Military Service National Championships 2007
    SSAA Eidsvold Queensland November 9-11^th

^{CSD National Chairman's Official Results}

^{CSD National Chairman's Official Postal Results}

The Eidsvold area was green after recent rain and there were showers on Wednesday and Thursday as people gathered for the National Championships. With more than eighty entries the shoot was a busy one. Competitors came from Tasmania, S.A., Vic, ACT, plus a strong representation from NSW. Queensland naturally fielded the largest numbers and all parts of the State were represented, with good numbers from the far north travelling further than our Victorian mates.

This report is predominantly an account of NSW shooters performance, so shooters from other states please don’t be disappointed if you are not mentioned.

Pistol

Friday dawned with bright sunshine and after a welcome by the Eidsvold Club Management and Steve Heidrich as National Discipline Chairman the Pistol matches began.

Queensland dominated the events in class 1 and 2 winning the teams event with T. Bennett, Phil Oakford, C. Cran and C. Chatham on 1841 points from NSW on 1729 and SA on 1533. Top junior was Jack Callaghan (Q). Pistol Top Gun was T. Bennett (Q).

Notable NSW performances were from John Lewis winning the Class 2 50m match with 111.2 closely followed by Greg Mills-Thom on 111.1. In the 3P event Andrew Prowse won B Grade and Andrew Brown was top junior.

Standard Rifle

Saturday was overcast but dry and once again cool by local standards.

The NSW team of Nick Abrahall, Craig Mahoney, Rob Irving and Pete Brown triumphed in the standard rifle events aggregate with a score of 1524, one point ahead of Queensland on 1523 (Last year NSW won from Vic. also by one point but that’s all it takes). This is the fourth consecutive win for NSW and was potentially the hardest against a strong Queensland team and with NSW star shooter Darren Ottery off form, recovering from illness.

Top junior was Andrew Brown (NSW) shooting an exceptional 145.9 followed by brother Josh on 125.10.

Rob Irving won the prestigious 3P trophy with 148.17 from Craig Mahoney on 148.13.

Nick Abrahall won the 3P Master grade with 148.12 and Andrew Brown A grade with 145.9.

Action M was won by Andrew Prowse with an excellent 50.4, top junior was Andrew Brown with a creditable 48.3.

Standard Rifle Top Gun was Darryl Challacombe.

Modified Rifle

The best Modified performances by NSW shooters were Craig Mahoney second in both Rapid Fire B with 99.12 and 3P with 147.18. Craig won the 300m Deliberate event with 50.7. Nick Abrahall won the Snap A event with 49.4 from Craig Mahoney on 47.2.

Sunday was again overcast with variable winds which affected the longer ranges of the trainer match and the 500m Optical event. 

310 Cadet

The Cadet match was won by Phil Oakford (Qld) with 145.14 with Rob Irving second on 143.17 and Steve Heidrich third on 140.8.

.22 Trainer

The training rifle match was won by Rob Richards (Vic.) with 143.12, from K. Barrett (Q) on 143.8 and Glen Sherritt (Q) third with 142.9. In junior grade Andrew Brown top scored with 139.2 with Josh Brown second on 133.7 and Jack Callaghan third on 117.4.

500m Optical

F1 Class was won by Les Challacombe with 53.2, F2 Class was won by C. Chatham with 58.3 and T/J Class by Pete Brown on 55.2. with Andrew Brown second on 54.2.

Conclusion

Win, lose or draw, a great time was had by all, not least at the event dinner on Saturday night when fake blood flowed courtesy of Morton, who escaped being hog tied by his NSW team mates the by barest margin.

The shoot was well run and the very busy schedule was managed without too much fuss. Our thanks go to long suffering Chief Range Officer Graham Lucke and helpers, plus Lynne and Alan Jinks who did much of the scoring.

Linda Heidrich and friends Sandra, Sue, Mary and others accomplished the mathematics of results presentation brilliantly, plus catering for breakfasts lunch and dinner for many of the competitors.

Our next National Championships will be held at the ACT range Majura 17^th. 18^th. 19^th. October 2008. 

NSW intend to make it a five year run of victories in the rifle championship; that’s the challenge to the other States.