Social bowls: N. Gay and F. Mahon def E. McCrum and K. Reid. I. Plater, M. McCrum and M. Henderson def N. Post, I. Croucgh & K. McMillan. Day winners: M. Thornton.

Ungarie hosted the Riverina District Rifle Association Champion of Champions competition on the weekend. Four ranges 500, 600,800 and 900 yards were contested by the region’s best marksmen and women. It was a great day of shooting in good conditions.

The AGM saw life membership awarded to one of our best. Spencer Dunstall has won 10 Queens prizes and has played a large part in the development of shooters in the region along with administrative positions in the DRA and Ungarie. A fitting tribute to his performance and commitment to this sport.

Competition winners were: F Open: Darren Bradley 239.21 (out of 240); F Standard: Jordan Hoskinson  236.13 (out of 240); FTR: Mike Halloran 230.11 (out of 240); Target Rifle: Scott Brindley 200.25 (out of 200) and TR U25: Laura Brindley 197.17 (out of 200).

The Riverina DRA wishes all the champions good luck in the state competition.

On Sunday, 12 shooters competed to see who could shoot the smallest five shot group at 50 yards, with Carlo Zuliani proving to be the man to beat, shooting an average group size of 0.296 of an inch. Barry Wild was next with 0.343, followed by Jason Hall on 0.364. That is some extraordinary shooting right there. Next weekend we will have Shotgun on from 1.30pm on Saturday and Centerfire Field Rifle and Lever Action on Sunday. As always, the range will be open to casual shooters as well. For full competition results visit our website www.ssaawagga.org.au or see us on Facebook @SSAAWagga.

Great conditions at Lockhart last Saturday for our 300 Yard Match.  We had three new shooters come along to give our sport a try.  Gordon, Saj and Warren. All shot well. Warren in particular had a very good second stage only dropping one point. In F Class John Dixon led the way, a good practice as our FO rep in the Riverina Champion of Champions completion on Sunday. Scott Brindley took out Target rifle with a strong finishing possible on the last stage.

Next weekend will be 500 Yards.

Results as follows:

Saturday Club Shoot

A small group at Lockhart last Saturday to shoot 1000Y. Wind conditions were rapidly changing which is not helpful when you are that far back.

John Smoothy, however, had an excellent shoot and seemed to revel in the conditions. Wayne Grentall also shot well. While Scott had trigger problems again.

Results as follows:

Next Weekend

On Saturday we have a 300Y shoot coinciding with a “Come and Try” Day for visitors.  So please come along to lend a hand.

On Sunday Ungarie will be hosting the Riverina Champion of Champions shoot to determine who our district champions are. This will start at 9am. If you can come to help scoring or marking that would be appreciated.

Graham Crowe is our FS champion, John Dixon FO, Scott Brindley TRA and Laura Brindley U25 TR.

DRA Shoot - 20th May

On Sunday the Riverina District Rifle Association Prize Meeting was held at Cootamaundra. We started in beautiful sunshine but afterwards the day kept changing from overcast back to sunny again.

Our hosts Cootamundra club had the range looking great and put on a fantastic lunch. Thanks to John Owens who did a great job as chief Butts Officer and also thanks to John Oddy Range Officer.

Badges were reintroduced for the Aggregate wins which were well received. Along with raffle and lucky bull prizes.

Major Pairs Championship quarterfinals: Christian Morgan, Zac Gabrielsen def Graham Rutherford, Nathan Kemp 26/15; Rob Marshall, Bill Manning def John Ashcroft, Mick Foxall 23/17; Kevin Cheney, Ken Chalker def Paul Wilson, Brian Hughes 23/15; Pedro Rudd, John Hetherington def Gary Brookes, Dennis Rawlings 19/13.       

Monday’s Duffy Bros Mixed Pairs Tournament group one winners: John Hetherington, Nola Post 6 plus 38 shots up; runners-up Andrew Carey, Pat McDonald 6 plus 31; 3rd place on a countback were Terry Rosewall, June Chappelow 6 plus 26 from Mick and Fran Mahon also 6 plus 26 shots. Group 2 winners: Barry Belt, Bev Robinson 2 plus 1 shot up; runners-up Barry Breust, Kay McMillan 2 minus 2 shots; 3rd place Alan Jacobson, Helen Tyrrell 2 minus 3 shots.                            

Wednesday blind draw winners: Bernie Bunson, Wayne Smithers, Ollie Henderson 23 points; runners-up John Ashcroft, Darren Kelly 22  points; 3rd place Barry Belt, Max Simmons, Jim Brown 20 points. Friday nominated Pairs winners: Andrew Carey, Bernie Benson 29 points; runners-up Terry Rosewall, John Hetherington 26 points; 3 rd place Brian Lawrence, Dennis Knight 23 points.

