2021 Spring Meeting

In a Glen, far, far away…

Match Report

Our first Scottish based meeting of 2021 was held over the Bank Holiday weekend at the Jubilee Range on Glen Tilt, but this so called “Spring Meeting” was to be one of the hottest on record for Blair Atholl with temperatures reaching 26°c over the weekend.

A still but fickle wind was to confound competitors for most of the weekend but the troubles started during the Friday afternoon practice session when film crews, trying to access their set at a location beyond Forrest Lodge, interrupted shooting on several occasions so they could safely pass through the range danger area. The film in question, the latest instalment of the Star Wars saga, was a closely guarded secret, with various parties privy to the details signing non-disclosure agreements, but it was the local Courier newspaper that broke the story, only a few days before our meeting started that let the cat out of the bag. [Promise not to make any Star Wars puns – Ed.]

With the Friday practice session out of the way, the serious business of recording scores started on the Saturday morning. The sun was up and the temperature was steadily rising, the wind, although settled to begin with, was not to be ignored. Angus McLeod recorded the top match rifle score at 987x with a 99.15 and Hugh Inglis, shooting his F-Class rifle, the only possible, a 100.19. The day of competition continued steadily without interruption. When it came to an end, the competitors looked a little worse for wear, a combination of high temperatures, concentration and three details of 2+20s had taken their toll but Angus would lead the pack into Sunday.

The Atholl Arms hosted a familiar but Covid compliant dinner. It was a welcome return to relative normality for us, and all had convivial time. Unfortunately the Covid licensing r estrictions required our gathering to disperse by 22:30 and prevented any late night socialisation that we have become accustomed to, this also served to diminish any credibility to a claimed a lack of form on Sunday was down to the excesses of the night before.

Sunday’s weather was to be largely consistent with what we had encountered the day before, with the same high temperature and fickle winds making for an interesting day. True to form, the winds picked up for the 1233x detail, with the typical Blair Atholl diagonal dispersion evident on most of the monitor screens. The position for top place would change hands a couple of times as the day played out. John Sweet shot consistently all day and won the Sunday aggregate, but in the end, the force was strongest in Angus McLeod, who after a strong shoot at 1233x won the weekend aggregate and the Crawford Cup. [Couldn’t resist – Ed.]

Our thanks go to Tim Kidner for organising this well run event and to West Atholl Rifle Club for hosting us.

Results

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