After the record-breaking Canada Match and lavish haul of trophies and medals at prize giving came the (record-breaking?) team dinner and lash-up...
It all started with the traditional chairing of our Gov.General's winner from prize giving to a team photo all the silverware and thence around all the clubhouse (sic) on camp - the NCRRA, where we were presented with a punch containing three different rums.
Dinner that evening was a simple but hearty affair, on the roof deck of East Side Mario's. In the warm evening air, the team enjoyed, re-lived and celebrated the tour's successes. Chris even tried the re-enactment of a classic shot, using a slice of lemon launched toward a glass, but the wind clearly took it off course, and (reminiscent of the rock sugar that one of the coaches had landed down Jacqui's cleavage from 40 feet in Northern Ireland a dozen years ago) it bounced off Jacqui's right breast and succeeded where no others have before, stopping Jacqui in full flow and rendering her speechless, by bouncing up and getting caught in her mouth! Best shot of the tour!
After the meal, and a short congratulatory speech from the captain, many then moved on to some of the local bars (and not so local, in a few cases), and suffice to say that much merriment was had, into the wee small hours, with a new method of shot consumption (Burt Reynolds) one of the highlights...
So it was probably just as well that Sunday's departure time was not until early afternoon. Still, some hardy souls were up and packing early(ish), and the Adj eventually managed to herd them into the buses to go and tidy up our base at the range and put the GB kit that stays in Canada into storage; and of course, to perform the traditional ritual sacrifice of a pair of the captain's finest (albeit ill-fitting) footwear upon the altar that is Connaught's Shoe Tree.
Back at the hotel, Obergruppenfuehrer Ensor and his baggage team were packing team bags, sorting labels, weighing cases, and ruthlessly rejecting ones that were outside the 23.6 kg limit, to the chagrin of several team members. Maybe that's why Dan left one of his bags behind on departing for Toronto - you really can't take him anywhere! But at last, all was done, and we bade farewell to the Barons hotel, our home for the last nine days, and to Vera's, where most of us enjoyed our last burger; and we also bade farewell to Matt C, who will be staying in Canada for an extra week staying and camping with old friends.
Onto the road for the 4 hour trip down to Toronto, about which one can't find much to diarise, aside perhaps from the occasional brief glimpse of some pleasant views of summertime Canada - the blazing sunshine reflecting off a shimmering Lake Ontario; large, soaring birds of prey circling lazily in the thermals; and a GB team vehicle making an urgent, unscheduled, but very necessary roadside stop...
Like honed triathletes, all made a very smooth transition from the vehicles, to the luggage trolleys, and on through the Toronto airport check-in, and, thankfully, this time Air Canada seemed to be a little more accommodating with the baggage allowances. Swiftly onwards through security and into the departures area, but it turned out to be all so smooth and swift that we now have a 4 hour wait until our flight!
So, farewell to Canada and our friends both local and international; thank you for your hospitality, friendliness and wonderful shooting. Bisley beckons...
Our last day of shooting - a big one - was greeted by a dawn chorus... of sorts. While minding his own business in the performance of his ablutions, one of our diarists could hear something emanating from the wall... or in fact through the wall... and it was in fact "The Wall". The tune wasn't much like Pink Floyd's version, but they were unmistakeably that song' lyrics, as Danny was enunciating each word so well.
His room-mate, meanwhile, was out regaling others of the excellent dinner at the Chateau Laurier the night before. The others who had been there were very amused that he had given David Luckman a new sobriquet: "Le Champignon du Canada!"
Off to the range a wee bit later than usual where the Canada Match was due to start at 9am rather than the 8am many of us were used to - apparently they had learned from previous years where the match has been finished in a flash and there is a looong lunch break. So there was plenty of time to roll out of bed and there'd still be plenty of time for lunch after the match... or would there? To cut a long story short, there wasn't, and almost all the team had a bit of a rush to get ready for the Governor General's Final. I guess if you have read this far then you would like to know what happened that morning... anything of consequence? Well yes, as it happens...
At 08:20 the team drove out to the range for their only shoot in Canada at 300 yards. Mindful of the uncertain elevations at that range - 300m having been the norm here - Jeremy as main coach was wondering whether we should 'cut' 5s and convert only V-bulls. Both target coaches replied that, until a full score (1200 out of 1200) was ever achieved in the match, we should convert 5s because even a small probability of ending in a 4 was too much. So, with some people starting high, some not and one low, we converted more first shot 5s than Vs and tried, to the extent possible, to allow the firers to 'flow'. The tailwind was moving about so that it amounted to about a minute of angle in each direction, visible more on the mirage than on the flags, so waits were sometimes necessary but the team finished fairly quickly before going to seek shade from the van and scoreboard at 500 yards while waiting for the others. With all the team keen to open the account with a full score at 300x, there had been evidence of nerves in some shots, while other firers got into their groove quickly. At the end of 300 yards, GB had scored 400.58, to lead by two points from both Canada and Australia, with the USA a point or two further back.
At 500 yards, there was also the need to stop and start from time to time and, with the team flags behind us helping to predict what might come next, Jeremy found himself standing up and facing backwards for much of the range, which he also did for much of 600. Jeremy had warned against complacency at this "easiest" range and the wind coaches' and firers' guard never dropped, although a couple of shots late in the range did try unsuccessfully to escape. GB's score at 500: 400.50 - still in the lead. Australia had scored 399 and Canada were also strong.
600 yards looked, initially, as if it might be easy. The flags were down the poles and the mirage light as we advanced onto the firing point. But that changed just as Message 1 was due. Once again from the rear, the wind came first from the left, then from the right and back again, with values between two and three minutes in either direction visible; but we tried to avoid shooting when they were to be seen. The patches of steady wind had become more fleeting, so that we somtimes found ourselves chasing the wind down from a value of 1.5 minutes or less until it threatened to come through from the other side. Quite frequently the mirage seemed to be trying to come from both sides - as indeed did the flags. A couple of firers could be heard expressing appreciation for having been told not to fire, despite the heat and the likelihood of their boiling over on the firing point - all it took was a quick glance at the flags!
The first couple of firers were off the point in decent time - first Lucky on Matt C's (left hand) target, then Chris Watson on Matt E's (right hand) target finished with 50s to chalk up two 150s on the board. John Pugsley then rattled through his shots when he could between "holds" on the left target to do the same and, like Lucky, finish with 250 out of 250 in the Commonwealth and Canada matches. Kelvin finished with a 50 on the right; then Watty did the same, also on the right and also for 150 (again - he likes the Canada Match). He and David Calvert on the left were subjected to a number of prudent "waits" as the wind became less than certain - why plough on and take a gamble when you have firers who are quick enough that you can wait until conditions are more certain? The answer to that question is, of course, "to avoid overheating" but it was tricky enough to merit the waits and to overcome our natural preference to get on with it. And there was also the increasing awareness that the team had not dropped a point and really wanted to keep it that way...
DC came off the left firing point with a 50 to complete his 150 and his two-match 250. Parag (on the right) had sacrificed a sighter out of turn as a pilot and had used his other to help get DC finished, so it was then Jon Underwood's sighter (on the left) that was used to pilot for Parag. There can't be many shooters you'd rather have on the firing point when the team is on 1100 out of 1100 than those two. Every so often they would get to fire two or three shots, but the wind was being fickle so the shoot was rather staccato - no more so than when, with both firers having just one shot remaining, the wind dramatically shifted, Jon was asked to stop in time, and both targets rested while waiting for a recognisable condition. And waited. And waited. We knew how long there was left in the match and didn't want to take a "punt" on the wind with so much resting on it if we didn't have to.
Not an ideal situation, waiting ten minutes or more in the heat to fire your last shot, with the tension rising so that even the wind coaches felt nervous about the prospect of achieving the magical 1200 (or of being the one that everyone would take the mickey out of forever if we failed!). Talk about tension. But Jon and Parag were cool as cucumbers and at least one of them was fooled by his coach into thinking he had a couple of shots remaining rather than just one. So, when he was allowed to go on as the coaches felt quite sure about the wind at long last, he fired it quickly - we had just heard the "one minute remaining in the match" warning after all! So Jon was finished... and the target went down... more tension... and we wanted to see it as a pilot for Parag's last shot... but it stayed down... more tension... and only started to rise as Parag was told to go on - Matt E couldn't risk running out of time by dint of a misfire or similar... Jon's target came up with a V bull on it - well done (he too scored 50, so 150 in the match)... and Parag's target went down... "Phew!" thought Matt C as Ed (super plotter) patted him on the back and he patted Jon on the back while holding him in position... "and please let this last one go in" he thought, along with everyone else... and up came another V bull for Parag... cue lots of cheering from all around, and lots of congratulatory back slapping and hugs. Amazing. GB had scored 1200 out of 1200 for the very first time, winning the match in the process. And Parag's 50 had not only completed his 150 and 250 but also made him the top scorer in the match, this time with a 150.27.
