Event Date: 
Saturday, 15 June 2019

For those "in the know" the event is referred to as the Dewar Trials. For the rest of us here's a little more information.

David White and Andy Meyers travelled to Appleton Range on Saturday 15th June 2019 to compete in the International Dewar Match GB Team Trial. 

The GB Dewar Postal Competition is a match against the USA and Commonwealth countries such as Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. 

The vast majority of the 49 shooters that assembled at Appleton were selected based on the scores at previous Bisley and Lauder meetings. The final few, like David White, had to apply for a position. They were then sent a set of qualification cards which were shot and returned to NSRA. David came 3rd in this qualification shoot. This did not guarantee him a place as the top shooters from the qualification shoot are only used to fill the final (very) few places. He was only called up at the last moment when someone dropped out.

Luckily he was given enough notice that he could arrive the day before and get a little practice on the range before the trial began. The trial splits the shooters into two squads, A and B. They then have to shoot 2 cards at 50m moving firing points between each card. They then repeat this for the 100yd range. The top 10 scores from each squad are then selected for the team to shoot the postal match. 

Having made it through the trials the match itself was then shot. So it was a full days shooting. Occasionally, the match cards are delayed until Sunday if the weather forecast suggests that Sunday would be a better day for shooting the match.

Congratulations go to David who made it into the team (top photo). Thanks to Andy for the photos which also show how environmentally friendly shooting is! They also demonstrate why your training regime should include distraction training!

Speaking to David at the Kent County Meeting the next day he said it was nice to mix it with the X Class (International) shooters and make the team. We now have to wait until all the other teams have completed their cards before the final results are published.

 

Report: Mike Kettle
Photos: Andy Meyers