NRC of S Spring Meeting - 2016

The club competition for the Crawford Cup took place over the weekend of 22nd & 23rd May.

Whilst the trophy itself is confined to our own membership, as an innovation this year visitors were invited to compete alongside, and we were able to welcome friends from beyond the Wall and across the Irish Sea.

So on Saturday morning 15 intrepid matchrifle persons gathered under the gazebos in a wet Glen Tilt.

Despite the downpour, conditions at 987 yards were comparatively benign. No full scores were achieved, but three 99s were seen, led by the (supposedly) redoubtable member’s 14 vees.

Falling back to 1114 yards, the rain began to ease while the wind became more fickle. And whilst the bulk of the field managed to score in the 90s, no one really mastered the conditions; top score being our Captain’s 95.9.

In the afternoon at 1233 yards the weather continued to improve in that rain ceased and sun appeared. But not accompanied by any moderation in the willful behaviour of the Glen Tilt zephyrs. Once again though, local knowledge finally prevailed with the Captain achieving an impressive 96.10, giving him a clear lead on the day dropping only 10 points.

Quite how the subsequent order of merit stood at this stage was unclear. During the course of the day it had become evident that one target was showing signs of increasing electronic derangement, and that intervention was needed to ensure the recorded order of merit more closely reflected the true (or perceived) order of merit. This adjustment being achieved by skilled application of partial reshoots and the time-honoured practice of ‘deeming’ (if you don’t know, best not to ask).

Sunday dawned clear and bright. This time 987 proved more of a challenge and local knowledge did not prevail, the single full score coming from the English captain. 1114 was similar with nobody really cracking the coded flag signals. Best scores being Bh’s 72.7 ahead of Tremlett’s 71.5.

And so to 1233 again. Here the wind played one final trick. Having shown as firing commenced every sign that it would continue to flick aimlessly mainly from right of centre, it now decided to blow from the left throughout. (Your correspondent was about to write ‘steadily’, but looking at the scores in general it can’t have been that steady).

So top score here was a respectable 72.7 from McLeod, followed by BH on 70.8, giving Mike the overall lead, seven clear points ahead of top visitor Nick Tremlett, and taking the Cup with a nine point margin over Gus.

Looking down the list for the weekend there was clearly a lot of steady shooting going on and doubtless lessons being learned. But perhaps, once again, the real winner was the Glen.

view and print full results as .pdf file

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