Next up, after the hurried lunch and group photo: the Governor General's Final, during which the Editor has turned his hand to writing because, well, he has the time...
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Parag Patel was the little cherub!
Q15: Which GB team member most recently won the Governor General's Prize?
Answer: David Luckman, today! In rather different wind to this morning - 2.5 to 6.5 left at 800m and 1.5 to 8.5 left at 900m, Lucky carried through 150 from short range to make 75 at 800m and 73 at 900m to score 298.42 and beat Ross McQuillan by 11 V bulls. Next GB shots were John Pugsley, 3rd on 297.27 - thankfully not ruing the loss of his last - then Jon Underwood 4th on 296.33, Matt Ensor 6th on 295.27, with both Watsons, Kelvin, Jacqui, Jeremy, Ed and Danny all in the top 20.
Well done all and especially to David on winning the Double of Governor General's Prize and Grand Aggregate. He is now the grandly titled David "Champignon" Luckman GC2 SB2 SM SC4 CGM CGC2 CSM CSC2 WC!
Now for prize giving and the inevitable celebrations...
As the Sun would phrase it “Phew! What a scorcher!”…
This morning was a slightly later start for the team, with the last individual shoot of the Grand, the Gatineau at 900m shoot, which is squadded separately based on one's current position in the Grand. The top 50 or 60 all shoot in the same relay, which included all but two of Team GB. It was warming up nicely even at 09:00, when the first GB shooters not so much trotted as slogged out to the hot and humid range. Although top honours in the competition eventually went to Pat Vamplew of Canada with 75.11, Matt Purdy emerged in 3rd place with an impressive 75.9, heading a string of equal scores from Team GB - well done Matt!
Lucky, initially disbelieving of Matt C's advice between relays that he'd been using 5 right even when the flags were hanging down the poles(!) kept his cool well and slotted a 75.8 to take the Grand by a point and 7 vees from Kent Reeve of the USA (his target partner, who had also scored 75), with Parag, Chris, Danny, Jon and DC chasing in the 3rd to 7th places. Also impressive was Matt “I’m a coach - I can’t shoot” Ensor, who finished in 15th place overall despite it not really having been a "coaches' meeting" - well done Matty! Kelvin remains a jammy Tab.
And so to the afternoon's Commonwealth Match:
Canada, USA, Australia and GB were to due compete in the match, but Australia were unable to field a full team of 12 so the captains agreed that nominated teams of 8 from the 12 would be used in a concurrent, "for honours" match with Australia, while the three full strength teams would contest the Commonwealth Match proper.
With temperatures soaring (reaching 31 in the shade) and the sun beating down, it was going to be a tough afternoon, whatever the wind chose to throw at us. A hitherto uncommon right-handed breeze greeted us, giving rise to a few tricky patches, some of which were waited out with GB shooters nicely bubbling just under the boil on the shadeless firing points. But the waiting strategy worked pretty well - although there was a brief scare when Parag’s first sighter was used out of turn to check the wind conditions after a long wait, and came up as a magpie at the top of the target that we quickly realised wasn't his as he had come down with a forgotten 5 mins of right wind that he’d dialled in for the coach’s convienience!
Commonwealth Match Team:
Captain / Main Coach: Jeremy Langley
Adjutant: Andy Daw
Left Target:
Coach: Matt Charlton
Shooters: David Luckman* (100.10), John Pugsley (100.10), Ed Jeens (98.13), David Calvert (100.13)*; Reserve: Matt Purdy
Centre Target:
Coach: Jon Underwood
Shooters: Danny Coleman* (99.10), Stu Young (99.11), Jumbo Lewis (97.8), Ross McQuillan* (99.9); Reserve: Holly McCullough
Left Target:
Coach: Matt Ensor
Shooters: ChrisWatson* (99.14), Kelvin Ramsey* (98.13), Jacqui Rankin*(97.10), Parag Patel*(100.13); Reserve: James Watson
* = Nominated VIII vs. Australia
RESULTS
Commonwealth Match (teams of XII):
1 Great Britain 1186.134
2 Canada 1177.113
3 USA 1154.96
Nominated VIIIs:
1 Great Britain 792.92
2 Canada 786.79
3 USA 774.46
4 Australia 772.46
Very many thanks to Webbie and the Chris FitzHockley, who graciously resisted the lure of shade, air-conditioning and ice cold G&Ts and sweated it out there with us, keeping the registers and scoreboard. And well done to Holly and Matt for their 99 and 98 for the GB Under 25s; they will be joined by Stu for the short range equivalent tomorrow.
The rather overheated and stinky but victorious team retired to the hotel to relax, refuel, recharge and recover, ready for an early start tomorrow for the Canada Match and the Governor General’s Prize. For some (not those shooting the Canada Match!), a little experimental variation was tried in the sauna (madness after the weather out there today!) – a vodka sauna! Inhalation of those heady fumes seemed to hit the spot pretty well, and pretty quickly, before different groups went variously to Lapointe fish restaurant, the grand Macdonald Stewart dinner at the Chateau Laurier and to the barbecue in the hotel's back garden for some more fabulous steak. Roll on the big match tomorrow morning, the final in the afternoon and what promises to be an eventful prizegiving for GB team members - let's hope we can add a couple more wins to the tally tomorrow.
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: James Lewis and Andy Daw were the young cousins in the photo.
Q14: Which team member is this (photo attached)?
Off to the range once more for the final short range individual shoots in the Grand, the 300m and 600yds of the Gibson. Jacqui's game (courtesy of Kip Morton) of filling others' minds with catchy songs that would bother them on the firing point had by now come to backfire on her as she was once again reminded of a showgirl called Lola - cue chorus of Manilow's finest (we really must learn the second and subsequent lines - Ed.). Many of the team had been squadded early at 3 or 6 so before some had even finished breakfast or thought about their later shoots, there were some tidy 50s on the board already. The conditions weren't entirely easy but after this much continuous shooting, the team were firing on all cylinders (not literally, though a 12 chamber revolving rifle would be pretty cool for string shoots - surely a future feature on Top Gear). James was so confident of his shooting prowess that when seeing a wild magpie appear on his target, he quickly claimed it was not his. A quick inspection found him a central vee (as Ross put it, "a patch must have fallen off") but not before Parag on the adjacent target had distracted himself from his shoot by laughing at James's indignation at being given a 3! Chris put in a 50.7 at 300m to finish only 6 vee's down at 300 - great, you might think, but it had opened the door to Lucky in the Short Range Aggregate, and he burst through it with a 50.9 to win by 1 vee).
Ross had made a couple of administrational trips to the DCRA during the morning to check on entries and see what was to happen with the tie shoots showing on the score boards as 'tie to be shot for first place'. When he asked, the reply of "there aren't any ties to shoot" was a little confusing, until Ross politely pointed to the sheets saying there are ties. "Ahhh, yes..." - the sheet was highlighted and plans were quickly made! Some competitions turned out to be settled on countback.
The morning's shooting had been successful, with Lucky retaining his lead in the Grand, Parag making a clean (and eventually winning) score in the Gibson (Jacqui would have had it but sadly lost her last at 600) and 11 of the team making 100 on the morning. Chris even managed a good 100 despite managing not to convert a 5 sighter; luckily he finished with a 5 so no loss. After a brief lunch (during which Ross managed to shift 5000 empty cases) the team rolled over to 600yds for the Outlander Match. With Jeremy delegating captaincy to Ross and in turn Ed being stiffed with Adjutant duties, the team sported some of the best register keepers, reserves and scoreboard dollies in world shooting (including Luckman, Calvert, Patel and Chris Watson) as well as a soon to be married James having a second bachelor weekend experience acting as butts scrutineer. The match was effectively a trial, with all those who didn't shoot in the America Match being given the opportunity to prove themselves, and the scoreboard read as follows for the Outlander:
Captain - Ross McQuillan
Adj - Ed Jeens
Main Coach - Jeremy Langley
Matt Charlton coaching Danny Coleman, Andy Daw, Stuart Young, John Pugsley (Matt Ensor reserve/plotter)
Jon Underwood coching James Lewis, Holly McCollough, Matt Purdy, Kelvin Ramsey (Parag Patel reserve/plotter)
Scoreboard - Jaqui Rankin, Chris Watson, David Luckman.
Dept. Assistant Headsets - David Calvert.
Butt Scratcher - James Watson.
Some of the spelling of titles on the scoreboard was questionable but seemingly appropriate.
