By JOHN WOOD
THE end of winter as we know it, but not at the Woods Point Gun Club for the August Maori Creek Championships.
A bit of sun and a relatively mild day heralded the soon-to-start spring weather.
Sponsors for the day were club members, Peter and Ellen West, Mick Ward, and Chuck and Linda Lay.
Mick Ward was back to his best again, while Barry McKenns shared the cash prize for the Eye Opener, 29/30 each.
The first event was a 15-target Silent Rise, where the targets are released with a random time delay after the shooter mounts their gun.
Ken Skinner mastered this delay to score a perfect 15/15 to take the championship sash outright.
After a shoot off, Trevor Ewert took second place, 23/24, from Ian Findlay, 22/24 with Ward in fourth place 16/18.
The main event was a 25 pair Deauville Doubles with a team of two shooters, four shots, two targets. Broken pairs only to count.
Best scores were 22/25 pairs and after a short shoot-off the team of Phillip Desmond and Mick Ward won the event, 27/30 with Ian Findlay and Geoff Hill in second place, 26/30.
Peter Lang and Lachlan O’Hallaran took third place 30/40 after shooting off against David Frazer and Daniel Chinn, 27/40 for fourth place.
The day was completed with a 20 target Continental Championship where Hill took the sash, 18/21 from Findlay 17/21.
Ron Press took third place 17/20 after having to leave early and missing the shoot-off. Seven shooters on 16/20 vied for fourth place with most missing targets early, but O’Hallaran and Ward continued until the youth of O’Hallaran took the prize with a final 29/33 from Ward 28/33, who was fading at the end of the day.
Ian Findlay had a good day’s shooting to take the Overall High Gun 53/60 from Ward 52/60 and Desmond, 51/60.
The next shoot is the King of the Mountain Championships on Sunday 27 September, at 10.30am.
