On September 19 at 400 metres, Lyndon Thurtell shot a brilliant 113/120 in the F-class standard, only three points behind the top scorer veteran marksman, Chris Burdett.

Mike Rogerson also shot well for a relatively new shooter scoring 114. He is well and truly cutting back his handicap scores each week.

The only double possible on that day was from Australian representative Peter Thurtell with 50.5 and 50.7, which may be why his son Lyndon was determined to score so well!

Jim Blackmore only beat his son Bill by two centre bull’s eyes after both scored a 50 in their second stages.

Nathan Eagles is also reaching his handicap scores most weeks, shooting a solid score of 97.6.

Keith Gleeson is also shooting better scores more consistently with a double 46.

After the shoot, 20 members had a night out to farewell highly regarded members, Shane and Kristy Meaker who are off to Darwin.

They will be greatly missed not just as friends but as dedicated workers in the club.

At 500 yards, last Saturday saw Damien Croft really fly with a 48.1 on the first stage and a 46.1 in a very tricky and windy dust storm.

This gave him the handicap prize for the week.

His determination to improve and the carefully-made bullets by Phil Costa made a winning combination.

This time Tony Moon was the only member to shoot a double possible in conditions rarely seen on Wingham rifle range.

Wendy Moon scored a tight 50.8 in her first stage but lost a shot in the windy conditions in the second stage.

Barry White seems to love tricky conditions and shot two very good stages of 48.

In C-grade, Bronte Thurtell did really well in the wind on her first stage with a 50.5 but also got messed around in the conditions second time around.

In the F-class, Chris Burdett used his experience of many years competing on tough ranges and shot a very nice 115.

Mike and Bev Rogerson took on wind conditions completely alien to them to score well, as did Lyndon Thurtell with a bit of coaching from his dad.

All the shooters did well considering they spent the morning shovelling and raking top soil to improve some of the mounds, as well as cleaning out cupboards in the working bee.

This and a couple of sausage and rissole sandwiches afterwards made shooting precisely a bit of a challenge.

Thanks to all who helped out to make the range even better for their own members and the big shoot every June.

Next week’s shoot will be at 600 yards.