July-August 2010 - New Zealand Clay Target Association

Aussie Skeet champsEleven New Zealand shooters attended the 2010Australian Skeet National Championships at Wagga.The week’s events were conducted in fine, calm, late autumnweather. Each day started with a “black frost” and then blue skydays. Some Aussies commented it was the best weather everexperienced for the Skeet Nationals.For the Kiwis, the highlight of the week came on Friday -National Skeet Championship day. Three possible went into theshoot off after the 100 target match. At station 4 in the first shootoff round, Tony Truss from Rotorua shot the station clean, placingall the pressure on the only other shooter left in the shoot off -Leigh Roberts of Australia. Leigh missed his low target on stationfour handing Tony Truss the National Australian Skeet title. Thiswas a fantastic achievement and Tony’s performance was anotherexample of his cool and calm shooting despite the high pressurecircumstances. The Aussie crowd was silenced.Immediately following Tony’s win, the Australia vs NewZealand Glenn Trophy event was held. Tony’s shoot off win set theatmosphere for this teams event with the Aussie team strugglingto keep composure and the Kiwi team pushing along with a goodscore. The end result was a New Zealand victory by seven targetswith Tony and Dave Da Silva leading the Kiwis home with possible50s in the Glenn Trophy match. The other NZ team scores wereClark Pirie (49), Kelvin Gutsell (48) and Ray Everett (46). This victorywas an extremely pleasing result after losing the Glenn Trophy toAustralia at the NZ Skeet Nationals in November 2009.Continued on page 44Tony Truss Australian Skeet Championship winnerKelvin Gutsell winner 28g eventgunshot 13