The match seemed to go well but the team were forced to work hard in an angled, left headwind at 600yds. The team managed 4 full houses here but some inners were hard to avoid. 7 off ex 600 was a strong score compared to Australia's 16 and America's 19. There was a long break before the next range so the team took to the hut and recuperated. Water was refilled, snacks were munched and a few jokes shared. 900m was a different picture to 6, as the wind now was running mostly from 1 o'clock with varied strength. Even with a 9 point margin, this could still be close and Australia went out with intent, quickly posting two 75s. Sadly one of their second firers had a bit of trouble at the start of his shoot and several points were dropped fast; but they otherwise had a good range. America were doing all right and GB was chugging along at a good pace posting some tidy but not always clean scores - again averaging just better than 74s. This was good enough - after 2 firers, GB were 12 down overall, Australia 25 down and the USA 31. GB kept it tight and fast and before Australia had finished their third, GB had only dropped a further 2 points with all their firers finished. With a score at 900m exactly equalling that at 600yds, GB's 14 off was enough to claim victory as it was less than the opposition had dropped at short range. Congratulations to Kelvin for a 150 and to Holly, Andy, Matt P and Stu for their first shoots for GB - and very respectable shoots they were too. Final talies: GBRT - 1186.130; Australia - 1171.101; USA - 1161.97.
The team packed up and made quick plans for dinner. Steak. Winners eat steak. One busload was sent to the butcher's just in time before it closed, while everyone else went to support the Athelings in their match against the Canadian Cadets. Although, with the team mostly squadded on a later ("clever clogs") detail of the Gatineau the next morning, there would be plenty of time for dinner digestion before the Grand's final shoot, the vans nevertheless raced back to the accommodation. Classic moment in bus two just before arrival: Matt C quipped to DC that he should consider the set of retirement apartments they were passing, and seconds later DC casually exacted his revenge as he skilfully swatted dead a fly that was on Matt's lap "just in case it might have distracted him from driving"!
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Andy Daw was the chopper pilot.
Q13: Which two team members are in this photo (attached)?
Another warm and still start to the day, facilitating some impressive scores and vee counts to be put in at the start of the President's (akin to Queen's II, with the Letson being Queen's I, except that all competitors shoot the President's and the sum of the two matches constitutes the qualifier for the Governor General's Final).
Midday saw many of the team wilting and semi-comatose in the team room, as the heat built up. The team room air was somewhat heavy, and admittedly pretty rank, so several sought shade and solace in a book outside - in some cases a "50 Shades" book, which series seems quite popular - and not just amongst the ladies! The sound of laughter and retching noises by readers can be a little off-putting.
Talking of ladies, the very fast changing winds of the afternoon (9 to 2 left, allegedly - I saw 7 to 2 in the space of a minute or two - Ed.) saw the female members of Team GB manage possibles in the Gibson 800m - very well done to Jacqui, Holly, and, errr, Parag...
Webby announced after a 48 that his eye (now adorned by a new contact lens) was still giving him trouble. He needed something to soothe it and it was suggested to him that teabagging might be a good idea. I fear someone may have misunderstood the term as dabbing it with a teabag.
At the end of the day, almost all of Team GB learned they were through to the Governor General's Final (akin to Queen's III) - a great effort from 85% of the team, who will occcupy over a third of the slots in the final. Leading the way was Lucky with a massively impressive 255.42 (ex 255.51). However, one of the most surprising results of the day was that two of the coaches, Jeremy and Matt E (with his first ever 150!) were in the top 3 of the President's - looking good for the team matches (the other coach likes to let his team-mates' shooting do the talking and to make them look good! - Ed.)
In the evening GB hosted a reception in the tent behind the DCRA, ostensibly along with the Americans and Australians - the latter brought some cheese, wine and vegemite sandwiches to go with our Pimm's. Pretty much par-boiled from the day, the team retired to the hotel pre-reception to spruce up, via Vera's. Some of the team were Vera virgins, and the delights of a burger made and cooked to order from choicest steak, and cooked to perfection, were positively orgasmic - surely the only explanation for the squeals of delight emanating from the shop (and from Jacqui).
After Vera's, a quick shower, into number 1's and back to the range, for the Outlander Match team to be announced and the finishing touches to be put to the Pimm's for the reception.
Insult of the day: Danny to Jacqui: “Yah, you're intrinsically very pretty...you just need to lose about a stone.” Amazingly, Danny is still alive and walking...
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Chris Watson was the BMX racer at the home of F1.
Q12: Who is the chopper pilot in the photo?
There was a wee post-Athelings-visit 'after-party' in the hotel bar last night so a few had had late nights (sure, if you class 10:30 as a late night Ed! - Ed.). Admittedly this probably had less to do with a thirst for drinks and more with some people's curiosity about the barmaid that the previous nght's barman had told us was "really hot" and "worth seeing". The jury is still out (with opinions highly correlated with status - very single vs. very married).
The team rolled on to camp nice and early as usual this morning and were soon pushing Frosties (breakfast of champions, according to Lucky) into their faces before their early details of the Letson. There will be force feeding of Frosties before the week is out after Jacqui interpreted the request on the board of "Frosties x 3" (i.e. three people asking for Frosties in the shopping run) as a request for three family sized boxes of Frosties. Good thing that they're grrrrreeeeaaat! Those who shot first were greeted on their return to the hut by a pile of boxes of cold pizza (snack of champions). It has to be said the food has been great in the hut (thank you food people) but the requests section on the blackboard has become notably more sweet-toothed as people rebel against diet sodas and devour the sweets and chocolates with surprising haste.
Letson and Tunis day (much like having Queens and Corp in one day at Bisley) is potentially a Grand-and-Governor-General's killer. A day not to make mistakes perhaps... maybe someone should have told Ed,who casually went to 300m without his freshly pressed ammo. Not to worry - he borrowed some of Matt C's unpushed ammo; a little bit of engaging with the lans never hurt anyone, just don't create a need to unload! Both men converted both sighters, which only left them with five more rounds to find. The morning seemed to go well, with only one person dropping a point at 300m and four (out of 21) dropping at 500 yards. Jeremy did comment that he'd be unlikely to break 10 V's after his 35.2 and 35.3.
Lunch was an interesting affair with Jacqui searching for a way of having a hot toasted sandwich or to reheat the pizza using the toaster. Matt suggested that she turn it sideways which looked promising. She recognised there was a risk of the filling melting out into the toaster so suggested that she might use a polystyrene plate (in the toaster!) to help catch the mess. Genius. This plan was vetoed. She tried running the toaster and hovering a slice of pizza over it in her hand, but forgot that her hands would get hot too; but she soldiered on and after much yelping and singed hands, she ended up with a slice of lukewarm pizza. Result!
The Alexander of Tunis (known by other names but apparently that is the official one) holds much the same gravitas as the Corporation does in terms of making or breaking one's Grand - Webby claims to have taken six attempts to break 40, whereupon he scored 50.5 and won. The important thing is that the Corporation is more conveniently made into a verb - Tunis'ed is a bit clunky, though again, variations on the name are available (and work at least as badly). The first detail was greeted to the range by an encouraging sprinkling of rain as a front moved over. Some wet flags and low light are just what you want in the Tunis. The rain kept on until about shot 8 of the shoot, just enough to be annoying and warrant drying kit out, but it did make the wind quite steady (unlike Tunis shoots of legend), to the glee of the shooters and disenchantment of the coaches. A breeze of 4-6 or so wasn't always easy to follow as it moved but it could have been worse. 2 of the team managed to put shots out of the top in this detail but Chris was lucky to shoot very quickly with an American and had a good 50. The next detail was dryer and had more 50s being shot so it seemed the Tunis wasn't offering the Grand-killing it often promises. Ah well, shame for those trying to make up points. The wind pretty much died later on and Stu went to town and drilled a 50.9 home to win.
Over at 600 yds, the wind was fairly boring too, gently drifting fromone side to the other. There were plenty of triggers being weighed and the 105s for the Letson were soon piling up on the GB score board including a 105.15 from Kelvin, .17 from DC and .18 from DCL. There were 12 GB 105s in all after all but 5 people went clean at 600.
Some of those 35s were achieved despite the appearance of Danny, and then David, on the point asking each of the GB shooters if they had the hut key - DC was rattled - he had tried the hut door and found it locked, they said, and he was worried that it had been locked while he was out, separating him from his kit. For any non-shooters, being separated from your kit when you have to shoot is a terrible feeling of dread and worry. What if your kit gets sad and misses you? And how can you shoot without it? It eventually was pointed out to DC that the locked hut might not have been ours and that he ought to try the one with a banner saying "Great Britain Rifle Team" on it...
James also had an amusing afternoon when he shot his sighters at 600. Having survived the easy-to-crossfire range at Perry unscathed, James had a bit of a moment with his sighters. Seemingly convinced that he was on one particular target, Watty put both his sighters on that target. His partner failed to notice that the correct target hadn't gone down and so made no fuss. Those shooting on the target James was shooting at didn't notice or say anything either. Even the range officer was at a slight loss. Amazingly nobody noticed what was going on until James twigged and put the next 7 on the right target for a 35, scoring 0 for his sighters!
That evening was the NCCRA "Corn Boil" (they do provide sausages, not just corn). There was no 3 line whip in operation, so a few team members did other things - Matt C was seeing a friend for dinner, the Watsons dined together, MattE was having a quiet night in and Stu was doing something with a load of girls who picked him up, which mysteriously required him to apply concealer (borrowed from Jacqui). The rest of us piled into buses (a small gin party happened en route in the back of one bus - good work girls) and headed off to fill our faces with corn on the cob. The corn boil was - as it always is - a lovely evening and a great clubhouse experience. If only there were more such evenings on camp! The team got their faces all messy with buttery corn and had a great time catching up with old friends.
