country in a long time.

The City F-Std team was captained and coached by our Club Captain Michael Cuda. They scored an emphatic victory over the Country team for the first time in recent memory. Roseville competitors in that team included Michael Cuda (Captain and Coach), Peter Walters and Alan Humbert.

The City F-TR team was captained and coached by our own Gary Faulkner. They scored a repeat back-to-back victory over the Country team. Roseville made up the bulk of the 5 person team which included Alan Patrick, Eva Patrick and Janet Beale.

The F-open City team did not have any Roseville members but for the record, the Country team prevailed in that discipline.

Everyone enjoyed the resulting sunny day; particularly the wind coaches after the lunchtime wind change which saw an on-shore relatively consistent breeze for the 800m mound. The presentation of the medals to the 3 City teams was a bonus with all Roseville competitors coming home with a medal to show for the day’s outing. Special congrats to Michael Cuda and Gary Faulkner for taking their respective teams to victory.

Janet Beale