Firing places open for N.Z. team

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 28

Firing places open for N.Z. team

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

The chance for a position in the New Zealand smallbore team to compete in the Pacific regional championship at the Burnett range next January will be a strong incentive for marksmen to continue their preparation in indoor competition during the winter months. The final format for the

Pacific championships has yet to be decided, but it seems likely that both

pistol and smallbore shooting will be catered for at the Burnett range. At this early point of arrangements, it would appear as if four smallbore shooters will comprise the New Zealand team in that event and several candidates emerged from the national championships on the range recently.

None of the four national representatives at the world championships in South Korea last year — lan Ballinger (Christchurch), Jack Scott (Timaru), Leon Greibel (Blenheim) and Brian Lacey (Levin) — did their

case any harm by their performances at the New Zealand championships but the emergence of several other shooters has still placed their positions in jeopardy. For Ballinger, the supreme master f.or so many years, the championships were disappointing. He was never in a position to challenge for either the national 50m event or the

50yd and 100 yd title, but he proved his class in the shoots that accompanied the individual titles.

Ballinger, who was “burning the midnight .oil” trying to set his new rifle for the championships, proved his undoubted class by scoring the highest total in the national 20-man team in the Slazenger Shield international postal shoot.

In that event he dropped only three points from a possible 400. Greibel, whose consistency is becoming increasingly evident — he was third in both

the national championships — shot a satisfactory <195. One disappointing series of 10 shots resulted in Scott finishing on 391 and Lacey was unable to do better than 389. The inter-island shoot resulted in Ballinger recording 392, Greibel 390, Scott 389 and Lacey, Ballinger’s partner at last year’s Edmonton Commonwealth Games,, a low 386.

Ballinger and Greibel consolidated their claims for inclusion in future national teams in the Dewar . Cup. This coveted 20-man postal shoot team is the aim of most smallbore shooters. Ballinger and Greibel both shot 396 to finish second and third, respectively, while Lacey was again down the order with 391. Scott did not make the team.

The emerging star was undoubtedly Rex Davies, whose performance in winning the two national championships and the aggregate, created new

history. The Christchurch marksman has been on the brink of top national honours for the last four years; now he is a frontrunner for the Pacific team and for the Moscow Olympics. Lindsay Arthur (Hutt Valley), rejected from the New Zealand team for the last Olympic Games, and Lawrence Moodie (Wanganui) were two other young shooters to enhance their claims. Moodie. who has shown a liking for the sometimes

tricky winds at the Burnett range, finished second to Davies in the national 50m chamionship. He led the event after 40 shots, having dropped only six points, but the pressure told on him over the final series of 20 shots and he conceded a further eight points to give Davies the title more easily than it had first seemed. Arthur shot a good score in the Slazenger Shield contest, had a respectable total of 392 in the inter-island contest, but finished only fourteenth in the New Zealand Dewar Cup competition.