Congratulations to Alex and Michael Grain on their wedding last Saturday.  Alex looked stunning and Michael was calmness personified.  There were a great many laughs throughout the day, particularly when two guests chose the wrong door to arrive through, ending up where Michael and groomsmen stood, just minutes before Alex walked down the aisle.  We wish the happy couple all the best for their future together.

In club shooting this week, Pratik Tailor had a great night, scoring best in the 20-shot competition with 199.14 and 197.13, and also in Master Grade with 100.8 and 100.7.  It was close in A Grade with Evan Little (99.6) finishing an inner ahead of Dianne Grain.  Craig Fair took top honours in B Grade with 98.4, and Hamish Guthrey shot a new PB of 99.1 to be best in C Grade.  D Grade scores continue to climb with the top five D Graders this week being Wiko du Toit 98.5 (a new PB), Amalamo Simi 97.3, Oscar Robinson 96.5, Georgia Karantze 95.5 and Qiyun Goh 94.3.  It’s great to see this improvement, with many of our new shooters likely to move up a grade (and in some cases two grades) next season.

Brooklyn shooters finished in the top three positions for Wellington at the Interassociation D Grade match held on Monday (Wiko du Toit, Amalamo Simi, Oscar Robinson) – well done!  And congratulations to Mila Ballara on shooting a new PB of 94.1 in this match.

Round 3 Triple S Champs results are now available.  Summer O’Dwyer has a two-point lead in B Grade and for top position overall, and Georgia Karantze moves up to 2^nd place in D Grade.  Samuel Marsden are now in 3^rd position in the teams event, while Wellington College moved up four places to be in 6^th position.  The last round is a 20-shot target with a deadline of Sunday 4 September.

Wellington faced Eastern Force in the semi-finals of the NDC competition on Thursday.  While having the best overall total score (our best this season), and our juniors winning easily, our composite and open sections succumbed to the stronger Eastern Force team.  This meant Wellington scored 5 points against Eastern Force’s 9 points.  Eastern Force will now compete against Southland in the final, with the winner of this match competing in the promotion/regulation match against Hutt Valley.  Congratulations to Meredith Ackrill and Jess Fair on their 100.8 and 100.7 respectively, and to Wiko du Toit on his new 20-shot PB of 194.12.  Many thanks to Luisa Kristen for coming along to coach our newer shooters.

Round 1 of the local secondary schools match was held yesterday at the Keene Range in Petone.  Wellington College got off to a great start with Jack MacCormick’s 96.2, a four-point improvement on his previous PB.  Top shot for Marsden was Summer O’Dwyer with 95.6.  Our Wellington College team are currently in 2^nd position behind Onslow, while our Marsden team are 4^th behind Upper Hutt.  Only seven points separate the top four teams.  Round 2 will be shot at the Royal Tiger Range in Newtown on Sunday 28 August, with the 12 highest Wellington shooters then forming the 2016 Wellington secondary schools team to compete against other regions the following Sunday.

Good luck to Meredith Ackrill, Jess Fair and Ross Little who have been selected for North Island teams to compete against the South Island in Rangiora this weekend.

Upcoming events:

• Tuesday 16 August, 8pm, Titipounamu Match, 1x10 + 1x20.  Team: Evan Little, Summer O’Dwyer, David Grain, Dianne Grain, Jess Fair.  On call: Wiko du Toit, Craig Fair.
• Thursday  18 August, Interclub.  C Grade, 7.45pm, 1x10: Mark Riley (captain), Georgia Karantze, Wiko du Toit (marker), Hamish Guthrey.  B Grade, 8.15pm, 1x10: Summer O’Dwyer, Callum Osborne, Craig Fair (captain), Mark Riley.  Open Grade, 8.45pm, 1x20: Pratik Tailor, Meredith Ackrill, Evan Little (captain), David Grain.
• Saturday 20 August, Inter-island match, Rangiora.  NI Open team: Meredith Ackrill (emergency).  NI Women’s team: Meredith Ackrill, Jess Fair.  NI Junior team: Ross Little, Jess Fair.
• Monday 22 August, Teams of Five match, 8pm, 2x20.  Team TBC.