GBRT : West Indies 2013

What an interesting Meet and Greet! Held, after the Governor General had come to our hotel (where we were all waiting in team shirts and a variety of colourful trousers), at the JRA's smallbore range, the reception featured characters ranging from a coastguard who had been involved in Operation Trident to a Jamaican beach netball team manager. It also involved a birthday cake for Ian Shaw and copious quantities of Appleton V/X rum.

Friday dawned and, after arrival at the range, team members were introduced to Colonel Edwards who was opening the matches on behalf of the Chief of Defence Staff. Shooting started with a very hot, sweaty, pulse-ridden 2ss+7 at 300, followed by 10 shots at 500 before a delicious lunch on the range. Partly because of the heat, everything was done slooooowly. After lunch were 7 shots at 600 and 10 at 900, which was quite tricky as the wind was very fickle and the flags were not nearly as usable as the Twickenham Park mirage when the latter disappeared for a while early on. We were learning the range though...

We also learned, courtesy of the Jonathans and their cross-shooting partners, that the "B" sign above targets 6 and 7 on range B could easily be mistaken for the target number 8. And David Crispin learned that, if you get up after 7 shots and nobody else has finished by the time you've packed all your kit into the bus, it may be worth checking to see if it's actually a ten shot shoot.

Top scorer for the day was Jon Underwood on 168.13 out of 170, followed by Messrs Calvert and Crispin on 166.14 and 166.12. Good deeds of the day were by Tom Rylands, who cheerfully fixed a couple of local rifles.

Tomorrow's shooting will be at the same ranges, followed by a team shoot for teams of eight on Sunday over a Queen's II course of fire, with reserves firing at the end. But first, a trip to shooter Basilio's Lebanese restaurant tonight and perhaps a quick dip in the pool, although we suspect the sun (and with it the BA cabin crew) may have left the pool area by the time we get back from the range.