ISSF North Island South Zone Trap and Skeet weekend at Hutt Valley
It must be spring! It was sunny, it was cloudy, there wasn’t a breath of wind, there was a little too much wind! But we didn’t get the forecast rain so there’s a bonus for you.
Hopefully the wind didn’t cause too many delays for our visitors flying out Sunday afternoon.
With no skeet shooters last year it was nice to see two local shooters enter this year. Ben Jolly is a young shooter at ours who has taken the time to learn how to set the field up and practice, inviting advice from Eddie and Zane when he has been about. And new to the club, from Australia, is Mathew Maloney. Although he hasn’t shot for a few years, he shooting in Australia was ISSF skeet so he was pleased to find a local club that was able to accommodate this and had someone else keen to shoot. Hopefully next time, others from across the country that normally visit for this event will be back and the two locals can enjoy more competition. At the end of qualifying, Mathew was ahead but the Wellington wind [note it was country wide on this weekend] determined that Ben was the victor from the final.
The numbers of trap shooters was down considerably this year. Several who were planning to attend ‘called in sick’ with a lurg on the rounds. The Schools Nationals was also on the same weekend so that took a few away, notably Daniel Niblett who left dad Jeff at home with nothing better to do than travel to the Hutt for some trench. And while some Aucklanders’ ventured south, a number stayed there to shoot an event at Waitemata.
The weather on Saturday started with a light frost followed by sunny but the light breeze was a little chilly, clearly coming across some white stuff before getting to us. Sunday was overcast and there was a bit of very light drizzle around the valley that didn’t come to anything, and a little wind. Made the targets interesting, she said through gritted teeth.
The order going into the final started with Nick Wiseman (114), right behind him was Bill Luxton (113). Bib 3 went to Tim Fuller (97), next was Jeff Niblett (94), then Jamie Cane (93), and bib 6 went to Phil Morrison (90). It should be noted that in round 4 of qualifying, Phil put in some practice for the final by shooting a very sterling 20 single barrel.
Final results: HOA Tim, 1st A Nick, 2nd A Jamie, 1st B and Vet, Bill, 2nd B Phil, 3rd B Jeff. And Wayne Pym was 1st C after missing out on the final.
