Bright, sunny and hot conditions attracted 30 competitors for this year’s Cobar Clay Target Club Christmas Novelty shoot to the club on Sunday.
Competitors travelled from Bourke, Hermidale, Warren and Tamworth to join local shooters to vie for the renowned excellent trophies of meat trays, the challenge of unusual events, and to experience the club’s renowned hospitality.
The club also welcomed a number of novice shooters on the day who displayed great skill on the tricky targets thrown.
The Overall Highgun winner of the day was Garry Jones with a score of 111/145.
The other Highgun winners were: AA Grade—Rob Thompson 110/145; A Grade, Mal Stephens 110/145; B Grade, John Taylor 96/145; C Grade, Jason Mitchell 102/145; Ladies Tracey Boon 100/145; Veterans Ross Morriss 111/145; and Juniors Todd Polack 81/145.
In the first event, a 10 target Eye Opener, 10 competitors, ranging from C Grade to AA Grade, shot a possible score of 10/10.
That was however the last of easy targets for the day with the remainder of the program a challenge for both experienced and novice shooters alike.
The second event was 15 Mixed Targets (five were shot Single Barrel off 11metres; five Point Score off 15m; and five Double Barrel off 20m).
In the 15 Mixed Targets, the winners were: AA Grade—Ross Morriss won with 25/25 with Button Powell second with 24/25; A Grade—Mal Stephens 28/31, second Garry Jones 27/31; B Grade—Jarrod Barraclough 29/31, second Tracey Boon 28/31; C Grade—Jason Mitchell 20/25 and second Matt Harland 25/31.
The encouragement award went to Molly Barraclough and novice prize was won by John Gray.
In the 15 Target Graded Handicap, Robert Thompson was the AA Grade winner with 14/15 and Bryan Manns was the runner-up, also with a score of 14/15; A Grade—Cliff Overton 14/15, second Blake Dunne 21/23; B Grade—Tracey Boon 27/29, second Jarrod Barraclough 26/29; C Grade—Jake Harbison 17/17, second Jason Mitchell 16/17.
The Novice award was again won by John Gray and encouragement award went to Todd Polack.
Ross Morriss, with a score of 52/75, was the winner in AA Grade of the 15 Target Crazy Points event.
Bryan Manns was second with 68/100; A Grade—Garry Jones 55/75 and second Blake Dunne 51/75; B Grade—John Taylor 50/75 and second Tracey Boon 66/100; C Grade—Jake Harbison 60/100 and second Matt Harland 57/400.
John Gray picked up the Novice award
Luke Scales received the encouragement award.
There were some good scores for the 10 Pair Continental event which involved targets flying out two at a time at varied heights and angles.
The winners were: AA Grade—Robert Thompson 18/20, second Aaron Marsh 14/20; A Grade—Cliff Overton 17/20, second Mal Stephens 15/20; B Grade—Ben Tranter 14/20, second Tony Holzigal 12/20; C Grade—
Jason Mitchell 16/20, second Jake Harbison 15/20.
The Novice winner was John Gray and the encouragement award went to John Gale (who lucked some very low flying targets).
In the final event, the 10 Pair Deauville Doubles (which were drawn out of hat), three pairs of shooters shot a possible score, which was an excellent effort.
After a shoot-off Aaron Marsh and Jake Harbison finished first with 12/12; Roland Gale and Tony Holzigal 12/13, and Graham Harbison and Button Powell 11/13 also recorded good scores.
Santa made an appearance at the event and kept the children entertained and very happy for the rest of the afternoon. It was overheard among the crowd “it was the best Christmas Shoot they had been to so far”.—contributed