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Matt Purdy was the factory kiln fire hero.
Q11: Which team member once lapped Silverstone... on a BMX?(!)
By some miracle of nature, all the buses, surprisingly complete with the entire team, were at the ranges by 07:15, although there was some loud grumbling in the ranks from those not shooting until after 9:30 (especially Jacqui, provoked by her bus-mates). However, for those who had to suffer the very early relays at 300m and 500x, much reaping of the vee was to be had, in the warm, sunny, but rather still conditions. These yielded an impressive number of possibles in the morning sessions – 34 out of 42 in fact (none of them mine - I continue to pray for the return of tricky conditions so I can move back off the bottom of the pile - Ed.). Achievement of these possibles was all the more impressive given that Mr. McQuillan started 300m with a 500x sight setting and Watson Senior went to 300m without a telescope. With so many high scores, Ross was to be heard asking what the "piss" was, to see if he was on it. It turns out that that's Norn Irish for "pace".
During the lunch / early afternoon break, Langley & Underwood’s Rifle Surgery opened for business, along with Patel & Watson’s Position Refinement Services. The team room was quite abuzz: bodies were strewn upon the floor in various new contortions, and the gentle click and ting of adjustments being made to hardware – Jacqui was delighted with her smoother trigger, Matt P seemed to find some good adjustments to his position (as did a Canadian cadet, whose friend was to be heard remarking "That's so cute!" when James went to check if the change had been successful), and Andy had to leave the room for a while as the hand drill, hammer and nail varnish came out to sort his rifle's trigger creep.
Meanwhile, two vanloads of hungry people headed back to Bell's Corners and to Vera's for the best hamburgers in the world... ever! Back at base, Watty decided to get tough on a wasps' nest he’d located in the adjacent hut, as several had been bothering us in our hut (the fly-and-wasp swat league currently being hotly contested between Holly, Watty, Matt P and Stu). Armed with lethal spray, he advanced to do battle – however, the size of creatures that angrily emerged prompted a somewhat rapid retreat, accompanied by debate as to whether they were just large wasps or hornets, although the expedition did appear to be ultimately successful. Sadly though, the swat league does not accept use of WMDs as scoring implements.
In the afternoon heat, the wind became awkward again, with rapid angle and strength changes. Fortune tended to favour those who were able to shoot quickly in the calmer spells at 600x and 800m (speed = my weakness; I'd clearly prayed for the wrong sort of wind - Ed.!). We also learned that the DCRA had deliberately squadded the expected top runners (including all of Team GB - even me!) into the mid-afternoon (= trickiest wind) relays. Nevertheless there were some great scores, led by Jon Underwood's 100 with lots.
Sadly, the day on the range ended badly for Jumbo’s rifle, which had cracked quite seriously across the pistol grip when it hit the deck, butt-first in a padded rifle case, from about a foot off the grass as the case slipped off his shoulder at the conclusion of his day's shoots. With no second rifle available to him, there was some mad rushing to find someone who could rapidly repair his broken stock, but a saviour (Robertson) was found and the rifle should be ready first thing tomorrow morning, although an earlier start and longer trip will be required to fetch it.
In the evening, Team GB hosted the Athelings for a social get-together at the team hotel (surely once they've seen the luxury of the Best Western, they'll all want to shoot for GB... right?). Cue pizza, music, chat, cream soda, laughter, "volleyball" and the somewhat disturbing sight of Matty top-bombing in the pool…
Quote of the day: “I went down twice, and it’s much smoother now…”(the trigger– duh!)
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: James Watson was the young computer geek!
Q10: Which team member once put out a factory kiln fire using a 330ml bottle of water?
The team seemed to have all made pretty early nights after the reception last night although it was suggested that there had been some 'carrying on' by some team members in the hotel bar - a ridiculous notion among these high calibre athletes (especially given the bar closed at 10pm!). The staggered departure to the range according to detail start time was working well and Ross had plans to optimise this further by means of a giant table of start and finish times (super adj seeking marginal gains). For those who have not been to Canada, the drive to the range from the Baron's is not long at all but long enough to strike up a bit of chatter. Danny was apparently heard to comment of the local wildlife that you don't see many skunks (cue a skunk scurrying across the road) and also that you don't often see gophers (yes, cue several gophers). Tomorrow he will predict tigers.
The morning's shooting was the Tilton at 300m/600yds - the final shoot before the Grand began with the MacDougall at 300m/500yds. Through the morning in a gentle breeze from over one's left shoulder, the short ranges didn't present too much of a challenge to a team who had been shooting so much long range and the easily readable mirage meant the ammo had every chance of some good possibles. And possibles there were. Most team members managed at least one 50 in the two shoots and Chris even made a rather nice 50.10 at 300m.
Over lunch, where we were reminded about food hygiene by Parag after someone left the meat out, the wind seemed to be getting more interesting and the clouds overhead suggested some weather was on its way. It's true there were dark storm clouds - heavy, black and pendulous - toward which we were walking. It's also true that the kit bags we were carrying were badly in need of some waterproofs. But us being normal shooters and on an overseas tour... Well we weren't going to let a storm spoil the events of our afternoon. It was an afternoon shoot we were going to remember for a very long time (clap of thunder). Pop quiz - name the origin of that pop-culture homage.
In actual fact the afternoon was more threatening and blustery than actually wet and the rain only actually broke after shooting finished - this diarist just couldn't resist the opportunity to use "Heavy, black and pendulous" to describe the weather (bonus points if you know what the audience shout out at that point in the show). As the afternoon drew on, it became clear that Des Vamplew had restored Canadian honour and won the Tilton match from the morning, halting the British dominance thus far. Team GB took on the blustery winds and a few came out the other end of the first two shoots in the grand unscathed (Jon managing an impressive 17 vees) but it was Des's day as he pulled 18 vees out of the bag to win the MacDougall. Those who had lost points during the day were left to reflect on the ones that got away but were able to take some sense of victory from the fact that Team GB almost all now have a clean wardrobe now we've fully utilised the washing machines on camp. Carlsberg don't make shooting teams, but if they did, it'd smell like Team GB.
Back home to the Baron's where the team split into those BBQ'ing and those heading to West Side Mario's for authentic Canadian-Italian cuisine. Early to bed again (except for me, editing this - Ed.), not only because we are up early again but more because we are all so tired. Shooting all those vees (again, except for me - Ed.) really takes it out of you.
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: David Calvert crashed on his first driving test. Before this tour, that would have surprised me!
Q10: Which team member appeared on a Saturday morning television show in 1984, alongside Paul McCartney, to demonstrate early touch screens?
A day of glorious weather: a quite warm and very sunny day, but not too hot (we only managed 26 degrees , and we hear it’s more like 30 back in ol’ Blighty), perhaps due to the ever present, but wickedly fickle wind, which it seems caught several of the team out today in the pre-Grand warm-up individual matches. There were again several unprintable comments from various team members,as they sought to understand how "that" shot had ended up in the magpie (or even worse!). Even yesterday’s all conquering DC succumbed to a few windy ones. Matt C, despite a broken shooting jacket, finds himself well up in the team pack, which can be taken as an indication of how tricky it's been.
During an extended pause in the day's program, just after lunch, several of the team headed back to the hotel, to sit out/swim out the warmer part of the day. The on-camp team room was littered with a few remaining team members snoozing, reading, and even movie-watching, thanks to the wonders of Apple.
Despite the struggle that many folk had with Connaught’s winds, Team GB members were again victorious in both the Gooderham (2+15 @ 900m & 2+10 @ 500x) - Parag taking top honours,with just one point off on 124.12 – and Chris Watson (again!) took the Army and NavyVeterans (2+15 @900m), also with just the one point lost for a 74.8.
Our ammo-meister, JJ Jackson, had also travelled to Connaught from the matches at Camp Perry, as he was intending to shoot, but as he had been having back problems, he was going to sit out for a few days first. Sadly, he has announced that he has to leave immediately, as he has received news of his mother being unwell. All of Team GB thank him wholeheartedlyly for his great company, professionalism and his fabulous ammo, and we wish him and his Mom in Tennessee all the very best.
In the evening the DCRA hosted a meet-and-greet with an evening meal, affording us the opportunity to meet up with some old Canadian, Australian and American friends, some of the visiting Brits and this year's Athelings. The meal was very tasty, but for some was served up on some very hot plates, prompting jovial speculation that perhaps it was a deliberate attempt to render some trigger fingers a little sore prior to the start of the Grand Aggregate tomorrow...
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: David Luckman played Utimate Frisbee for Delft.
Q9: Which team member crashed on his/her first driving test?
(NB having been van-mates with this individual, this no longer comes as a surprise! Ed.)
