SCOTTISH MATCH RIFLE TEAM TO TASMANIA <strong>2003</strong>by Colin HayesThe story of this tour begins at Blair Atholl in July 2001where the Scots and the Australians held an epic matchand many friendships were forged. Personal invitationsto visit Australia were made, and in January 2002 a smallAnglo-Scottish touring party with Colin McEachran andAllan Campbell-Smith to the fore visited the Antipodes.Colin came back in the spring with the message that ourAustralian friends were very keen to see a Scottish teamat the Australian MR championships in Tasmania inJanuary/February <strong>2003</strong>, and he himself would providea trophy for competition between Scotland and theAustralian States. There was not a lot of time to getmobilised and at first it seemed we were unlikely to raisethe numbers. But the lure of the Australian summer atthe beautiful Campbell Town range proved irresistible,and we soon had a touring party of eight consisting ofJim Bell, Martin Brown, Joanna Campbell-Smith, ColinHayes (Captain), Hamish Hunter, Bruce Mackie, JimMcAllister, and Colin McEachran.Remarkably, all eight arrived at our hostelry at CampbellTown on 27 January within an hour of each other, bydiverse routes and after various alarms over permits andammunition with Customs at Melbourne and Sydney.Even after months of meticulous preparation it was aclose call for some of us. Hunter, Mackie and McAllisterhad all been to Pontville first to shoot F Class at the TRMeeting, accompanied by Martin Brown who spent aweek in searing temperatures making MR ammunitionfor the team, courtesy of materials and equipmentprovided by our loyal friend Gil Walker. The FoxhuntersReturn is a wonderful hotel, a Georgian building datingfrom 1830 and one of the oldest coaching inns inAustralia. Together with Adrian Abbott we occupied itentirely, made hugely welcome by Roseann themanageress (who had come originally from Scotland)and her daughter Rebekah. Enormous breakfasts wereserved a la carte in a fine colonial dining room,surrounded by pictures that defied all politicalcorrectness.Campbell Town lies in a fertile valley, broad andbeautiful, in prime grazing country with distant bluemountains to left and right. With Ross along the mainhighway in one direction and Perth the other, we Scotsfelt well at home. The range itself is over a hundredyears old, the long-range firing points climbing a slightslope and the butts set against a hillside lightly woodedwith gums, with pasture and marsh in the dead groundbetween. There is zero pollution between Tasmania andAntarctica so the air is gorgeously clear; a thousandyards doesn’t look the distance, but it certainly is, andthe breezes that wrap around the hillside from bothdirections soon have one putting on lots of minutes.Our rifles had gone in advance and had been collectedby Graeme McGee. All went well on our practice daywith not a technical hitch, the sun blazed from an azuresky, temperatures perfect in the high twenties. Fromthe UK we heard satisfying stories of appalling weather.24Wednesday 29 January saw the beginning of theindividual competitions in the Championships. TheAustralian turnout was smaller than expected, onlyabout forty shooters. A number from the mainland (orthe North Island as Tasmanians call it) had stayed awaybecause of the situation with the terrible bushfires,notably our friend Bill MacFarlane whose family wereat one time seriously threatened. Fires were burning inTasmania too, but not so severely. The Scots howeverdid not acquit themselves well on day one. The windwas unreadable to us; an eight or nine minute bracketwas normal at each of the three ranges, with five minutechanges coming through faster than one could see themfrom each and every direction. Greg Warrian of WAled the day with a great 210 but only three shooters broke200. Hamish Hunter was our best with a mere 188, withJim McAllister on 186 and the rest of us nowhere. In theGrand Aggregate we never recovered from this poorstart.A cool change came through overnight. It rained heavilyfor the morning and the day was declared a washout.Disappointing, but a blessed relief for the island as itput out the bushfires at a stroke. Several Scots, inspiredby an unusually good local unoaked Chardonnay thenight before, set off to do some serious research intowineries up the Tamar Valley. This proved moresuccessful than our shooting. In Tasmania’s temperateclimate some of the whites are first-class, and the PinotNoir can be excellent too. Look out for any bottles fromthe splendid Tamar Ridge winery.Day three dawned fine and bright with a cool westerlywind that hustled all day. James Freebairn juggled theprogramme ingeniously to make up lost ground and webegan with two consecutive competitions at 1,200 yards.The wind bracket and changes were as monstrous asbefore, Colin Hayes finishing the first range with a bullon one right and beginning the next with a bull onfourteen. The bulls were rare events. He then had eightperfectly square magpies in one fifteen shot shoot andgot up announcing “I resign”, an achievement that laterearned a consolation medal from James Freebairn. Thesewere no conditions for back-gunners and Jo fared nobetter. But others seemed to be getting the measure ofCampbell Town. Star of the day was Bruce Mackiewhose 72.6 at 1,000 yards won the range, while JimMcAllister and Colin McEachran shot solidlythroughout, though the rest of us, whilst shooting fineelevations, had flocks of crows.That night we hosted a Burns Supper for the entiremeeting, including spouses, partners, and the excellentmarkers. Bruce had been the prime mover of this,locating haggis and neeps in Tasmania ahead of ourarrival, though tragically his side of smoked salmon wasimpounded by Customs. We all brought highland dressand whisky. Our Australian friends rose to the spirit ofthe occasion, many of them sporting varieties of Scottishattire (Tom Lowndes magnificent in Tam O’Shanter and
The team at the Foxhunters Return.ScoresThe McEachran TrophyTasmania 809.57Scotland Blue 808.36South Australia 799.44NSW 794.46Queensland 791.47WA/NT 788.34Scotland White 785.39Victoria 785.36Tom Lowndes bids for Scotscitizenship.The team host the Burns Supper.Scotland BlueHayes 202.03Hunter 193.09McAllister 211.14McEachran 202.10Scotland v AustraliaAustralia 1406.69(Walker 241, Abbott 241, Bain 235)Scotland 1373.76(McAllister 234, McEachran 232, Brown 229)(All photos: Colin Hayes and Jim McAllister)Colin coaches Colin at 1200yards.Jim coaches Jo at 1,100 yards.Scotland v Australia: the combined teams.Scotland Blue: we nearly won!Scotland v Australia: we pushed them all the way.25
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