GBRT : South Africa 2012

Final results

k.robertson — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 09:58:01 +0000

The final results can be found on the SABU website

http://www.sabisley.com/results_2012.htm

Day 24 - the journey back home

k.robertson — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 09:51:39 +0000

The last day in South Africa, and only one thing left to do - get all the kit, rifles and team members into four vans and safely to Johannesburg airport for the evening flights.

For the less organised of the team members, the morning was obviously a chance to start packing all their kit and shoving it into the available space in the buses.

Also time to settle up the bar tabs, and find out just how much beer, gin and wine we've managed to consume over the last week and half - quite a lot in some cases!

Day 23 - packing to go home

k.robertson — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 09:45:18 +0000

Penultimate day in Bloemfontein, and indeed South Africa. Sadly none of the team noticed that it was April Fools day, having spent so long here that any awareness of the day and date had been lost.

With the shooting done, today was all about relaxation, packing, cleaning rifles and generally preparing to insert ourselves back into normal society. The day started slightly painfully for those who had enjoyed the dancing and drinking the night before, but thankfully less painfully than the effects of the previous weekend.

Sadly, today was the day when the first of the team started departing, with Pete heading off to Port Elizabeth with his fiancee, James heading off to meet his wife and kids in Cape Town and DC2 heading off to Johannesburg for an early flight home. We wished them all the best for their ongoing journeys.

Day 22 - Protea Match and State President's Final

k.robertson — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:21:59 +0000

The day of the Protea Match dawned, somewhat grey and overcast, and with what looks like a significant chance of rain, and much colder than we have had all week - perfect UK conditions! Great Britain headed out to the ranges for an expected start time of 8:15 at 300m, then falling back to 600 and 900 as the morning progressed.

Before the start of the match however, was the announcement of the cutoff for the State Presidents final - nine off or better being required to shoot in the afternoon.

The match commenced without too much delay, with not much going on with the wind at 300m, as least for the first firers - a situation that was not set to continue throughout the day...

Day 21 - State President's II

k.robertson — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:15:06 +0000

Friday morning and time for the Second Stage of the State Presidents, 2 and 10 at 300, 500 and 600m. The last chance for the team members to show their skill to the team management before selection for the Protea Match which will happen on Saturday morning. Also an opportunity to try and get through to the Final on Saturday afternoon. So essentially a day of shooting in order to try and be picked to do more shooting.

The journey to the range was uneventful, except for one member of the team (Gareth) who realised about 5 metres from the entrance to the range that he had forgotten his register cards for the day. Cue a trip to the stats office before the 300m detail in order that he could get some more produced for him.

Results of State Presidents 1 & 2

k.robertson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:43:01 +0000

Results of State Presidents 1 & 2 can be found below

State Presidents 1 & 2

Day 20 - end of the Grand Aggregate

k.robertson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:30:13 +0000

So to Thursday, and the last day of the South African Grand Aggregate. With four competitions today at 300, 600 800 and 900m there is still a good opportunity for people to make up some points and therefore places, or to go the other way if they don't have such a good time of it.

At the start of the day, both DC and Jon were positioned with a chance for the top spot in the Grand. Unfortunately, several senior moments from DC seem to have upset his concentration: Firstly, he forgot to wind on any wind at 300m, going out wide of the target (thankfully only for a sighter). Not wanting to repeat the mistake at 600m, DC made sure that he wound some wind on, sadly though this came at the expense of checking that he had set the correct elevation, choosing instead apparently to set a random value that was neither his 300m elevation, nor (perhaps more helpfully) his 600m elevation. Whilst not actually losing him any points, this obviously unsettled DC, and he proceeded to have a somewhat out of character day (ie one where he did unfortunately drop some points.)

Aggregate results

k.robertson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:14:27 +0000

Results of the main aggregates can be found below

Aggregates

Photo of the tour (so far!)

k.robertson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:07:21 +0000

There have literally been thousands of photos to choose from for our photo section but the following three photos are particularly worthy of note.

In third place is "BUG" by Gareth Davies - a study of a probable man-eating and deadly poisonous arachnid but we can't really tell as its out of focus! If anyone knows what the two black things are at the bottom we would be delighted to know.

In a close second place is "SPEED" by Colin Johnston - the boring eternity of South African roads, especially when you have just taken a 250 mile detour by accident, skilfully captured with a careful reflection of the team sponsors logo as well as a team arm and knee clearly visible in the bus window.

But the winner is "THE ETERNAL MYSTERY OF BEING" also by Colin Johnston. This magical piece conjures up many varied questions on the sheer vastness of the universe and beyond . . .

What is blue? Why are clouds? Where is the edge of the blue and what is beyond the blue? Is it more blue? Will it rain?

The delicately placed white thing in the bottom right - what is it? Is it the wing of a low flying albatross? Is the soul of a lost V bull? Is it a bit of a minibus? We may never know . . . Only the artist that is Colin has the answers and will not divulge his secrets . . . well unless you buy him a drink that is!

Day 19 - the RSA International Match

k.robertson — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:30:13 +0000

Today is the day of both the start of the South African equivalent of the Queens Prize, known as the State Presidents, and the RSA International Match (Great Britain vs South Africa at long range) in the afternoon. So no pressure then!

Uncharacteristically once again (although if it keeps going at this rate, it won't be uncharacteristic) for South Africa, the day dawned overcast, and with a significant threat of rain. Thankfully, this once again meant that the wind was doing very little, and enabled most of the team to put in some good scores, with the occasional 105 for good measure.