News

Bathurst Rifle Club Inc. 2018 Annual Open Championships.  27/28 October 2018

          The Championships this year threw up a set of conditions not seen for many years, even on a weekly club basis. Instead of the sunny day and gusty winds presented to shooters at the Saturday practice session, Sunday was still and overcast. Just a whisper of breeze from the east to north east quarter masked a treacherous mirage which grew more dangerous as the temperature went past the comfortable stage.

            The disappointing attendance of just 40 shooters was cancelled out by the closeness of the competition. At the onset of shooting the overcast conditions kept the temperature down and the total lack of wind presented shooters with a great canvas on which to display their talents - and this, many did.

            At the onset the 500 yard range looked to be an easy cop as the A grade TR competitors piled on the possibles led by local Steve Williams with 50.07 closely followed by Mark Buchanan (Roseville) John Baxter (Lithgow) and Mark Bunt (Katoomba). In TR-B Steve King (Fashions Mount) led with 47.04 and TR-C saw Fashions mount club mate Michael Cubillo head the list with 49.02. 

            F Standard A was the most popular discipline as Daniel Galea (Dubbo-Narromine) and Brett Bond (Lithgow) went to the front with 60.6 and 60.5 possibles ahead of their 12 rivals. F Std B was a narrow win for local Colin Howell. It seemed that the locals were well experienced with the conditions as Jeff Eppleston took out F-Open but these conditions do not regularly occur on the Bathurst Range.

            The mirage was starting to play with shooters as the 1st 600 yard range got underway. Possibles disappeared from all scorecards and some not so hot numbers appeared on others. Magpie threes started to appear on target rifle screens and inner 4’s became quite common with F class competitors.

            Mark Thurtell (Lyndhurst) topped a group of three in TRA with 49.06 from Williams and Baxter on 49.04. TRB fared somewhat worse with Adam Beal (Shore Rifle Club), King (FM) and Sean Villis (Gemfields) all dropping four points, just centres separating them.

            Galea perhaps more experienced in these type of conditions being from the wide open western plains set up a comfortable lead in FSA as the competition hotted up in FSB with Lindsay Hough taking out the first 600 yard range. Andrew Beavis (North Sydney RC) pipped Jeff Eppleston for F Open honours. 

            With the mirage at its height and the wisp of a breeze starting to ruffle the flags the defining stage saw a couple of the leaders rolled. The flags were of little help as the mirage rarely agreed with the flags which were themselves in total disagreement. 

            Buchanan grabbed the lead with a range topping 49.07 which allowed him to take out the TRA match aggregate by 2 centre bullseyes from Williams.

            Beale, an up and coming junior, won two of the three ranges and secured the TRB title. Crimston despite not wining a range was the most consistent and took out TRC by 1 point.

            Despite John Simons (Broken Hill RC) 60.4 and Ken Eppleston (West Wallsend) 60.3 shooting possibles on the final range Galea held on for a comfortable 4 point aggregate win.

            Howell snatched the FSB Aggregate from Hough with a 1 point win at the last range. Jeff Eppleston who has been jumping around in recent months from F Std to FTR to F Open took out the F Open Aggregate by the wide margin of 7 points.

            David Waters (Katoomba RC) who supplied the bank of 6 Silver Mountain Targets and Alan Riley Katoomba RC assisted the Bathurst RC members to conduct a successful meeting. The Willis brothers Grahame and Geoff performed the IT functions admirably. 

            The next local shoot will be held at the 300 yard range being the first range of six Diggers and G James Cup matches over 300, 500 and 600 yards.

All scores and results can be found here --> Results - Bathurst Rifle Club OPM 2018

by John Coghill