I am delighted to report that the annual short-range prone match against the North Island, New Zealand, has been restarted, and for the first time Scotland shot entirely on electronic targets. The Junior Team shot at St Andrews on Saturday 8th October, and the Senior Team at Denwood in Aberdeen on Sunday 9th October. Shooting the matches at this time of year is often difficult for us as few people have shot indoors for months, and it showed in the results, with the senior team well behind the Kiwis, while the junior team made a valiant effort but just missed out on the win.
Scotland’s Senior Team shot at Denwood on Sunday 9 October
While Scotland’s Junior Team shot at St Andrews on Saturday 8 October
I would like to thank everyone for traveling to their respective venues - the award for the longest journey goes to Jeremy Newman, who travelled from Devon to shoot in the Junior team, and congratulations to him for a fine 395 and top score at St Andrews. Unfortunately we were without the two trophies for the highest score in each team, and the badges and date bars were not available either, but this will be sorted as soon as possible and we hope to return to shooting this at a better time of year - ideally in March - next year.
Thanks to everyone at St Andrews (Neil Calder and Patrick Jess) and Denwood / Bon Accord (Neil Stirton and Jim Cole-Hamilton) for all their help opening up the ranges and managing the electronic targetry throughout both days.
Report and Photos by Donald McIntosh, SBR New Zealand Match Organiser