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In association withThe three nations match between Germany, Irelandand the UK derived from the World Championship,when Markus Feldmann of the German team said thathe and others would like to come to the UK to shoot afriendly match. A few words with the Irish team later andwe had an ongoing concern, so the planning started. Atthis point it really is time to say a massive thanks to KenStockham of Portishead club, who organised this eventand ran things with flawless accuracy from start to finish.Without him and the good will of his club we would nothave managed to have such an event in the UK.Arriving on the practice day the weather was calm butraining and misty – so calm that there was no windmovement at all. For some this is a boon, for others notso much. Well the latter group got their wish as the twomatch days were a tad bit gusty. The first day I would sayblowing in all directions, at some points at about 20 plusmph.This knocked a few off their feet, but we recovered andshot on. The wind remained with us for the rest of the daywith sun coming up very quickly in the afternoon, whichbrought mirage. A very mixed English Spring day! Day twowas better, with the wind still there but the sun was withus for the entire day. (Shooting benchrest dressed in yourbest thermals, as we were on day one, is not conducive tothe nature of this sport).The German team shot brilliantly, as did a number ofindividuals in the UK and Irish teams. The Germansare very good shots anyway, as they gained silvermedals as individuals and as a team at last year’s worldchampionship. This is helped on by the custom kit theyare using. A lot of these rifles are built by Martin Menke,the captain of the team, who is a well renowned centerfireand rimfire gunsmith in Germany. He is also the 1999world centerfire benchrest champion. Just from talking tohim I learnt a lot, as you tend to at these head to headmatches. Andy Dubreuil did very well in the Unlimited classcoming in 5th, with Brian Kelly coming in 4th overall in theaggregate scores and Carl Boswell coming in 6th overallfrom the two days shooting. In fact the top ten aggregateAll teams together - the UK won bestdressed.results were all UK and German shooters, with the Top 5being 4 German and 1 UK shooter. The whole team eventwas a success and the aggregate scores of each teamare below. Hopefully there will be more of these matchesaround Europe in the next year. I know that Germany, Italyand Holland have held matches already.1st Germany - Total 8796 1962nd UK – Total 8655 1333rd Ireland – 8250 110The two shooters that really stood out were the eventualwinners of course, which were Martin Menke for LightSeated Markus Feldmann -the overall AggregatewinnersVarmint and Markus Feldmann for Unlimited. I have knownMarkus for a few years – lots of fun and a great guy to bearound. He was the aggregate overall winner from the twodays shooting with a great score of 1478 35 x’s.We in the UK would benefit from more of these types ofhead to head matches in the future. Hopefully this willhappen as the UK nationals looks as if it will be verypopularIf anything what we can learn from this is that we need tolook more at moving towards custom actions and barrels.This is what other nations are doing, as relying alone onfactory firearms is not going to cut the mustard in yearsto come. This game is getting increasingly competitiveat international level, so it is about keeping up with theJones’s.At the end of the weekend the German team went awaywith most of the trophies and medals, with one exception,Anthony Nolan of Ireland won Bronze in the Unlimitedclass – well done. It was a great shoot and the peopletaking part had a great time. So much so, that the Martinand Jo of the German team have invited the UK team toshoot in Germany sometime in October or November. Weare definitely thinking about it, with four people showinginterest so far. Will the result be the same……..well onlytime will tell, so look for a report again in December!110 Target Shooter