GBRT : West Indies 2013

Last night's barbecue at Wayne McNair's was superb. Pork chops and chicken with a sweet rub and jerk sausage were the main offerings in theory; in practice it was an opportunity for our hosts to ply us with rum before their match against us the next morning. They certainly managed to tempt us - the Appleton Reserve was excellent,  as was the company of the Jamaican shooters and their families. It was hard to get everyone to leave - especially Ian!

A brief refreshment at the hotel followed before bed. At the pool bar a few of the team made the acquaintance of some of the BA crew. Brits on tour... they'll have found us very dull, going to bed before midnight.

The plan in the morning was to start at 09:30 and complete the match (Queen's II for teams of eight plus reserves) before lunching. But we ended up kicking off at 10:15 snd stopping at 1pm before shooting 600 yards after lunch.

It was another hot day - though John Nelson once again expressed a wish that it be hotter for us - and 300 yards was,  for some,  a nervous affair. Others coped well, not least the reserves,  who scored 99 between them while the team scored 383. We didn't know at the time that that was 26 points better than Jamaica.

At 500 the wind was harder but the shooting was better. GB scored 381 against Jamaica's much improved 372, with David Calvert the only firer clean after two ranges. And at 600 the wind was trickier still. It ranged between 1 left and 3 right, moving between those values with gay abandon, I mentioned and, because it was coming from behind us, changes would often happen before we could see them in front of us. We did station someone to look at the wind behind us but, with only one flag at 900 yards for him to try and factor in, the tactic wasn't as useful as we'd hoped. Scores varied and we ended up with 374.19 to Jamaica's 367.21.

The final result: GB 1138.78, Jamaica 1096.59. Messrs Calvert, Crispin and Tapster (reserve) were the highest scorers on 146, while Jamaica's highest scorer was Jose Nunez on 140.

Range by range:

Prize giving at the JRA tonight, where we should find out where we placed in the Grand. We look forward to seeing our marvellous hosts again.