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SPOETING.
RIFLE SHOOTING.
The morning of the 24th witnessed the
first shoot of the " Hamersley" contest,
under'almost impossible conditions. The
heavy clouds moving rapidly across the
range betokened foul weather, but the
most pessimistic hardly expected that the
day would prove undoubtedly the worst
experienced this year. Throughout, the
wind blew a perfect hurricane. At the
first and the earlier portion of the second
range, the wind, though very uneven,
kept fairly well from the one direction—
right across the range—hut towards the
finish, at the latter range, and through
out the firing at the 700 yards, it seemed
to blow from almost all points of the
compass, hurtling with it and into the
very faces of the men pn the mound, the
long threatened and recurring showers.
Under such circumstances, and tied down
by the conditions of the match to 40
seconds per shot, good scores were out of
thejqnestion. ,Glancing over the scores
recorded and noticing misses to such
6hots as Edwards, Flynn, Stewart, Haines
and Jager, the wonder is not that they
were made, but that they were not more
frequent. In the absence of Nottle, who
was unfortunately ill, Flynn, as first
emergency, fired in his stead. Stewart
and Jager headed the score at the first
range with 29 each, closely pressed by
Raebel, Edwards, Scadding, and Haines
(281, with Flynn and Fraser, 24 each.
Stewart, with a good shot, finishing with
three bnlls, reached 32 at 600, and Raebel,
commencing with four bulls, reached 30,
the next in their order being Scadding
and Haines (26), Fraser (25 •, Edwards
and Jager (23 \ and Flynn (19). Under
the increased difficulties at the last range,
the team, almost went to pieces, Raebel
(28) being the only one to approach the
average shoot, with the captain five and
Scad ding six behind. Stewart, whose
long experience of the York range had so
far stood him in good stead of practice,
and enabled him to total 61, failed to get
on to the bull until the last shot, and only
reached 18. The others finished; Haines,
17; Fraser, 16; Edwards, 14 ; and Flynn,
12. Raebel, ^ifh a very consistent shoot
for 86 pat up the best total of the day,
and he deserves to be congratulated on
his fine performance under such adverse
circumBtances.
The Scores, m
300
600
700
Total
Raebel, F.
28
30
28
86
Stewart, A- J. —
29
32
18
79
Scadding, R. ...
28
26
22
76
Jager, W.
29
23
23
75
Haines, A-V. —
28
26
17
71
Edwards, H. M.
28
23
14
65
Fraser
24
25
16
65
Flynn, W. J. ...
24
19
12
55
Grand total
572
Average, 7L5.
The official scores
the
other
clubs
have not yet been revived To-morrow
the range will be open for practice over
the 200,300, and 400 yards, as a relaxation
; after the recent difficult ranges, and it is
' hoped 3hs younger members will avail
of (ha eafclerhnndiliOOB,
$