Friday 2 April 2010

Scotland 2010

Travelled up to Tulliallan Castle, Kincardine, in Scotland for the Scottish Open Air Pistol Championships.

The journey North started with rain but the weather cleared and was generally a trouble-free drive, except for the average-speed sections where maintenance was said to be under way (miles of cones and no work going on).

The weekend was a tale of 2nd places for me. 2nd with 570x600 in the Blue Label competition (Simon Preston also scored 570, but had a higher last string), 2nd in the Red/Blue aggregate, 2nd in the 5 Target Falling Plate competition with 22 and 2nd (by 1 point) in the half-course Sport Pistol competition with a score of 275.

A score of 344 in the Standard Pistol had me finish in 4th.

As usual there was no extra lighting for the targets on the 10m rapid range and for this year the one minute loading time was always less than one minute. An experiment with red lights in the Falling Plate was tried, but needs more development.

I shot a concurrent Red label/Championship and finished with a score of 558 which put me in 5th place in the Championship Final.

For the Championship, Alan Ritchie was in 1st place with 568 with Robert Doak in 2nd with 566. Six of us were spread between 3rd and 8th place with scores of 558 down to 556, so it was always going to be close. I started well and was in 3rd place after the 6th shot, but then lost it with the 7th shot. Hugh Stewart took the 3rd place podium spot after a solid performance.

There had to be a shoot-off in the Final between Alan Ritchie and Robert Doak after they both ended on 666.2. Alan shot 10.2 against Rob's 9.2, so Alan took the title. Alan shot well with a 580 in his Red label competition after Harry Preston breathed his magic over Alan's LP50E.

Seems as though next year's competition may be moving to another location as there was a rumour that the sports hall was to be torn down and replaced with offices.

Eventually arrived home just before midnight and unloaded the car.