Marty Kelly is Victoria’s 2018 Champion of Champions in F Class T/R
The East Central District Rifle association’s focus this week was at the Wellsford range at Bendigo as the title of Champions of Champions both individual and team was conducted. Marty Kelly contested the F class T/R and Terry Gee the F Class Open individual events that were conducted on Saturday.
To say the conditions were not good would be an understatement as the overcast sky and rain moved over the range with winds from every direction, and the weather only got worse as the shooters moved back to the 900 yd range. Marty said it was a day when you had to pick the conditions and get as many shoots away as possible before they changed. Then wait till the cycle came around again. Marty got off to a good start at 600 yards with a 58.4 and a clear leader as they went back to 900 yards where he dropped a couple of points with a 55.2 but was still second highest score on the board for the stage and with a combined score of 113.6 to win the Campion of Champions in F class T/R. Second place went to Gerry Thomas with 111.4 giving Marty the title by a clear two points. There were no possible scores shot and the super centre count was well down.
Terry Gee in the F Open competition also got off to a good start with 56.1 and a real chance if he could get a reasonable score at 900 yards. Regrettably it was not to be so, Terry struck a very nasty patch of weather at 900 and shot 52 with no super centres. Terry’s combined score was 108.1 and fifth place with Michael Waites taking the champions F class Open prize with a combined score of 114.4. Again a feature on Saturday, of this super challenging and very accurate class, was the low super centre count and no possible score being posted.
On Sunday the State Champions of Champions F class teams events were conducted and the ECDRA fielded two 5 person teams one in F Class standard and One in F class Open. Captain Marty Kelly said sending the two teams gave the opportunity for most members of the club to be involved in the major event. He also said it was a chance for more members to gain experience of coaching, reading the conditions to become familiar with the State Range should they enter the State Queens prize event.
The F class teams even was conducted over there ranges 600,700 and 800 yards. Again while the weather was nice and sunny the wind continued to flick from side to side as well as varying in strength. Some shooters were able to shoot in reasonable conditions while others caught a bad patch.
The ECDRA placed third overall with 817 with 37 centers a good effort given the conditions. The winners were our sister DRA the Goulbourn Valley DRA who scored 836 with 27 centers. One concilation is we can say we beat them on Super Centres.