Roseville Rifle Club Australia

There were 9 Roseville RC members who did the trek north to fly the flag at our favourite regional prize meet at Wingham RC. The two day event is not to be missed and this year did not disappoint. The early morning start was doable but you did need to be dressed warmly for the 3^oC temperature. Brrrr. Gloves and warm jackets were definitely needed. Layers were necessary because by lunch time it was warm and jackets and jumpers were ditched.  Wingham is an interesting course because you shoot up hill and the targets are in shade except for mid-day due to the tree cover.  There is also the issue of the SSAA range “up front” near the butts that adds some interesting swirls to catch you off guard.

We had a good mix of Roseville people in 5 divisions (TRA/TRB/TRC/FTR/FSB) ensuring we spread our chances of coming home with some prizes. Phill was also helping the extra Shore boys that Roseville adopted for the competition (Jasper, Billy and Hugh).

Wingham is renown as a tough gig in TRA with 27 top level competitors. Imagine that at 400yds, a 50-7 (Mark) means 8^th place in a detail and 50-6 (Phill) means a 10^th place. Those are awesome scores unless you are shooting at Wingham against all the other top A graders. There was more of the same at 500yds when 50-7 (Pat and Phill) meant 10^th and 11^th for the detail. You certainly have to be on your A-game.  Pat showed he will be a force to be reckoned with in South Africa landing three 50-8 over the 2 days. The leader board going into the last detail had 2 Roseville people (Pat and Phill) in contention but the final detail of 2+15 at 600yds meant it was near impossible to go clean so only Phill ended up in the top 10 in TRA.

However it wasn’t just about TRA.  Paul was holding his own in TRB (12 competitors) and Nigel was a force to be reckoned with in TRC (22 competitors). Skye, our solo competitor in FSB did very well showing everyone that a .223 can compete against a .308. But there was an interesting story in FTR because this was the first year FTR was officially offered at Wingham. So our Roseville contingent made up 37% of the FTR entrants! Great way to make the odds in Roseville’s favour and we did well coming 2^nd/3^rd/5^th in the Grand Aggregate with lots of range prizes.

So here is how our competitors did & the prizes they took home

• Phill Hodder (TRA): 99.99% day 1, 98.85% day 2.
• Pat Jacombs (TRA): 99.33% day 1, 98.28% day 2.
• Mark Buchanan (TRA): 99.33% day 1, 97.14% day 2.
• Paul Russell (TRB): 97.99% day 1, 94.28% day2. 3^rd at 500yds, 3^rd at 600yds
• Nigel Russell (TRC): 97.33% day 1, 91.42% day 2. 1^st at 400 yds and 500yds, 2^nd at 500 yds, 1^st for Day 1, 2^nd in Grand Aggregate
• Skye Russell (FSB): 99.43% day 1, 96.01% day 2. 1^st at 500 yds, 2^nd for Day 1, 3^rd at 600 yds
• Janet Beale (FTR): 97.76% day 1, 98.07% day 2. 2^nd at 500yds, 2^nd at 400 yds, 3^rd at 600 yds, 3^rd at 600 yds, 2^nd on Day 2, 2^nd in Grand Aggregate
• Alan Patrick (FTR): 98.88% day1, 96.15% day 2. 2^nd at 400 yds, 2^nd at 500 yds, 2^nd on Day 1, 3^rd at 400 yds, 3^rd in Grand Aggregate
• Eva Patrick (FTR): 98.32% day 1, 95.19% day 2. 3^rd at 400 yds, 3^rd on Day 1, 2^nd at 600 yds

Notice the pattern – Roseville competitors were, across each of the days, scoring over 90% and taking home a heap of prizes.

Janet Beale