Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Archive for 2008

The inaugural presentation of the Barry O’Donnell Memorial Trophy was to Richard Lund, awarded for C grade Shooter with the highest score over all attendances for the 2007-2008 year.

We greatly appreciate the donation of this trophy by Barry’s family.

Barry was our club captain for many years and laboured tirelessly in support of club.

Text – Jon Marriot

The QRA was held at the magnificent Belmont range (venue for the 2011 World Championships) with a strong attendance of >260 entries.

Roseville was represented by David Tracey (on leave from the UK), Andrew Martin & Mark Buchanan. The mornings were cold and wind challenging however mostly from the RHS of the range.

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At the National Championships held at Belmont Rifle Range between 18 and 22 June 2008, Mark Buchanan shot brilliantly to win the National Queens Prize. This gives Mark his 10th Queens Number 1 badge, and his first victory in a National Queens.

Mark also came 4th in the President’s Match, the lead up shoot, with a score of 349.48/350 and 4th in the Grand Championship with a score of 919.105. Mark showed he meant business on Day 1 of the Queens by scoring 50.9, 50.9, 50.6 and 50.7 at 300, 500, 600 and 700 yards respectively to take out the Day 1 Aggregate with a score of 200.31.

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On Saturday the 14th June, the individual Club Champions from all the resident Rifle Clubs of the North Shore District Rifle Association met at Hornsby Rifle Range to determine who would be the District Champion. This is a very prestigious match and brings together all the very best shooters in the district.

The afternoon was very bleak, with an icy cold wind blowing and an occasional light rain shower thrown in just to make conditions interesting. As the match progressed the merit order changed as individual shooters battled those most trying conditions. At the end of the day Jeff Burnitt from the strong Hornsby Club won with a score of 197.17 out of 200. Our own Phill Hodder came a very creditable second just one point behind with 196.21. Phill had an unfortunate start and recovered to only drop a single point over the last three ranges. He was the only competitor to do so. John Ross Mitchell also from the Hornsby club won the Junior Champion of Champions thus making it a clean sweep for that Club.

As is tradition the Champion was carried from the Range in the winners chair led by a Scottish Piper.

Total results

Seniors

1. J Bernitt (Hornsby) 197.17
2. P Hodder (Roseville) 196.21
3. J Evans (Hornsby RSL) 196.16
4. P Theobald (Nth Sydney) 195.13
5. E Hardy (Gosford) 192.13

Juniors

1. J R Mitchell (Hornsby) 195.20
2. J Mory (Gosford) 180.06
3. H Lane (Nth Sydney) 178.10

F Class Open

R Forbes (Nth Sydney) 365

Photo – Phill Hodder, text – Ian Palmer

We shot 800m and the weather was sunny and mild with a gentle breeze, shooters tried to get good scores to help their final tally in the club championships. We were lucky to gain some new members this year, a good mix of adults and kids. It’s good to see so many younger shooters joining as this is where the future in the club, and in the sport come from.

After shooting finished we went back to the club house and settled down for a sausage sandwich and refreshing drink, and reminisced on what a great year we had just had.

There is one special event though on Sat 14th June, the Champion of Champions Shoot. This is where the senior and junior winners from each club shoot off at 300, 500, 700 & 800m, to become the District Champion.

Phill Hodder

Sat 17th May 2008 was a great day for Roseville Rifle Club.

Firstly, Roger LeMoy was presented with Life Membership from the North Shore District Rifle Association for his services over the years. Simon Barnhoorn was also presented with this wonderful award. Well done guys.

Secondly, Roseville #1 team was triumphant on the final Arn Hammond Team shoot for the year 700m, scoring an impressive 348/350 to not only win the day but also the match from arch rivals Hornsby #1. Both Mark B and Ian P scored a magnificent 70.11, which is Ian’s highest ever team score, and Hugh B also with a great 70.

We came into this last shoot equal on points with Hornsby but ahead on centres, so it was a very close finish after 5 shoots during the year.

It came down to the Anchor Man, Kerro The Hero, to seal the match and the comp. Needing to score a 67 or better to win he finished in fine form scoring a great 69 with a heap of centres. Well done guys!

Our comiserations go out to Hornsby who shot very strongly throughout the year.

Roseville # 2 team finished the comp very well in 3rd place overall. #1 team should watch out next year with such a strong second team nipping at their heels.

Unfortunately team #3, our handicap team didn’t finish so well this year, I’m sure they will be training hard in the off season and come back fighting fit ready for next years comp.

Phill Hodder

Final Scores at hand

Off Rifle:

Roseville(1) 2075.238
Hornsby(1) 2071.203
Roseville(2) 2042.180
Manly(1) 2033.168
Handicap:

Hornsby(2) 2091
Manly(1) 2090
North Sydney(1) 2087
Roseville(2) 2084
Hornsby(1) 2080
North Sydney(2) 2079

Four Roseville members, Mark, Tim, Keirin and Phill, traveled to Cessnock to compete in the annual Prize meeting and to help Cessnock members celebrate their Centenary. The morning started off very foggy and it was decided to start later with hopes the fog would clear, which it did not too much later. There was an excellent roll up with about 80 shooters. The conditions started off still at 300 yards but the mirage was changing very quickly at times.

Mark Buchanan shot exceptionally well scoring a Perfect 50.10 (!) to win the range. He followed that up at 500 yards with a great 50.8.

Soon before the last shooters finished 500y. the clouds came over and looked very threatening. The heavens opened just before the start of 600 yards and it continued bucketing down for quite a while, so a decision was made to cancel that range. So the very happy Mark won the day by 4 centers from Alan Lee, then Steven Negus one center further behind. Keirin finished with 98.9. Tim and Phill didn’t shoot quite as well. Unfortunately Mark got soaked shooting the lucky bull target, he commented on the fact that he could hardly see the target for the rain, and still managed a center for it.

Well done Mark !!

Phill Hodder

Three Roseville Members travelled to Bendigo over the Moomba weekend to compete in the Victorian State Rifle Shooting Championships.

Temperatures in the mid 30’s made shooting conditions very uncomfortable and trying. The wind over the five days was reasonably gentle with odd patches of a ‘flukey’ and changing breeze to test the shooters wind judging ability.

In the Syme aggregate, which is the lead up series, Mark Buchanan won the first two ranges on day one and Ian Palmer won the third range which made it a clean sweep for Roseville members. Mark went on to finish 8th in the two day aggregate.

In the Queens series, scores were exceptionally high considering the sweltering conditions and Mark again showed his champion qualities and crept up the leader board at every range and was leading with just the 1000 yard competition to go. A difficult patch with the wind resulted in the loss of a couple of points and he again finished 8th in a very competitive field. In the Grand Championship Mark ran 6th.

Roseville entered a team in the Merritt teams match and with Richard Jones, the eventual Queens winner making up the fourth member, we shot 195/200.

Following the Championships, nineteen of Australia’s top shooters went head to head in the Australia Cup Match which is an elimination series to determine the two shooters who will represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games in India in 2010. Mark Buchanan finished a very creditable 8th in the individual competition and 2nd in the pairs match. There are five more Australia Cup competitions to be shot before Australia’s representatives will be known.

Ian Palmer