NRA Journal - Summer 2007 - National Rifle Association

and even Holly managed to polish off a 400g steak!We then attempted to take on the SA Junior teamat bowling but they soundly beat us as we found itdifficult to bend having eaten so much.As there is no shooting on the Sabbath, Sunday was forR and R starting with a lie in. Still full after Saturdaynight’s steakfest we headed to a mall in Bloemfonteinfor a couple of hours of retail therapy while Simon didthe washing. Freddie bought the team a cricket set anda Twister set. Jen and Holly found some spectacularmug-of-the-day headwear. Tom C decided he did notwant to try the biltong, because it looked too muchlike dog chews! The rest of the afternoon was spentat Mazelspoort where we swam, sunbathed, slept,played cricket and Twister and read books, oh, andused the water slides! The team and Jen all managed tocollect several friction burns whilst they tried differentcombinations and styles of descent.Monday started with the SABU Opening Ceremonyat 07:00, followed by the first shoot of the GrandAggregate, the Free State Cup. Chris led the team with100.7 and he and Tom D collected their first Merits.In the afternoon we shot a team match alongside theHamilton Cup with Chris coaching and Tom C makinga 50.10 at 500 metres. In the evening we held our teamparty at a local Portuguese restaurant where a greatvariety of seafood was eaten.Next morning we awoke to find several of the teamstruggling to keep last night’s meal down. We battledthrough the morning’s shooting with Holly leading inboth the Dalrymple and Dave Smith where she pickedup a Merit, before launching into our last practicematch in the afternoon interspersed with us runninginto the bush every few minutes. Mug of the Day wasawarded to James L who managed to break a chairwhilst coaching Tom D – luckily it was his last shot asmuch giggling followed at the sight of James sittingon the floor surrounded by bits of chair. An ill Stuand Tom C passed on the trip to the Spur restaurantfor supper, where Jen drank gallons of recovery teaand the team felt marginally better after some goodsteaks.After what seemed like a long night fragmented bysome spectacular thunderstorms and with some stilltrying to overcome illness, we were awoken early bySimon; someone commented ‘he should be fitted witha snooze button’ or ‘maybe just an off button’. Today’sshooting consisted of 2 and 7 in the State President’sFirst Stage at 3, 5 and 600 metres. Holly, Chris andStu all won Merits but top shot was Freddie finishing41 st also with a Merit. A hurried early lunch waseaten before shooting the Municipal in which JamesPurdy won a Merit, followed by the first of the twomatches against the SA Juniors, the International LongRange due to be 2 and 15 but reduced to 10 to countat 800 and 900 metres. The wind was tricky and thescores poor so there was a glum atmosphere until,to our surprise, we discovered that we had won bynine points. The atmosphere soon lightened and webegan to celebrate our first win. The celebrations werecut short to accommodate the 2 1 ⁄2⁄ hour prize giving.Members of the team made several appearances forindividual prizes (mostly those still in the B Class),then the team was awarded their Long Range medals.Eventually it was over and we escaped to celebratebefore heading to bed, ready for another early startand long day’s shooting.Next day James P realised that the aftersun he hadapplied to his trigger hand the evening before hadstained his hand an amusing shade of bright orange.This did not stop him making top score and finishingseventh in the Jack Mitchley at 300 metres, collectinganother Merit along with Tom C. Others did not findit so easy, one cross-firing the first sighter with a 900metres elevation, concentration? At 600 metres in theKings Norton, Holly shot a possible, but her triggerfailed, however she batted her eyelids and the rangeofficer decided to just pass her trigger at the finalattempt. She and Tom D won Merits. Stu made topscore and won a Merit in the President’s Cup at 600and 800 metres before David came into his own at 900metres, finishing ninth and along with Tom D won aMerit. Upon returning to the van we discovered theskull of a poor dead Hartebeest had found its way intothe trailer (thank you SA U25’s). With Freddie andSimon attending the SABU function in the evening,‘mummy Jen’ took the team to Bloemfontein for aquick meal followed by an early night before the mostimportant day of the tour.The second stage of the State President’s - 2 and10 at 3, 5, and 600 metres - proved different, it hadbeen threatening to rain all day with lightning onthe horizon; it finally did for the second detail at 500metres. Chris was our highest scorer. At lunchtimethere was a quick drying out of bedding before theJunior Protea Match. Holly having taken her rifleout of the bedding, knocked her foresight gently thenpanicked when she saw it wasn’t vertical, only forChris to point out that one leg of the rifle was sittingon a book! She and one of the SA Juniors both stillhad trigger problems so Simon had to do some urgentadjustment. After 300 metres we were six pointsdown which rose to nine after 600, however we cameback at 900 to finish within three points of the SouthAfricans. Holly and Stu made top score with 146 eachbut the high gun of the match was Andre du Toit whoscored 149. In the evening we teamed up with theSouth African Juniors at the Protea dinner and had amost enjoyable time even with Holly being set up tomake a somewhat astonishing statement to Christo,in Afrikaans, which she did not understand.Saturday morning and we were all up to pack andgive Simon another ton of washing for the launderettebefore the final of the State President’s with Holly,42