Another busy week at the club with 33 shooters. The Little Shooting Dynasty is growing, with Inge making a return visit to the club and scoring a new PB of 74, followed by another new PB of 82. It was great to see Lukas Kristen again, trying to warm up in Wellington from a chilly few months in Dunedin at university.
Bex Amos top-scored in the college training squad this week with a new PB of 92.1, shot on her Round 2 Triple S card. Daniel Mackey recorded the best score in D Grade with 92.2 - his best score this season, while Ronan Balm was a mere inner behind on 92.1. In C Grade Stephen Thessman was highest with 97.6 followed by Greg Mason 96.4 and Jialin Sae-Jiw 96.2. Maor Ben-Shahar shot an estimated 97.4 on his Round 2 closed champs card to be highest in B Grade this week; Mark Riley also scored the same as part of his 20-shot card while his 10-shot score was a good 96.5. Ross Little top-scored in A Grade this week with 99.7, followed by David Grain with 99.4. And Michael Grain shot 100.4 to record the highest 10-shot score in Master Grade. There were many excellent 20-shot scores - Pratik Tailor recorded an extremely impressive 200.16 with 100.9 (the last inner was a test out!); 198s were shot by Meredith Ackrill, Michael Grain, Pratik Tailor and Ross Little; and 197s by Dianne Grain, David Grain and Meredith Ackrill.
The Interassociation C Grade match was held on Wednesday. Callum Osborne was top shooter for Wellington, firstly scoring a new PB of 98.5 followed by a second new PB of 99.5 - fantastic shooting! Other Brooklyn shooters also shot extremely well, in particular Stephen Thessman 98.3, 97.4 and Jialin Sae-Jiw 96.3, 97.3, while Neakiry Kivi scored 96.2 on her first card and Erin Little scored 95.2 on her second card. The total score for the #1 team was about the same as two years ago but lower than last year, while #2 team scored their highest score since the new targets were introduced two years ago. Overall results from other associations will be available at the end of the season.
Round 1 Triple S results have now been emailed out. Sergey Kladnitski is leading the overall competition, as well as B Grade, after starting with 99.5. Callum Osborne also had a great start with 97.5 to be tied for 1st place in C Grade, and 2nd equal overall. Neakiry Kivi leads D Grade with 96.5. So a great start for three of our shooters. Also Wellington College #1 are currently the top team in the teams competition, with a two-point lead over Kings High. Round 2 Triple S targets need to be shot by Sunday 6 July.
Four Brooklyn members travelled to Dannevirke on Saturday to compete in the Southern Hawkes Bay Open Champs. Congratulations to David Grain on his 1st place in A Grade, having shot a fantastic 297.19 which included 100.8 (with two test-outs for inners). David then shot in the final 10, starting in fifth position. Brooklyn entered a three-person team (David, Dianne Grain and Jess Fair) which finished in 4th place. Dannevirke is a 20-yard range, with smaller targets but larger inner dots making it perhaps a little harder to score inners. The tiniest bit of tension or being slightly out of position led to a 9, so it was extremely good training for putting into effect what the coaches are repeatedly saying each week (check your natural point of aim and relax). It was an interesting experience and good practice for the Teams of Ten match which will be shot on 20-yard targets next year.
Many thanks to everyone for helping out with the cleaning duties yesterday - once again many hands make light work and the task was accomplished very quickly. Our final clean this month will be on Sunday 29 June, and then we're rostered again in October.
A reminder that there are only two local open champs to go before the North Island teams are selected. The current ranking list is available on the TSNZ website under "What's New". To date only eight juniors have met the four-match criteria, so if you're keen to be considered for selection to the North Island junior team, please ensure you compete in the minimum four matches. The last two matches are at Martinborough and Wanganui over the next two weekends. Don't forget to organise the club equipment you use to be transported to the champs.
Upcoming events:
- Tuesday 17 June, Wellington v Christchurch and Manawatu women's match (8.15pm, 1x20): Team: Meredith Ackrill, Jess Fair, Dianne Grain. Emergency: Jialin Sae-Jiw. On call: Neakiry Kivi, Luisa Kristen.
- Saturday 21 June, Wairarapa Open Champs, Martinborough.
- Monday 23 June, Interassociation B Grade match (8.15pm, 1x20): Team #1: Craig Fair, Sergey Kladnitski. Team #2: Mark Riley, Callum Osborne. Emergency: Maor Ben-Shahar. On call: Luisa Kristen, Nick Desi.
- Thursday 26 June, NDC Round 4 (7.30pm): Team to be named Sunday 22 June.
- Saturday 28 June, Wanganui Open Champs, Wanganui.
- Sunday 29 June, Eley Challenge match for all college shooters, 4.30pm (2x10).
- Sunday 29 June, cleaning session (5.45pm): all members to assist.