On strict instructions of the Adj, the team was in breakfast on time and geared up for an early drive. Everyone praised the brilliant contrast the luxurious Best Western beds made to the singles in The Shores and as we tucked into a continental breakfast (including waffles courtesy of the chirpiest and kindest lady known to the hotel breakfasting industry - she even brought toffees and a thank you card to each table!) the group seemed remarkably animated for this time of day. Nobody had really unpacked much for the stopover so once kit was thrown into buses and the satnavs were programmed, bus 2 took an early lead and departed bang on time. The first stint was not the best one to be driving to be honest. The traffic was clear and the road free flowing, the weather was great too, but the road itself could not have been more boring. Changing lanes was a big highlight as the road was just a straight line east with no corners. After a swap of drivers and a fuel stop at some convenient services (coincidentally the same ones chosen by most of the buses) the monotony continued, this time in a more northerly direction... but with "home" in the form of the Barons Hotel (Best Western these days) to look forward to. Eventually we all made it to our familiar and much loved accommodation in great time. Once checked in and fed, we made our way to the range. It should be said that by this point there had already been at least a hundred mentions from within the team along the lines of "I remember going there [pointing at restaurant] in 2007" or "that wasn't there when we were here for Palma". Ottawa had clearly been missed. At the range we found that the GB room had been opened and the stored kit moved into it by Chris and Chris (FitzHockley - the Celtic nations' answer to Hergé's Thomson and Thompson). Ross was again in 'super adj' mode and while the room was being configured for optimal use ("in Palma we laid the tables out like this" - never mind that this was a different room) he gathered up declaration forms and delivered all the entries. I say all the entries but it seems Webbie was a little unlucky and his warm-up shoots were missing. Not to worry - Super Adj aided his insertion into the first match - his success re: tomorrow remains to be seen, since the staff were telling us that the Gooderham was oversubscribed (despite being three to a target in a two-man time limit)... positive signs for the health of Canadian shooting?*
As if by magic, the range food team (girls plus doctors-cum-food hygienists) returned with half the supermarket and laid out the food area of the room. Excitingly, Kelvin had been entrusted with the deli counter run. The room has desks pushed to the sides with spaces under them for kit and tables in the middle for sitting/eating at. Mod cons include all important air-con, a fan or two, a fridge freezer and of course a box full of frisbees and balls to play with. Holly and Matt Purdy took no time to fulfill their role as 'Athelings liaisons', catching up with friends and no doubt comparing notes on the contrasts in their respective tours (one of the new caps says it's "nice to be trusted"!). 6pm soon came around and the team (minus DC and Matt Charlton who were on the second detail) headed out for the Ottawa Regiment, the first of our warm-up shoots, a 2+15 at 800m. The wind was strong from the left and Chockley had warned us earlier that he had found it very tricky while shooting the Sierra long range match. Team GB had a good crack, though it was evidently hard work as John Pugsley's comments after his downwind magpie attest (they can't be printed here for sure!). 72-74 seemed the par score unless your name was Underwood (75.9) but it wasn't until the second detail when David Calvert managed a 75.12 in the dying light. There were some other notable features of this shoot that he confided to his bus (forgetting that his bus included two diarists) but we won't go into the detail. Suffice to say it could easily have been a 50 instead of a 75 - thank goodness for Adam the Atheling!
Shooting done, the team headed back to base and back to the familiar eateries of Bells Corners such as East Side Mario's and the Cock and Bull. Tomorrow, more warm-ups and a team reception to look forward to.
* It turned out that there were't many targets being used for the Gooderham on Saturday.
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Ross McQuillan has a maple leaf shaped birthmark.
Q8: Which team member played Ultimate Frisbee for Delft University's 1st team?
Yesterday's diary was submitted just after the America Match, and before the US NRA's prizegiving for the America Match, which took a good two hours from the conclusion of the match, whose result we all knew. Protest periods etc. (even if nobody wished to protest)... Meanwhile, the storm that had been threatening all day finally unleashed and everyone from the assembled teams huddled on a verandah. A wonderful extended opportunity to meet all our fellow shooters (other than those who could wait no longer and had driven home).
All thoughts of a dip in the pool or hot-tub had to be abandoned, as Team GB rushed to get to the local winery/restaurant (Mon Ami), to toast our US successes as well as our American friends JJ (ammo guru) and Emil Praslick (US coach and GB liaison). After the meal, while some of the team retired, some others and a couple of locals descended on a Port Clinton bar to acquaint themselves, at last, with what passed for nightlife there.
Hence, it was no real surprise that the adjutant had to give us a stern word about some of our time keeping this morning, as we packed the vans a wee bit behind schedule and cleared the condos that had been our home from home for the last 8 days, before setting off north, past CampPerry and on towards Detroit, Port Huron and the Canadian border.
The plan was to meet at an eatery just before the border. 4 of the 5 vans made it in about 2 hours; however, 1 got sat-snagged and inadvertently crossed into Canada via another route (without paperwork for the firearms!) and had to sweet-talk their way back into the US in order to meet up with the rest of the party an hour and a half after they had all arrived.
The crossing into Canada (properly, this time), was very smooth and relatively swift, and the vans set off independently to meet up again at the overnight stop in Oshawa. All of them managed arrive at the hotel within about five minutes of each other, despite a further four hours on the road and the tediously slow rush-hour drive around the edge of Toronto. After eating everyone took the opportunity to rest up before another earlyish start to press on to Ottawa - this time with a deadline, as we have a shoot in which to participate tomorrow afternoon...
Hello Canada, old friend. We have missed you.
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Matt Charlton managed to get into and out of Argentina undetected during the Falklands War. He was only little.
Q7: Which team member has a maple leaf shaped birthmark?
A super early start as GB rose before the sun. Any sleepy heads were roused by a dawn chorus of Muse and Queen - classic GB music!
The team:
Match Captain - James Lewis
Adj - Ross McQuillan
Head Coach - Jeremy Langley
Left Coach - Matt Charlton
Firers - David Calvert, Chris Watson, Ed Jeens, Jon Underwood; reserve - Kelvin Ramsey
Right Coach - Matt Ensor
Firers - David Luckman, Jacqui Rankin, James Watson, Parag Patel; reserve - Danny Coleman
The team were all prepped and ready for the now customary 'hurryup and wait' but once admin issues were resolved and the pits were ready, the birds (that cover the range in their hundreds in the morning) were scared away by a prolonged salvo of blow off shots. In a gentle breeze and low light, GB opened up strongly with a clean 1200.94, matched only by the US team (exactly, even on X's) and before long we were on a trolley and heading back to 800 where we gathered our wits and deployed the snacks. While discussing Parag's "proofed to 300lbs" stool (now showing wear and tear), James commented "220lbs is about a kilo", which confused us somewhat before he corrected himself.
We fell back to 800 (not 600 as the match format traditionally dictates), initially to a firghteningly sloping firing point, and joined in alongside the 'Palma teams' match that the various clubs etc were shooting today. As the America Match, despite its international significance, is seemingly secondary to this clubs match, we are forced to shoot each range in two periods, with a break for 'pit puller' swaps. Despite this frustrating situation, we were all in the same boat and pushed on regardless. The wind was tricky enough to lose points here but the team read it well and stopped when they needed to. The team once again filled up on points, scoring 1200.84, just one X ahead of the USA. Australia sat 8 off, Canada went clean but were still carrying 13 off (having fired on a 'hospital target' at 300) and Japan some way behind.
Camp Perry being a military range, there are some odd things about on the ground and the firing points. There are electronic pop-up targets dotted about the open ground and here at part of the 900 point where GB were due to shoot were two huge boarded-over trenches! Fortunately we were able to fire just behind them but the firing point was far from the luxurious soft grass we found in Brisbane; in fact the firing points here generally resembled the rather beaten up bit at the right side of Century at 300yds. Fortunately the use of towels to make 'a level playing field' is allowed here and at 800 Ed was accused of being a prima donna for asking for an extra towel - Ross (Super Adj) obliged but refused to bring 100 blue m&m's and a glass of room temperature water ("I can't work in these conditions"). The first session at 900yds went well in a gently increasing left wind. USA dropped one giving us a brief points lead but it was lost when GB lost a 9 too. The session ended with us still neck and neck on points.
One should not forget that during all this excitement, the team members not listed above were all being 'legends', either in register keeping, fetching and carrying, or butt marking (yes, they are legends to fly all this way and happily butt mark in an international match). Holly is especially a legend for receiving the second pits injury of the tour, taking a plastic spotter spindle to the inner thigh.
The second session at 900 was tougher. The steadily building left wind was coming up and down, prompting waits on the firing point as it was becoming hard to read absolute value. The higher pace of firing from the Americans helped them make hay while it was good and they finished about 2/3rds of a firer ahead of GB having dropped only 3. We caught a little more of the 9 ring to inexplicable shots, losing 10 points overall. The standings were now USA in the lead 3 down, GB 10 down, Australia 23 down, Canada 24 down, and Japan still trailing.
