2022 Marlborough Autumn & Tui Black Teams Match
Marlborough Autumn Championship and Tui Black Triangular Teams Match.
Kaituna Range, Blenheim, 30th April, and 1st May 2022
Kaituna turned on the sunshine for the Marlborough Autumn Championships.
The start was a little crisp with frost evident on the ground for the crew that turned out to set up the range, but it soon warmed up.
The 31 competitors enjoyed the easy conditions at 300 with many possibles posted.
At 600 the frontal wind looked easy but proved to be deceptive with no possibles in any class. By the time we got to 900, for the 15 shot match, the nor'westerly was playing with the flags.
No TR shooters broke 70 and only Murray Cook in F Open broke 80.
It was the first time in 3 years that the shoot has been held, with covid playing havoc with the two previous years events.
John Snowden defended his title with 168.17 from Malcolm Dodson on 167.11 and Helen Freiman on 167 9.
B Grade was won by Kaituna's Jason Henry with 166.12 from Clinton Whyte on 164.11 and Otorohanga’s Mark Lane on 161.7.
C Grade went to the veteran John Fleming on 153.6.
In F Open, Murray Cook dominated, top scoring at each distance to total 201.16 from David Smith on 193.11.
The FTR Classic went to Charlie Ledbrook on 191.4 from Geoff Smith with 187.6 and Kaituna's Ron Humphries on 180.4.
It was a solo effort for Kaituna's Phil Gardiner in FTR on 176.4, and Peter Webster shooting FPR on 180.3.
Sunday started out a lot warmer than Saturday, but that was because the nor'wester was already going when we got to the range. It was not going to be an easy day for the wind coaches in the team’s match.
The course of fire was the same as the day before, but only 10 shots at 900.
In a major change from the past, the teams were made up of shooters of any class with no specific numbers of each.
The F Class scores were out of 60 and the TR scores 50.
The team totals were points dropped and centres added up.
Canterbury fielded 7 F with 3 Open and 4 Classic. Wellington, more a northern team really, had 9 TR and one FPR, with some ring-ins to get the required numbers, and Kaituna had 7 TR and 3 Classics.
Canterbury ran out the winners dropping 161 points and up 73 centres.
Wellington were second down 170 points and up 69, with Kaituna third down 183 and up 62.
Murray Cook carried on with his dominant form from Saturday, only dropping 2 points and up 13 for the day, being well directed by his coach John Snowden.
Jonno Phillipps was second top down 3 and up 11, closely followed by Helen Freiman 3 down with 10, they like being close, both coached by Anita Benbrook.
Running the teams with mixed classes was interesting and although there were supposedly advantages for some classes, it was evident that Canterbury were the dominant team whichever way we looked at it. Early suggestions were that it would be easier to be less points off with TR shooters than F Class but Canterbury proved that theory wrong on a difficult day.
For other team shoots that are struggling to get the numbers, this may have shown a way forward.
It was good to see the F Class and TR shooters in the same teams competing for the same trophy.
Sunday 1 May - Tui Black Scores (teams)