By John Wood
AT the Woods Point Gun Club, the penultimate competition for 2016 was the President’s Championships and Trophy.
This was the 44th year of these events at the club.
The obligatory starting event on a warm and sunny day was the 10 target points decision Eye Opener.
Mick Ward and Phillip Desmond took the AA Grade sash, 30/30, Trevor Ewert A Grade, 29/30, Peter West, Geoff Hill and Richard Brown successful in B Grade, 25/30, and Steven Bedggood the sole winner in C Grade, 29/30.
The first of the Championships was 25 targets Double Barrel.
Darren Clark, Trevor Ewert, Phillip Woods and Phillip Desmond all returned perfect scores to proceed into an enthralling shoot off for the overall sash.
Ewert missed an early target and Woods shortly thereafter, with Clark and Desmond continuing on.
Eventually Desmond missed his 18th target to give Clark the Championship win with a final score of 43/43.
The Grade winners and place getters were: AA – Darren Clark, 43/43, Desmond, 42/43; A – Woods 27/27, Ewert 26/27; B – Richard Brown, 24/25, Peter West, 23/25; Frank Balcombe’s 23/25 was enough for C Grade, from Bedggood, 22/25.
The main event was the 25 target Handicap President’s Trophy with an engraved glass trophy for the lucky winner.
Was it nerves?
Who knows, but no shooter managed the perfect 25/25.
The best scores were 24/25 from Trevor Newman, Daniel Chinn and Steven Bedggood with Chinn taking the trophy, 37/38 from Bedggood, 36/38 and Newman 31/33.
Seven shooters – Frank Balcombe, Tony Armstrong, Jim West, Ken Skinner, John Wood, Geoff Hill and Desmond with 23/25 each – shot off for the 4th prize; West the winner, 31/33.
The President’s 25 target Tower Championship finished the day with Rob Bevis, Mick Ward and Trevor Ewert managing the full 25/25.
After a relatively short shoot-off, Bevis took the sash 33/33 from Ward 32/33 and Ewert 26/27.
John Winters, Jim West, Newman and Hill fought for the 4th place prize with Hill the eventual winner 30/31.
The overall High Gun was a close result with Newman winning the vice-president’s sash, 72/75, with Bevis and Bedggood right on his heels, 71/75.
The overall Yearly High Gun is a close affair with Bevis and Desmond in contention, but we will find out after the full year’s results are tallied.
The day’s sponsors were John and Annette Wood and Peter and Ellen West.
Anne Skinner again took a firm hold on feeding the frenzy with Trevor Ewert’s Bushies Bakery savoury and sweet pastries complementing the lunch and arvo tea.
The final competition for 2016 is the Christmas Shoot on Sunday, 11 December, starting at 10am or maybe earlier as it will be a ‘big’ fun day.
