NRA Journal - Summer 2003 - National Rifle Association

sporran) and made short work of our whisky. Wepresented Gil Walker with honorary life membership ofthe National Rifle Club of Scotland; he had gone toexceptional lengths to make our tour possible. Bruceaddressed the haggis in blood-curdling style; and theevening concluded in the traditional manner withrecitations from Robbie Burns and Australia’s poet AB“Banjo” Paterson.The final day of the competitions was shot once more inperfect weather, and in a wind that was almost readable.Greg Warrian maintained his fine form to carry off theGrand Aggregate just ahead of Gil Walker and AdrianAbbott, but Colin McEachran’s 96.7 at 1,100 yards wonthat range and helped him to second place in the dailyaggregate, whilst Colin Hayes’s 91.5 at 1,200 yards wasonly just off the pace. Jim McAllister’s consistentshooting put him eighth overall, losing no furtherground since the first day; he was top Scot by somedistance. Jim Bell won the Chicken Trophy for the mostmagpies, out-scattering his Captain on the final day. TheFreebairn Trophy for teams of four picked randomly wasshot in the afternoon. No visitor in the winning teamthis time, but Colin McEachran was in the team that camea close second.That evening we were the guests of Dawn and Gil Walkerand their family, together with several of the Aussieteam, at their beautiful property about thirty miles away.Gil is a wool-producer of some note. We sat outside,sheep grazing in the evening sun, magpies warbling inthe gums, kangaroo sausages and wallaby steaks sizzlingand the beer flowing. The hospitality was wonderful.This was the life!Sunday 2 February saw the match for which we hadreally come. The Australian States compete for theRowlands Trophy over three ranges with teams of four,a needle match for them. Colin McEachran had broughta silver quaich to be contested alongside betweenScotland and the Australian States, and the Australiansmeantime had established yet another prize, the PhilCole Trophy, to be contested between the AustralianStates and any overseas regional team. English, Irish,Welsh, Normans, and all other MR shooters please takenote; this new trophy is now available for competitionevery year. We entered two Scottish teams: ScotlandBlue consisting of Hayes, Hunter, McAllister andMcEachran, and Scotland White with Bell, Brown,Campbell-Smith and Mackie. Each team had of courseto coach itself. New South Wales and South Australiawere strongly fancied, but Tasmania soon showed thatthey were the ones to beat. Our Blue team had a modeststart leaving us eight points adrift, but then shot a blinderat 1,100 yards, ten points better than the rest, to leadTasmania by two points at lunch with the rest of thefield trailing. At 1,200 yards we were holding our ownand McAllister’s 211 was a fine score on the day. But,sadly, McEachran was signalled an unlikely missbetween two bulls, when for once the wind was doingnothing, and Tasmania got home to win by a single pointand, it must be said, with a lot more V bulls. The Whiteteam meanwhile found their form and topped the rangeat 1,200 yards by seven points, Brown leading them witha fine 68, but it was too late to bring them into thereckoning. Thus the local team carried off all threetrophies, and popular winners they were.On 3 February, by agreement with James Freebairn, weshot an unofficial match between Scotland and Australia:teams of eight over three ranges, two targets, 20 shots at1,200 yards, and the best three scores on each target ateach range to count. Here we were at a disadvantage aswe had to coach ourselves whilst Australia had eightshooters plus their complete coaching set-up on the firingpoint, and their eight were very nearly their fullinternational team. It was yet another glorious day with,for once, an almost windless start. McEachran led offwith a splendid possible whilst Mackie, McAllister,Campbell-Smith and Hunter all had 74s. We were justtwo points adrift after 1,000 yards. Then the rangereverted to type, huge changes once again, and at 1100yards anything over 70 was good. Campbell-Smith wentback with a fighting 146, as did McAllister andMcEachran, but by lunch we trailed by nine. We thoughtwe could catch Australia at 1,200 yards as we had doneat Blair, but this time they turned the tables, coachingsuperbly and shooting fast in a devilish wind. GilWalker’s 94 and Adrian Abbott’s 93 showed the way.McAllister’s 88 was the best we could do until the veryend, when Brown shot an excellent 90. But by then theAussies had pulled away to win by a well deserved 33points. We had more Vs . . . but we had more outerstoo!Thus ended an intensely enjoyable and happy tour. Theweather was glorious, the scenery spectacular, thecompetition spirited and sporting, the friendshippalpable. We had no personal problems or technicaltroubles, and everyone agreed that Martin Brown’sammunition was superb, our elevations earning theAussies’ admiration. Match Rifle shooters should knowthat there are now MR meetings at different times ofyear in most of the Australian States, and long-rangetargets crop up all over the continent, at far morelocations than in the UK. There’s great competition tobe had, tremendous fun, and our Australian friends willgive a very warm welcome to all comers.The Scottish Match Rifle Team Tasmania 2003 wouldlike to thank the following for their generous support:Robert Wiseman DairiesHarbroCSCJohnston CarmichaelGrampian Country Food GroupDeans of HuntlyMarine HarvestThistle ConfectioneryDiageoScotland the BrandAberdeenshire Sports CouncilAberdeenshire Councilsponsors of Scottish food for the Burns Supper26