Shoot reports written by Judith Cuttler, committee member of Hamilton Clay Target Club Inc.
The reports here also appear in the Hamilton Spectator shortly after each competition day at the club.
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50 years of Winchester Team Shoot.
Last Saturday (19th April) was the exact date that the first Winchester Team Shoot Competition was held in Horsham between Western District, Wimmera and the Mallee. This was introduced to give shooters the opportunity to compete against clubs further afield than the 14 clubs within close proximity to Hamilton and each other and to test their ability against other shooters. The Mallee were unable to field a team and so the South East of Sth Aust were invited to join. The first shield was donated by I.C.I. and later Winchester donated the present shield.
In the first event in 1958 a young Harry Vaughan was an emergency and on Saturday was again competing for the Western District. Also in the team were 3rd generation shooters in Brian Cleggett, Sam Rundell and Sam Millard all of whose grandfathers and fathers have all represented the Western District in the competition and both Peter Cleggett and Ron Millard competed in today’s team with their sons and Roger Duthie and daughter Lauren were also part of the team.
This year saw an introduction of a junior competition between the three districts. The Western District team of Steven Linke, Jarrod Pye, Gary Wythe, Sam Millard and Ben Wines were the inaugural winners of the shield with a score of 127/150 and they hope to be successful again when they meet in October at Mount Gambier.
The team of Roger Duthie, Lauren Duthie, Sam Rundell, Murray Gruar, Wal Wombwell, Bill Crawford, Phil Vaughan, Malcolm Dyson, Harry Vaughan, Peter Cleggett, Steve Collins, Sam Cuttler, Allan Pollock, Ron Millard and Brian Cleggett comprised the Western District Team and were successful in retaining the shield for another 6 months. Western District scored 294/300 to defeat South East of Sth Aust on 291/300 from the Wimmera on 283/300 To round out the Winchester Competition the overall High Gun was contested between shooters who had shot a perfect 30/30. From Western Districts shooters were Roger Duthie, Wal Wombwell, Mal Dyson, Ron Millard and from Sth East were Dougal Simson, J Hawker, W Lindner and Max Medhurst. After some very fine shooting by all nine, Roger Duthie of Hamilton was the Winchester High Gun for the day.
Many of the shooters from the early days came to be present at the day’s competition with a luncheon held after the shoot for reminiscing and story-telling of earlier shoots.
In the afternoon the Hamilton Club conducted a further two events to contest the Sierra Park Championships. The first event was a 25 target pointscore event with a 75/75 being the best score. This was obtained by Sam Rundell of Myamyn, Roger Duthie and Steve Collins of Hamilton, Jack Matthey of Sebastpol and Greg James of Callawadda/Stawell. After a shoot-off Sam Rundell outlasted Jack Matthey to take the title. Winners were;- AA grade Sam Rundell 81/81 of Myamyn from Roger Duthie 79/81 of Hamilton. A grade saw Steve Collins 78/81 win from Chris Jorgenson of Callawadda/Stawell while B grade was won by Jack Matthey 80/81 of Sebastapol from Greg James 79/81 of Callawadda/Stawell, C grade saw the veteran Merv Holloway 74/75 of Warrnambool take the title from junior Gary Wythe of Macarthur.
The second event in the Sierra Park Championships was a straight 25 target double barrell comp. Successful in obtaining 25/25 were Roger Duthie, Peter Cleggett, Steve Collins Steven Linke all of Hamilton Club, Wal Wombwell Myamyn, Jarrod Pye of Macarthur, Dougal Simson, A Hoare, Peter Winser, Malcolm Whitehead from the South East and Greg James from Callawadda/Stawell. A further 25 targets were shot from the universal mark and then those left were handicapped a further metre every 10 shots. This finished with Dougal Simson and Jarrod Pye on the 22 metre mark to fight out for the winner’s sash. Young Jarrod Pye a 16year old B grader from Macarthur kept his head and was able to outlast the very experienced AA shooter to take his very first overall sash and the winners trophy. This was an outstanding effort from Jarrod as along the way he knocked out some very experienced shooters who have represented Australia and their states in competitions.
Winners were;- AA grade Dougal Simson 65/66 from Malcolm Whitehead 59/60. A grade saw Steve Collins 57/58 coplete the double for the grade from Peter Winser 42/43. B Grade was the overall winner, young Pye with a magnificent score of 66/66 from Greg James of Callawadda/Stawell. C grade saw Cydoni Younie of Hamilton on 29/32 take the grade from Ben Wines of Warrnambool on 28/32.
