First Day shooting at Trentham

Here at last – having experienced the clearest blue skies and blistering temperatures , what do we find at Trentham? RAIN!!
 It’s a good job that we had prudently carried our wet weather gear half way round the world!

At least the overcast skies gave us a first shoot at Trentham more like Bisley
at least in terms of weather but it’s not just as simple as that.

Today was a 300yard practice to start to get used to the unique Trentham conditions.
It went from ½ L to 2 R instantly apparently – and that was at the shortest distance!!
More fun awaits us tomorrow we think. Certainly a case not only for Chris Hockley to get his zeros sorted out
 both with the local NZ Belmont ammunition and the HPS ammunition we have brought with us.

Hannah French was perfecting her technique today but we hasten to add that No photographer was harmed in the taking of this picture!

Trentham Day 3 – International Match

Monday was a big occasion of team shooting here at Trentham with the International and other matches involving ourselves,
Australia, New Zealand, North and South Island teams as well as Ladies and Veterans teams.

Course of fire today was 2ss + 10 at 300, 600, and 900 and, unusually for this meeting, 1000yds  for teams of 10.

The day started overcast with a hint of imminent rain but later turned sunny and hot -
the mirage becoming very thick which was useful as we fell back to see the sudden and large wind changes.
Trentham started benign but lived up to its reputation later on as we fell back to 1000yds!

Time for a steady hold and patience on aim.

Neil Moxon and Chris Hockley were our coaches today with David Calvert and Chris Fitzpatrick as main coach.
 No easy task for them today – Often not only was it a question of how much wind but which direction!

We had many starts and stops and out of sequence sighter's from waiting shooters to confirm the wind.
This was a real challenge for the coaches and indeed for the shooters who had a long periods on the point waiting for the wind to get back to previous conditions –
or at least those that could be understood! Big changes of 4 or 5 right to 7 left and quickly back again were common and our waiting tactics meant that we used up all of our time allowance.

Australia were first with 1943.187 (Neil Drain high scoring with 198.20) and New Zealand second with 1937.189 (Rob Johanson 197.26).
We scored 1918.142 (David Calvert was our high scorer with 197.20)

After 300 and 600 we had been a narrow third behind Australia and New Zealand trailing Australia by 7 points and New Zealand by 4 ex 1000). This was a very small margin given that the long ranges were yet to come.
We were pleased to have some very steady scoring at 900yds but things got really tricky at 1000yds and we were not able to improve our placing.
Given the conditions the local shooters’ home range knowledge certainly came into play as an advantage – at least we now have that experience for a team event later in the week (which includes 1000yds) and for our own individual shoots.

You can find the Trentham International Match Results here

A  highlight today was Hannah French’s first 50 – great to do it at Trentham – especially at at 900yards.

This was after her success yesterday in the Wellington RA Championships
where she came second in her class of the Overall and Long Range Aggregate to AC Amy Hatcher from the RNZAF. Well done to both.

We were also pleased to have a visit from the UK Air Attaché.
Gp Capt Graham Bond made the trip from Wellington to see how we were doing and met a number of members of the team.

Tomorrow we get down to the Ballinger Belt and Angus and Masefield series of competitions for individual shooting.

Trentham Day 4

First day of the Ballinger Belt series

A brief report today as we sort out IT problems (this translates as the Diarist’s computer is broken!!!)

This was the first day of individual shooting and we started at 800yds, then 900 and twice at 300yds.
If we had not suspected it before then now we really do know that Trentham holds a few “challenges” for the shooter.
Even at 300 yards there were plenty of blown magpies and certainly so at 800 and 900yds.
Peoples’ scores varying from 50 at one range to low/mid 40’s (or worse) at the next were common even among
those with local knowledge and our group suffered the same kind of pattern.

So perhaps we are all in need of what was being advertised by one NZ shooters shirt!

Whereas there are things which are very different here at Trentham compared to Bisley – notably the variable wind- some things are familiar.
Is there a range around the world that won't feature a car with a personalised shooting number plate? Echoes of Bisley here!

       Unfortunately not too many of these for us today!        

One follow up to yesterday report – Rupert Clark had the pleasure of shooting with one NZ competitor who had been taking part without a break
in the NRANZ Championships (excepting the war years) since 1935.  That’s right 1935! Still using a blade foresight – but why change now??

More results and news tomorrow we hope when we re-establish computer use.
 

Trentham Day 5

Despite very challenging conditions, one member of the team has made it to the Queen's Final of the NRANZ Championships on Saturday.
David Calvert scored 487.44v to come 21st out of the top 50 qualifying competitors. Local knowledge of how to deal with the extremely fast changing wind conditions meant that the majority of the finalists were from
New Zealand and Australia. (1. M.Collings NZ 496.97, 2. D.Rich AUS 495.53)

Other highlights of result are that the RAF "Red" team has won the Colvin Cup for Service competitors based on an aggregate of scores from 300 yards to 900 yards
in the Ballinger Belt Series of competitions.

All of us have found this week's events to be very testing with a combination of the high temperatures, brilliant sunshine (and sunburn risk!) and the famous Trentham winds. Getting used to the string shooting technique has  been needed with a very different technique called for here. The local shooters know best how to employ "waiting" tactics for the wind to return to a known previous condition whereas at Bisley the competitor needs to make an instant decision when his or her turn to
shoot comes around with short time allowance in which to shoot.

A list of placings in the competitions will appear in due course but individuals in the team have been placed as high as 5th in Class A competitions, 2nd in Class B and 2nd in Class C.
The coveted first placings have unfortunately eluded us this week! However it is not all over yet with the conclusion of the Masefield Short series of competitions tomorrow, Friday, (7 to count at 300, 500 and 600yds)with a team match on Saturday morning and the Queens Final on Saturday afternoon in which we shall all be supporting David Calvert.

RAFTRC Entertains

Our thank you list is long but we are especially appreciative of the assistance of the Upper Hutt RC, the NRA of New Zealand,
the range officials at Trentham , those who have helped us with rifle storage and transport , British Defence Liaison Staff, and of course the Royal New Zealand Air Force.  

The Journey Home