Success
for WARC members in Match Rifle competitions at the Imperial
The
match for the Elcho shield, shot for by the four home nations,
is the premier MR team competition and the oldest and most prestigious
long range rifle competition in the world. Mike Baillie Hamilton
was Captain of the Scotland team which won by 20 points. Mike
Barlow and Tim Kidner were also in the team. For a history of
the Shield see Elcho
Mike was also Captain of the winning Scotland team in the Five Nations
match (UK plus Normandy) in which Colin McEachran shot, and of the winning
NRC of S team for the FW Jones which included Mike Barlow and was coached
by Hamish Hunter and Colin McEachran. Mike won the Cottesloe, was 3rd in
the Saturday aggregate, 5th in the 1200 yd aggregate and 6th in the Hopton.
Paula Baillie-Hamilton was 4th in the Ranken: quite an achievement as she
was in Florida at the time and that is a long shot even for MR. In fact,
the Ranken rules have an echo of the gallantry of an earlier age, whereby ”Each
lady member can nominate …..a member to shoot for her.” Mike
shot a 73.7v for his wife but let his gallantry slip by shooting a 74.12v
for himself to take second place. Tim Kidner broke the old rule about never
coming between man and wife by taking 3rd place with 74.9.
Tim Kidner had an excellent meeting. He won the Halford, the Saturday Aggregate,
Tribe Aggregate, Weekend Aggregate and Weekend Selection Aggregate. Tim
was second in the Whitehead by a single V after a tie shoot and second
in the Wimbledon, again after a tie shoot in which an invisible wind change
(yes, Tim gets them too) blew him out and gave his opponent the information
needed to put one in the bull. Tim was second in the Hopton, the most prestigious
MR aggregate. In the first two competitions of this, on the same day, he
dropped a single point out of 300.
Mike Barlow, as well as being in the winning Elcho and FW Jones teams was
2nd in the Edge and 3rd in the Victoria Aggregate. Des Parr was second
in the F Class Hopton so he must have done well in the individual competitions,
but the F class results of these appear to be classified.