Jeremy gave a concise and pointed team talk to a slightly dejected Team GB. Newly determined, with a plan to shoot speedily and limit the conditins we faced, we moved forward to the firing point while those waiting sat against a tree to shelter from the now cruel sun. David Luckman shot fast and hard and was off the point almost as soon as the relay had begun, David Calvert's shoot was slightly more deliberate but they scored 148 and 149 respectively - good scores. This early finish coincidentally gave Lucky time to give an interview with the NRA press officer, which we look forward to seeing online soon. After a fair bit of stopping and starting, Chris came off with a 147 and Jacqui a 149 for a 599.37, just behind Calvert's 599.41. The shooters were sweaty and exhausted as they peeled themselves out of their kit. Tough shooting, but we had clawed back 5 of the deficit - 2 more points remained to be found. Time for a pit change before the final push. The game plan was to rattle through quickly and leave the US team still shooting on the range. Ed and James were through quickly with a 150 and 149 and Jon and Parag were equally fast with a 149 and 150 (earning Parag a great 600.41). GB's total was 1191.73 at 1000yds for a grand total of 4781.315. A pretty good finish.
USA had only dropped one point with their third pair of firers so the lead was just 3 points with 2 shooters still to fire. It was nail bitingly close. USA's last two men shot with all of us watching as every shot went into the 10 or the X. Dropping 13 at 1000yds, they finished 4784.308, successfully defending their 'undefeated on home turf' record since the match started.Well done USA. It was generally agreed to have been a shooters' match and they had shot very well indeed.
There was a brief wait while the other teams finished shooting (the GB and US guns were still steaming from fast shooting) but at end of play, Canada came in 4743.260, Australia made 4729.233 and Japan 4377.109. GB were quick to congratulate the victors and even before their kit was packed, a cooler of beers was doing the rounds. Off to an on-range prize giving (which took an age!) and then home before the thunderstorm that's been threatening since 1000yds breaks before heading out to Mon Ami for dinner.
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Kelvin Ramsey used to track brown bears in North Carolina.
Q6: Which team member managed to get into and out of Argentina undetected during the Falklands War?
Last night Ross made himself even more popular, by telling us that we all need to be at the range even earlier than usual, so that we could get our squadding for the Palma Individual Match today…
So it was, as dawn had just broken, with steady rain falling and thunder rumbling over the lake, that we arrived at the range to collect said squadding. Several US competitors took one look at the conditions and promptly dropped out, but we were assured by ‘those in the know’ that the rain would clear away before the first shot…. As indeed, it did, leaving behind some gloriously calm conditions for the 800x start of the Palma Individual.
With only one further light dusting of the wet stuff, we escaped the day mostly dry (aside from sitting on damp things), but as everything started to dry out, with clouds continuing to circle, the wind moved more northerly so that some 900 and 1000x relays experienced some rather challenging wind direction changes. David Luckman ended up the best of Team GB, in third place overall on 449.31 (the same as 1st and 2nd), Chris in 7th with a 448.29 and DC, Danny and Jacqui not far off the pace on 447.
The day on the range concluded in glorious sunshine,with the team then dispersing to feed themselves quickly, while the officers retired to muse over the tricky team selection for the America Match. Thence, back to Perry for the America Match team announcement and the US NRA’s awards ceremony for the long range matches...
Prizegiving was held in the the camp's cinema style auditorium, complete with artistic representations of some frontiersmen supressing the natives, and of British warships being sent asunder by Commodore Perry in the 1812 war. Ironic, then, that some of the Brits figured so prominently in proceedings:
Chris – winner of the Andrus Trophy
Holly - junior high gun in the "Doc" Aiken
David Luckman – a fantastic haul: the "Doc" Aiken Trophy, the Sierra Trophy Aggregate, the Canadian Cup Aggregate and to crown it all the National High Power Rifle Long Range Championship. All in, David seems to have won well over $3000 in prizes and a Remington rifle! That should prove an interesting logistics issue should it wend its way back to the UK…
Tomorrow, the America Match, with a pre-dawn assembly on the range; Earlier and earlier the team seems to have to awaken... Nevertheless, “Go, Go Team GB!”
Quote of the day: Lady team member admonishes the captain as they board the first shooter shuttle of the day: "Jeremy, I can't believe you've made my pants wet…".
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Ed Jeens raced monoski for his university.
Q5. Which team member used to track brown bears in North Carolina?
A beautiful sky of patchy pink and blue cloud welcomed us to another glorious day on tour. Sunday's format of an individual shoot followed by a team match was to be repeated and it looked like the weather was going to be about the same. The Doc Aiken match was the morning's shoot (not Doc Brown - 'Great Scott!') and JJ had challenged us all to beat his long standing record of 199 with 8. The conditions were in our favour and his record was thoroughly beaten - sixteen times over! 'Lucky' once again made the top score - 200.13 - on his relay (we are all proud of our high scorers despite shoot-offs robbing us of vital hot tub time) and sealed the deal with a tidy 100.6 at the end of the day (cue photo on the mound with JJ and a really tight group).
During 'lunch' Jacqui and Chris went for a photo shoot for the NRA's magazine. It seems the rather crude innuendo-riddled banter they shared wasn't really understood by the official photographer, but it produced the right smiles for the camera so all was good.
In the afternoon, just ahead of the team match, Jumbo's queenly figure could no longer be contained by his jacket. Unable to repair his zip in short order, he chose to shoot with an open jacket, nevertheless managing (to his great credit) to score 198. Who needs a jacket anyway! Webbie, the team's "+1", cancelled his napping plans and kindly stood in to cover Jumbo's register keeping duty while he went to have the zip repaired - remarkably managing to find the 'wrong' canvas repair shop with an almost identical address to the one to which he had been despatched.
Those wishing to experience the 'tour feel' vicariously, try the following. The team has created the 'team wave' in honour of the state in which we find ourselves. Hold thumb and forefinger together to form an 'O', then wave the remaining fingers, saying "Oh-HI-oh! Clearly we have too much idle range time, which we will spend scouring facebook for photos of you performing the team wave. Team plans for the evening range from Macdonald's to Jolly Roger (a nearby eatery, allegedly run by pirates) and Phil's Inn, but nothing further than a 200 yard walk - everyone is tired and needs to be in bed early, not least because we all need to be at the range before 7am for an even earlier game of "hurry up and wait".
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: James Lewis once arrested the Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland.
Q4: Which team member raced monoski for his/her university?
Another early start, but one that promised a somewhat brighter and warmer day. With the temperature already climbing, Team GB arrived in their buses at Viale range on Camp Perry at around 07:20 for the first relay start at an eventual 09:00, but still woefully late to find decent parking slots. It is an early bird indeed that beats an American with an enormous shooting kit trolley to a parking spot within close walking distance of the firing point.
The morning shoot was another 1000x individual shoot (The Andrus Trophy), with the temperature continuing to climb with each relay, and the wind becoming more fickle as the day progressed. However, Team GB triumphed once again, as ChrisWatson and David Luckman emerged top of their relays and went forward to the tie-shoot along with, once again, Norm Anderson. Chris emerged as the eventual winner with 100.6, just a single X ahead of Lucky.
For the afternoon, Team GB had entered 4 teams in the Roumanian Team match (GBRT ‘Red’, ‘White’, ‘Blue’ and ‘Sand’, the last in homage to JJ’s ammunition,which is packaged in sand-coloured boxes) and were gratified to find that in the Palma rifle class, all four of the GB teams beat the Canadian, Australian and Japanese teams, with GBRT Team ‘Sand’ but a single point adrift of the winning US Veterans team and the others close behind.
Success, however, came at a price: Holly sacrificed her flip-flops to the Viale Bog (it seems that Perry’s ranges are also blighted in places by the bogginess behind the firing points, due to excess rain earlier in the year, that greatly afflicted Century range this year), when said footwear was ripped apart and sucked off by the claggy mud as she attempted a short-cut. For a while she sported the grungiest feet on camp,although it is believed that the thongs have been recovered, cleaned and reassembled, so that she can once again proudly display her bright blue toenails - the colour of which, strangely, exactly matches Matty’s socks…?
The day's shooting had been punctuated by three total ceasefires, of around 10 minutes each, as errant jet skis and boats of weekend pleasure seekers, or perhaps just adrenalin junkies, ventured into the danger area despite all the warning buoys and picket boats, and had to be shooed away by the US military. It’s quite a regular occurrence, apparently, in the landof the free and the home of the brave!
Surprise finds of the day:
Colin Cheshire wandering along the backof the firing point. It seems Colin may be here as part of his ICFRA duties to assess Camp Perry’s suitability to host the 2015 Palma Match.
Danny’s eagle-eye, in the bottom of his range bag. He simply hadn’t noticed that it had not been attached to his foresight for all the shoots he had done on this tour so far; "Hmmm, I wondered why it hasn’t looked quite right down there…” he mused.
