SATURDAY, September 17 was the third and final leg of the Chas Hayes Shield for long distance target shooting.

The distance was 2 x 900 yards stages with two sighters/10 scoring shots for each stage.

The venue, Katandra Rifle Range and the weather, well, it started off reasonably close to the forecast, overcast with a gusting left to right wind that could require up to five minutes of correction at times.

A wind coaches' nightmare.

After the two previous legs, East Central were in 1st place with 10 points, then Karramomous – 9 points, Shepparton Nathalia – 8 points, Katandra – 6 pointss and Nagambie – 5. Points, so all the shooters and wind coaches were fully aware of the importance of their individual scores to their clubs final results.

As the first stage started, the weather began to deteriorate and it was lucky we had erected gazebos to give shelter to the shooters, coaches and scorers.

Showers that were intermittent became continuous downpours – the only consolation was that wind became a little more consistent but certainly not benign.

Despite the inclement weather, the match was completed after just over four hours with 29 shooters completing the two stage event and after packing up all the electronic targets, monitors etc as well as the gazebos.

We retired to the club house to do the next most important task – check the individual scores, totals, handicaps and add the top five shooters scores of each team to get an aggregate total for their team.

Once this was done and ladder points allocated to the teams existing ladder tally, Richard Wall, the GVDRA president announced the final results:

East Central District DRA – 16 points, Karramomous Rifle Club – 12 points, Shepparton Nathalia Rifle Club – 12 points, Katandra Rifle Club – 11 points, Nagambie Rifle Club – 7 points.

Only eight shooters were able to contribute the maximum aggregate score of 120 points to their respective teams maximum possible total of 600 which was a reflection of the adverse weather conditions.

Four of these were from East Central District RA: Graeme Kerr (best off–rifle), Glenn Chisholm, Terry Gee, John Maccioni and backed up by 119 from Neal Hambridge.

A big thanks to our wind coaches, Graeme Kerr, Des Coulter and Terry Gee and to our travelling reserves, Des Coulter, Ted Plastow for their contribution.

A huge team effort and a great team result.