Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Archive for July, 2019

Our fellow club member and dear friend David Hollister passed away on Thursday July 25th, 2019 after battling pancreatic and liver cancer – unfortunately this type of cancer is very aggressive, so David was taken away from us far too early.

David was a wonderful man, a true gentlemen in every sense and an inspirational person who excelled in all aspects of his life. David was a loving family man and active in the community with his local church – he and wife Chris created a very successful printing business which they sold, allowing David to retire several years ago. He enjoyed a variety of different shooting disciplines and competed at an elite level including World Championships, Olympics and Commonwealth Games – of course most of us know David as a member of Roseville Rifle Club being a top A Grade full bore TR rifle shooter.

He was always an enthusiastic club member and regularly volunteered for duties around the club and on the range, often acting as Butts Officer and being involved in working bees and more recently our clubhouse renovations. He was particularly well known for sharing his shooting expertise and mentoring new and young shooters, so his passing will be mourned by many in the shooting community. Whilst many of our members had the good fortune of being mentored by David, our current Vice Captain Phill Hodder was lucky enough to have received one on one training for an extended period of time that resulted in Phill honing his skills to become one the best TR shooters in the district and going on to win the Champion of Champions match a few years ago, as well as OPMs and other events. Of course Phill himself is an excellent mentor for many of our younger shooters, no doubt enriched by his experiences with David.

One of the unique traits of David was his humility, he never boasted about the fact that he competed at an elite level, rather he always focused on how he could shoot better and also help other shooters improve their skills.

David is survived by his wife Chris and daughter Elizabeth, so our thoughts go out to them at this difficult time.

Farewell old friend, you will always have a special place in our hearts and we will all miss you dearly…..

Wingham is the probably the largest OPM in NSW outside of a Queens and it didn’t disappoint this year as there were over 100 shooters that attended the 2019 Wingham OPM on 8-9 June. While the Sydney rains put some people off attending, Wingham had cloud on Saturday with little to no wind and sunshine with a slight breeze and some mirage on Sunday. From Roseville we had Target Riflers:

• A Grade: Mark Buchanan, Pat Jacombs
• B Grade: Angus Langsford, Rob Trodden, and Adam Beale
• C Grade: Oliver Bishop

And in F-Class:

• F-Std-A: Peter Walters
• F-Std-B: Dmitri Kazakov, and Janet Beale.

This was Rob’s first OPM in almost 2 years  – good to see you back in competition Rob!  This was Oliver Bishops 1^st OPM ever. Phill Hodder was also attending to help coach the Shore boys who are also members of RRC (this coaching role was very useful when he had to perform “emergency surgery” on Oliver Bishop’s rifle and trigger). Peter Walters retired after day 1 due to food-related illness but has recovered since then. Phil Jacombs was photographer and supporter of all.

Such was the level of competition that on Day 1, if you were in Target Rifle A Grade and you had dropped a single point then you would be in 11^th position or lower! Congrats are extended to Jim Bailey and Mitch Bailey of Holsworthy who came 1^st / 2^nd in the grand aggregate! Overall, our Roseville people represented the club in fine form and many came home with medals or awards:

In target Rifle:

• Mark B: 1^stplace range prize against very steep competition
• Adam B: three 1^stplace range prizes, a 2^nd place range prize, a daily aggregate 1^st place trophy and then 2^nd place prize in the grand aggregate
• Angus L: a 3^rdplace range prize and a 3^rd place in the daily aggregate prize.
• Oliver B: a 2^ndplace range prize

In F-Class:

• Dmitri K: two 2^ndplace range prizes, a 3^rd place range prize, a daily aggregate 1^st place trophy
• Janet B: two 1^stplace range prizes, a 3^rd place range prize, two daily aggregate 2^nd place trophies, and then 1^st place prize in the grand aggregate.

 Well done to all our RRC shooters and special congrats to Janet Beale on her first FStd-B Grade win!!!

Adam Beale

Belmont Shooting Complex in Brisbane Queensland was the place to be from 17 June to 23 June – it was that little bit warmer and of course a bit windier on a range that extends to 1000yds.

The first two days was the Martin Baxter Target Rifle team’s match which included Phil Hodder, Dmitri Kazakov and Pat Jacombs from RRC shooting at 800/900/1000 yds.  Also shooting on those two days was Janet Beale in an FTR capacity (this was a team trial but not a competition event).  Gary Faulkner was on hand to lend his support to the FTR trials; Phil Jacombs was lending a hand to the Target Riflers.

The second two days were devoted to the Presidents Match. From Roseville we had Target Riflers:

• A Grade: Pat Jacombs (who had a cracking good day 1 with a clean score!), and Adam Beale
• B Grade: Dmitri Kazakov (who won a 1^st place and 3^rd place rage prize)

Unfortunately, at this point Phill and Janet had returned to Sydney due to work commitments and so they did not shoot the “lead up” or the Queens.

The last 3 days were devoted to the NRAA Queens which had an astounding finish with U25 shooter Alex Davies of West Wallsend taking out the Queens prize.

From Roseville we had Target Riflers:

• A Grade: Pat Jacombs, and Adam Beale
• B Grade: Dmitri Kazakov (who won a 1^stplace range prize, a 2^nd place range prizes and two 3^rd place range prizes)

In F-Class:

• FTR – Gary Faulkner (who won a 1^stand 2^nd place range prize, a daily aggregate 2^st place prize and the Queens Prize for the grand aggregate)

Well done to all our RRC shooters and special congrats to Gary Faulkner on his Queens Prize win!!

Adam Beale