2022 Nelson Championship (Westport)
Nelson Championships (Westport) Report
26-27 March 2022
Westport turned on a stunning weekend for the 28 competitors at the Nelson Championships. For the east coasters it was a very pleasant change to have warm and sunny days.
The breezes were light, the daylight was bright and the scoring was tight.
It was especially tight with the TR championship being decided by a shoot off between Andre Du Toit and Malcolm Dodson at 700 yards after they both finished on 346.32. Andre winning with 25 to Malcolm's 23. Mike Collings was third with 344.36.
In B grade David Dick won with 336.32 from John Miller on 333.22 and Daniel Alexander on 332.28. David was especially dominant at 300 with a pair of 50.8’s. The B grade scores would have been quite different if some could stick to using their own targets instead of helping their neighbours. The B graders didn't have it to themselves, but they had the most.
In C grade it went to the wire with Barry Brown edging veteran John Fleming by a point having 307.12 to John's 306.13.
The F Open was a really close tussle all weekend between the three Ashburton clubmates. Murray Cook prevailing with 403.30 from Mike Chui on 401.29 and David Smith also on 401 with 26 X's.
Geoff Smith's two 60's in FTR Classic were not quite enough to head off Coby Snowden with Coby winning on 383.12 to Geoff's 380.16. Coby had two 59's.
There were plenty of possibles shot over the weekend. With 9 A graders, on the first day there were 5 x 50's at 300, 7 at 500 and 4 at 600. The second day most forgot how to shoot at 300 except Chris Kershaw with 50.9. It all came back at 600 with 7 x 50's and only two points off for the 9. With the 600 yard target used at 700 it is a very tight bull at only 1.7 minutes for TR and the 6 ring at 0.85 minutes for F class, only one possible was shot there and 4 one point off.
The notable range in B grade was the first 500 with the 8 competitors shooting 5 possibles and 2 49's.
In F Open each of the 3 competitors had a 60 and there were 6 x 59's.
Special thanks to the Westport Club members, and especially Bernard Menzies for the work they do in preparing the range for our annual trip there. They have no one that shoots at the distances that we do, but the range is well kept and ready for us.