Roseville Rifle Club Australia

It was a glorious Autumn day on the ANZAC Rifle Range on Sunday – with 88 competitors turning out for the annual MDRA ANZAC Day OPM.  Roseville had a contingent of 7 Club Members who entered and competed, with myself, Phill and Adam in Target Rifle, and Bobski, Allan, Janet and Michael in F-Class.

Bobski enjoying the sunshine

Allan relaxing while he waits.

There was a dignified Service of Remembrance held at the Memorial Gates outside the NSWRA Headquarters.  Each entrant in the OPM is provided with the details of one of our fallen soldiers with their cards.   My Entry featured Private Robert Poate – from 6 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment who was killed in Afghanistan on the 29^th of August 2012.  Lest we forget.

After the service – all competitors proceeded to the 600M mound to be greeted by quite a challenging southerly breeze.   T

Phill and Adam share a joke.

he wind was quartering from 1:30pm, switching to 2pm and would strengthen and then drop quickly.  There was not much of a “prevailing” wind and in this scenario – only one possible was shot in the first match across all disciplines by –  you guessed it – Jim Bailey of Holsworthy who posted an incredible 75.9.   I would love to take him out for a beer and pick his brain on how he did it.    There were no fantastic scores from our Roseville gang – but Michael Cuda came 2^nd in FTR

with an 85.3 and Adam Beale came 5^th in TRB with a 72.6.

The beginning of the second match served up much the same tricky conditions – although the wind started to push around to 12:30 and sometimes crossed over to 11:30 just to make it interesting.   It must have been an easier match – because 4 people out of the 88 competitors, myself included, posted a possible

Michael Cuda takes aim in the late afternoon sunshine

score.   I was definitely the beneficiary of shooting late in the day – when the wind was only switching between 11:30 and 12:30 – so if you held well you would still clip a bullseye at either 3 or 9 o’clock if you were out of step with it.  I was pleased to get up with a 75.7.

Adam Beale put a good performance in to record a 74.7 and this put him into 3^rd place in Target Rifle B-Grade with an aggregate score of 146.13 – the top score in TR for Roseville.  Michael Cuda was Mr Consistency – posting another 85 which put him into 2^nd place in the Aggregate for FTR – with 170.8 – 4 Super Centres behind Alexina Bunt from Hornsby Manly TRC.

As for the rest of our Club Members:

Janet was cheering on Adam – a proud mum

• Janet Beale picked up 4^th place in FTR with 164.5;
• Allan Humbert came 6^th in FTR with 158.6;
• Bob Kozminski came 7^th in FTR with 157.6;
• Adrian Bonanni came 10^th in TRA with 144.12;
• Phill Hodder came 16^th in TRA with 139.5

Adrian B just doing nothing 🙂

It was a wonderful day on the range – learning how to read the tricky wind at Malabar.   Michael Cuda was commenting after the shoot that it would be great for us all to get more experience at Malabar in conditions like that – to enhance our chances of success in major tournaments there.   I fully agree – and I will also be inviting Jim Bailey over for a steak and a bottle of shiraz sometime soon!

For more information on scores – go here: https://www.results.nraa.com.au/anzac-day-open-championships-2021-nsw-results-2/

Written by Adrian Bonanni, Photos by Phill Hodder