Jacqui missing with her first sighter in the team match owing to a wrong foresight height. Not unusual, you might think, but we have ONLY been shooting at 1000 yards the whole time!
In the evening, the US team hosted a ‘Meet and Greet’/international gift exchange/drink-the-pub-dry event just yards away from our own exclusive accommodation. The roadhouse (bar), Nick’s, chosen by our hosts as the venue, belongs to a popular and locally well-known US shooter, who is selling up the business, and he generously offered to provide a barbecue and to allow his remaining ‘stock’ to be run down. With such a challenge presented, Team GB felt compelled to do their level best to help Nick out, and even turned up armed with mixers to assist in the disposal of the liquors; but it was the stocks of Corona beer that first fell victim to the British onslaught. And then we retired to the hot tub...
WHO AM I?
Yesterday's answer: Jacqui Rankin can lick her own elbow.
Q3: Which team member once arrested the Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland?
Our first day of competitive shooting began early, as do so many shooting days on tour. The sky was bleak and overcast looking out from the condo but fortunately it was dry. Dry is good. It can be cold, hot, bright or dark but wet is always bad (one target coach disputed this technical point). None of us was really sure what the order of things would be so we arrived in good time. Not in good enough time to get a good parking space but in good time to hurry up and wait around for the roll call (stand on your target and be checked off) and for 'Colors' (a cannon fires and they play the US national anthem - evidently a means of waking up the older shooters and clearing the geese from the range).
Here is a brief explanation of how shooting seems to work here. Each competition has 4 relays (details) and therefore 4 shooters per firing point for each match. Relays 1 and 2 shoot and register keep for each other's 30 minute unlimited-sighters-and-20 round shoot in turn, while relays 3 and 4 go to the pit (butts) to mark. The relays swap places after 2 shooters, courtesy of flat trailers towed, slowly, by tractors and the process starts again. The shooting itself is fast and brilliantly run, with armourers on hand roaming the firing point as well as 'team scope' guys on call to direct shooters who are not connecting with the paper. It has to be said, however, that there is a lot of time spent waiting for the next thing to happen before then rushing to do it! Gaps between shoots and for butt change-overs and shoot-off preparation are long but shooters' 'ready time' is brief.
Shooting seemed to go well for Team GB. Chris and DC had the top scores in their morning relays, as did Lucky in the afternoon. In an unfamiliar method of smoothing out any inter-relay differences, the top shot from each relay shoots off against those from the other relays at the end of the day in a straight 10 shot match. The team gathered behind these three relay leaders to see Chris win the morning's Band Of Brothers match in Palma rifle (our class) ahead of DC (who has been dubbed 'Irish James Bond'). DCL was next up for the afternoon's shoot but his 100.5 was just behind a lovely 100.7 from Norm ("Who?") Anderson.
The team then had a brief wait as we were leaderless with all of management yet to return from the pit. We wondered if it was a test to see if we'd behave in their absence, or simply wait for them before heading back to the accommodation. There was no mutiny but a lot of hungry shooters were keen to get back to the condos,with pizza and TV being the order of the day. We'd shot twice and been on the ranges for nearly 12 hours with no break for lunch. So early to bed methinks, before more individual shooting in the morning and and then in teams tomorrow afternoon all of it, just like today, at 1000 yards!
Quote of the day number 2, from the Adj: "Watashi no mokuhyo ni satsuei o teishi shite kudasai."
Quote of the day number 1 was when he said "I really need to learn the Japanese for 'please stop shooting at my target'!"
WHO AM I? 2. Which team member can lick his/her own elbow?
Yesterday's answer: Danny Coleman.
Another grey and drizzly start to the day, after a night loudly punctuated by a few very close lightning strikes (described by one who was up late watching the storm as beautiful; even romantic!) and the seemingly ever-present railroad hooters, as trains approached a nearby level crossing. The insistent blaring made it sound like a disaster was imminent... every hour, at 20 past the hour!
We are expected a bit more rain and stormy weather for our first foray onto Camp Perry and our one chance before the America Match to rehearse at 300 yards on Rodriguez Range. We had been warned to expect some disorganisation owing to management changes but, after some initial confusion, we all made it onto the range where the start was a little later than advertised. The Canadians, Australians and Japanese, along with some US fullbore/Palma shots also took the opportunity to do some zeroing and practice.
The butts at Camp Perry are called 'The Pits', not because of their condition (much better than we're used to) but presumably because there is no butt-stop (all shots fall into Lake Erie). Although the target frames are very close to each other (about a foot apart) they have great, well-balanced mechanisms. However, the targets themselves are mounted on rather flimsy cardboard, which is then tied with string to the frames. It’s quite interesting to shoot at a black aiming mark, on an off-white backing, which is then mounted on brown cardboard, and then presented against the changing colour of the sky…
Of more concern were the clear bullet exit holes in the steel at the top of the mantlet; “If the bullet doesn’t get you, the shrapnel will" said DC. As if to reinforce our concerns (already exacerbated by the presence in the pits of a medic and the butt officer's statement that there tended to be a couple of injuries per match), Matt Purdy received a nasty thump and cut on the forehead from a piece of fast moving plastic spotting disk, when it was shattered by a bullet two targets away. An Army medic was very quickly there from his station to assess the injury. A bit of antiseptic wipe and pressure, and manly Matt was quickly back marking his target, albeit with a spectacular bump, cut, and headache but with pride fully intact and, effectively, a gunshot wound that he'll always be able to tell girls about.
Team medic, Parag, immediately advised the team to wear eye protection (sunnies will do) and hats, as well as the obligatory ear defenders, whilst in the Pits, and not to look up at the target all the time – tricky when, with no sand, that is the only way to know that a shot has been fired on your target.
Health and safety was further challenged when the driver of the Pits Shuttle (a line of flat-bed trolleys, pulled by a tractor) bringing shooters back from their marking stint performed a U-turn at rather high speed. Newton’s Laws of Motion were clearly demonstrated, as shooters tried to conserve momentum against the friction of backside on flat surface… but even the US's top markswoman and recent Soldier-of-the-Year 2010, Sherri Gallagher, fresh from the Highpower competition (won by Cael Bernosky) couldn't hold on and slid unceremoniously off the trailer…
“So what about the shooting?”, you cry. It can only be said that JJ's ammo is superb. The first two half hour sessions (not two hours as we had thought) was for individual zeroing and practice, and for us to get our first try with JJ’s magic bullets. Ever the caring and concerned professional, JJ was there to ask each and every shooter, on leaving the point, whether there had been any oddities, difficulties or concerns. To a man (and woman) the answer was “Nope! It’s perfect!”.
In the second session, a coached team practice shoot at 300x, Team GB gained confidence with an impressive 1600.106 ex 1600.160, with initially just one unconverted sighter. However, Parag, having got up from his shoot was disgusted to see from his plot diagram that his 10/X sighters had both been converted, so he promptly got back down and slapped in another X for a 100.10.
Buoyed by this performance, the sun reappeared to welcome the team back to the condos, to relax, reflect and replenish. Dinner tonight? Fish and chips, of course – Chilli Perch, Soy and Ginger Perch, and Lemon Perch; and a bass that had snuck into yesterday's catch. We did have a rather substantial fishy haul to get through!
Quote of the day. Female team member on the range, having been asked a question: “Eh? Speak up - I'm double plugged.” Love to tour!
WHO AM I?
Now that we are on the range, its quiz time. Each day we'll mention something you may not know about one of the team members, with the answer published the next day. See if you can work it out!
1. Which team member has caught a baby crocodile on rod and line?
Apologies for the lack of photos.... technical glitch but definitely coming soon!
There hadn't been many hours between getting to bed and getting up again and the grey skies and soft drizzle didn't stir the greatest enthusiasm for going outside. But 12 brave souls of the team did make it out by 7:30am for a fishing charter on Lake Erie. Britannia enjoys a strong maritime heritage so it was with confident pride that team GB stepped clumsily aboard with our coolers full of beers and snacks. "England expects that every man will do his duty" - If Chris's duty (to Wales?) was to drink several beers before 9am and Andy's duty was to lose his sunglasses overboard then we did Nelson proud. And we felt right at home; or rather "we still feel quite at home here" as Matt put it when asked what it was like to be in one of the colonies by skipper Chris Clements.
We were split across two boats with Captains Darrell and Chris taking great care of us. This split was of course a great excuse for an inter-boat competition but the fishing was slow for the first hour, with Ed's excitement in getting the first bite on his boat being short lived when the fish was deemed too small and the wrong type of fish. We were after yellow perch but it tooka while for Danny to catch anything except a tasteless fish that he described as "only eaten by the Chinese" on account of their more omnivorous appetite than our western pallets. It was like fishing with Prince Phillip. After a bit of hunting about, both boats found themselves above a hungry 'school' of fish (though Danny, a keen ichthyologist, was fast to correct captain Darrell's terminology throughout the trip, this time with 'shoal') and we were pulling fish out almost as fast as we could re-bait the lines. We also ran out of beer half way through and respectfully requested replenishment from the other boat. As we started to head back to dry land, they obliged, but with two bottles of beer that were suspiciously warm. They turned out to have been refilled with Lake Erie's finest water. We were confident, with nearly 90 perch, that we were winners of the fish-off, but the other boat had well over 100. The final tally was over 200 yellow perch between the boats, a healthy 43lbs of fish which took the Port Clinton Fishery (who cleaned them for us) aback as by far the biggest haul of the day.