Sunday Mixed mufti blind draw winners: Bev Robinson, Tiny Bower, Alice Bower 18 points; runners-up Jenny Mitchell, Anne Purcell, Joyce Robbins 15 points. Nomination sheet on Board for the Settlers Group monthly blind draw single entry 2 bowls Triples on 4th June with $ 570 in prizemoney; 3 games 14 ends with 9.45am start. Lunch available after second game at $10 per head. Names must be in by 3pm Saturday, June 2 for call of the cards at 9.15 am Monday, June 4.

Coming Events

Well, I think we are all back to normal with everyone back from South Australia, although the ‘Merry Widows’ could still be hovering around the wineries loading up the boot of their poor old long suffering car.

The Wednesday riders had a good roll up last week with nien heading out for a day in the sun. Big Trev led the convoy out to The Rock and after a hiccup with the brain cells wondering where to head next, took the back road to Tootool, Milbrulong, Pleasant Hills, and Walbundrie, finally landing in Howlong for lunch. With all the formalities out of the way, the move to go home was made with the first village to have the pleasure of the group’s company being Burrumbuttock. Walla Walla was next and a comfort stop at Culcairn was a fairly necessary diversion.

From there it was back home through Henty up the Olympic Way. A good day out with good company in good weather for Les, Trev, Len, Tommo, Oscar, Sue, Des, Fred and Mark.

Our next club ride is on this Sunday leaving from McDonalds’ Edward Street Car Park at 9.30am. All rides for the next 3 months will leave at 9:30 and revert back to 9am in September when we hope the weather will be getting a bit warmer.  

One of the big issues on the agenda at the moment is declining membership numbers and the national committee are putting some ideas up to address this. It is no longer a requirement to renew for a three-year period and members can now renew each year, which will relieve the financial pressure a bit. Future gatherings for AGMs will now be called rallies which will give the events more of a social flavour and hopefully attract more along to these events. As an example the Coffs Harbour event in 2007 drew 6000 attendees while this year we only got just under 2000. So over the past 10 years interest has been dwindling.  You can help here by trying to get some of your friends who ride bikes to join and participate.

Over the Queen’s Birthday weekend The Wintersun Rally is to be held in Mildura. A lot of our members have enjoyed this weekend over the years and although the date is not that far away you may like to enter.  Cost is only $20 to enter.

As a reminder about our local branch activities, club rides are on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month and leave from McDonalds Car Park in Edward Street at 9.30am. Wednesday rides leave from Billy’s Café in Gurwood Street each and every Wednesday at 9.30am. For the Wednesday rides turn up at about 8:45am and the destination will be discussed over a coffee. Meet and greet gathers at Billy’s café each Saturday at 10am. Branch meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month at the Radio Club Rooms, 7 Small Street.  Doors open at 7pm and the meeting gets underway at 7.30pm.  

Next Wednesday will be the presentation day for the Junior Doubles Tennis Competition at the Bolton Park Tennis Complex. Presentations will take place after the competition. In the event of wet weather presentations will take place at the start time of 4pm. 

A new competition will commence July 25.

The competition is open to all players that are able to serve. To enter turn up at the courts before the start time of 4pm sharp. 

Leading the competition are brothers Pat Wright and Alastair Wright, tied on 46 ½ points, close behind is Makenna Irlam on 42 points then Michael Ellis on 34 points and Riley Wilson on 31 points.

Last week’s winners of the McDonalds Sports Award were Alastair Wright and Kelsey Atkinson.

This Saturday is the presentation day in the junior tennis competitions at the Forest Hill courts. Presentations taking place after the day’s play. In the event of wet weather presentations will take place at 3.00pm. A new competition will commence July 28.

The Masters competition is for players wanting more serious tournament play, with proper tie-breaker sets being played. There is prizemoney for the top twenty players in the competition for all players having played five matches, as well as a best and fairest award at the end of the competition. To take part, just turn up at the start time of 3pm.    

Leading the Masters competition is Oliver Plum on 51 points, with Caden Maxwell on 26 points close behind is Robert Grantham on 17½ points with Lachlan McDonald on 13 points then Pat Wright on 12½ points making up the top 5 positions. 

The junior tennis competition is open to all juniors wanting to play tennis in a friendly, relaxed format, and is their first steps to playing competition. All players should be able to serve to take part.

Leading the junior tournament is Alastair Wright on 26 points, close behind is Tory Grantham on 22½ points followed by Yassin El Sanabary on 9½ points. This week’s McDonalds Sports Award winner was Alastair Wright.