While we waited for the fish prep, some of us found Port Clinton's very own Underwood's Grill, who were great hosts and even gave a discount for us being shooters (as opposed to just friends of Jon Underwood). The rest of the day was free for naps, prepping shooting kit or running errands (and stop signs in Parag's case). Ross finally completed his range based tasks and at 5pm we had a team meeting along with special guest and legendary ammo maker JJ Jackson. Ross ran us through the next day and his various notes on the range (including important advice on observing stop signs) before DC briefed us on some key rule differences. A double checking of chamber lengths followed courtesy of Jon and John, while chefs Jacqui and Holly prepared the fish (with three different marinades) to be cooked by manly creators of fire Danny and Jumbo. Except Danny fell asleep, so James stood in - one of two James Watsons to dine with us that evening.
Team dinner in the garden was followed by team lounging by the lake watching the big thunderstorm, counting seconds to check the lightning wasn't getting closer, and eventually noticing that all the water 30 yards away had gone white... and the white was getting closer fast... and as everyone fled towards their rooms, the heavens opened. 11am start tomorrow as we all head to the range for the first time - love to tour
Wednesday afforded us the opportunity to relax. Most did some shopping, Wal-Mart style (did you know you could buy electronic ear defenders for $9, or that you could pick up live ammo and drop it into youor shopping trolley?), then chilled out by the pool and beach or played water 'volleyball'. The lake water was impressively warm. The Captain and Adj went to suss out Camp Perry and try to clear some admin, ready for us to start shooting on Friday. However, before we're even going to be allowed to shoot, we all have to sign declarations that we aren’t intending to try to violently overthrow the US government (or indeed to violently split infinitives)... Not something we'd thought of so far!
The youngest member of our team, Matt Purdy, turns '21' today, so he is now 'legally' entitled to drink alcohol in the USA... Congratulations Matt! The team celebrated the occasion with bubbly & cake at the poolside, before a night out at the infamous Put-In-Bay on Middles Bass Island in Lake Erie. The Vice's booking call to Linda'sDependable Taxis was a masterclass in Anglo-American relations: "I'd like some cabs, for 19 people, for the ferry to the Island of Debauchery please."
Reminiscent of Fantasy Island (or indeed Bisley), the island appeared populated by golf buggies of all shapes and sizes, including some strech limo buggies that would put the Bisley offerings - even Roycie - to shame. On the way the birthday boy was introduced to the dice shot-glass, which he eventually survived. He (and we) didn't, however, get into the Beer Barrel (home of the world's longest bar - later inspection found over 100 stools at the same stretch of bar and space for at least 150) because the (c. 14 year old) bouncer wouldn't accept non-US driving licences as ID. "But look at me - I'm 41!"
We did, however, get into Rita's, and the Boardwalk, and Mojito Bay, and the Roundhouse, and managed international game of Jenga and Buckeye Bean-Bags before returning on the 11pm ferry, which we tried to to convert into a mini-Dewdrop singsong.
Quote of the day:
Team member to three young girls... “What's your name?” “I’m Ali.” “That's a boy’s name. What’s yours?” “Kay.” “That's a boy’s name. You?” “Jill.” “That's a female ferret...”
I (different writer) wonder if it was the same team member who said to one of our own women later that evening, "I don't think you're fat - you're burly!"
The team gathered at 8am for a light breakfast. We all seemed remarkably perky but then again it was lunchtime in the UK. It transpired that Chris had bought his roommate Stu a nightcap of Amarula (clearly what Surrey barmen have instead of cocoa) but Stu was tired from his travels and had fallen asleep on his bed, glass in hand. How sweet he must have looked until he awoke with a start, flinging his beverage all over himself! Still, not as bad as poor Andy who was defecated on by a goose...
The Adjutant's team brief was short and to the point - this seemed to be less about the simplicity of the day's instructions and more about his and others' eagerness to catch the end of the men's Olympic triathlon (well done GB's Brownlees!). The buses were soon packed and DC configured the attack vectors into his on-board sat nav. At 9am (bang on time) it was chocks away and GBRT were heading to the border in glorious sunshine. The different sat navs took four vans in one direction and one in another but they all found each other again on the motorway. Sadly all of the sat navs took us to Niagara rather than a nearby bridge that had barely any immigration queue (indeed some border police officer were summoned from there to Niagara to help deal with the throng of which we were part. Immigration into the USA was soul destroying. The small, cramped waiting room resembled Friday night in A&E, only without the injured or the drunks, and the worst moment of the tour so far is, unanimously, the moment each person stepped out of the lift and saw the waiting room. It took all our strength to resist making inappropriate jokes within earshot of the officers. When told that we would be having our picture taken, we did wonder if we'd be stripped down and posed 'Guantanamo-style'. Assume stress positions please,there may be a short delay. The time was passed with sighs, watch checking and a game using a Jaegermeister lanyard and Stu's pecs (beats me!) but eventually we escaped the glacially paced bureaucracy and hit the road. Not before Stu Young photo-bombed Lucky's photo though, resulting in the customs officer requesting a retake and her laughing at his terrible facial expression.
Several vans passed on the option for a long stop at the falls, partly because they had seen it nicely, albeit briefly, from the road bridge and partly because all were hungry and had received Ross's scathing report of the options at the 'International Food Court'. The last 4 hours of driving to Port Clinton were passed by eating lunch, playing eye-spy and, stuck in a traffic jam around Cleveland and, close to arrival, noting how many signs in Port Clinton said "welcome shooters". Paradise! The accommodation at Port Clinton was a set of lake- (and beach-) side apartments and, after a bit of fiddling about, we were all settled around the pool to soak up some end of day rays and watch a charming setting sun. For dinner, the whole team crossed the road to the local Thai, which was surprisingly superb and with huge portions. Love to Tour!
The tour started, as is traditional, with the team arriving in dribs and drabs at the Surrey RA for weighing and checking of baggage. As ever, there were many bags overweight and everyone (with the exception of the baggage 'legends') decided to arrive toward the end of the time requested time window. Never mind; by bed time there was a satisfactory pile of weighed and checked rifles and bags as well as a stack of empty pizza boxes, courtesy of Emma Cannings. Everyone did their best to get a good night's sleep before the early departure, although Jacqui had a harder job of it when she found a dead mouse in the 'Manor'.
The morning proceeded entirely to plan, with Matt Ensor (baggage legend) taking full control of the 40-odd items of luggage. The only cause for concern was possibly when the coach driver was heard to say "I've never done this before" - we hoped he meant specifically carrying a shooting team, not driving a bus. The concern was unnecessary as we got to Terminal 3 in good time and the touring machine rolled on to get us checked in and on the flight without any diary-worthy worries other than higher than expected firearm transport costs. Amazingly, Danny arrived early(!) at Terminal 3 and Matt C turned up with a GB flag and red, white and blue stripes painted on his cheeks, "fresh" from his Olympic attendance the day before.
One event of note was that, given we were 'Team GB' travelling during the Olympics, we were asked to give more than a few autographs - of course we obliged, none of us daring to admit we aren't actual Olympians! Good for the ego, and bizarrely nobody from the 140-person choir in the check-in queue seemed to think it odd that a Team GB would leave GB AFTER competing.
Taking a flight on any tour involves a variety of emotions - you get on the plane and are very excited about getting there, but the excitement dwindles as you lose your battle with fatigue and realise that you are still on the ground, queuing to take off. Well our flight was much like that, but after a few more autographs and several in-flight movies, we arrived. Day 1 accommodation was in an airport hotel so a short drive in our luxurious vans (not all were de luxe models though - Kelvin was peeved to be shown that he had picked up a less well specced out van from the group) and then a quick team meeting saw us soon heading out for dinner. Some stayed around the hotel, some went further (into Toronto for some nice food and a wander round the town) and some went for luxury (Barberian's Steak House in Toronto, where there were a number of choice quotes from Jacqui "52 states" Rankin). The team were largely in a slightly jetlagged haze while taking in the sights of Toronto, but Matt Purdy had his wits sufficiently about him to hook up with a very nice looking Canadian girl... or rather to remake acquaintance with a member of the Canadian NRT from his Athelings year. This liaison earned him huge kudos with the team and was deemed to be good work for a new cap on day 1, despite protestations of being just good friends. Off to bed now, we rise early for a long day of driving. Olympic Update 1 - Canadian broadcasters are only dimly aware of the existance of other nations in the Olympics. Tomorrow we find out if the American ones have a similar attitude.