TRENTHAM-1912.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1383, 8 March 1912, Page 6

TRENTHAM-1912.

PEOPLE'S DAY. LOVEDAY WINS THE BELT. BY SEVEN POINTSTHE SERVICE CHAMPIONSHIP. WON BY CAPTAIN MIRRIELEES. Auckland Match—Rifleman Elliott, Akarana Rifle Club, 98 points, Wellington Match—Rifleman Taylor, Blenheim Rifle Club, 94 points, Canterbury Match—Riflem.in Henderson (Sounds Rifle Club) and Sergeant Rydtr, 9th Regiment, tied with 50 points each, possible score, one range match. Otago Match—Seven men tied for first place with 50 points each, possible sccre, one ranfle match. Nelson Match-W. Cox, City R.C., Auckland. , Hawke's Bay Match—Rifleman Clark, Rangitikei, 50 points {one range match, possible score), Taranaki Match—Rifleman Roots, Kaponga, 50 points (one range match, possible score). Carbine Cup and Trentham AggregateRifleman S. Elliott, Akarana Rif-e Club, 299 points. United Service Match—Won by Territorials. Rifle Club Championship—Christchurch Rifle Club; aggregate score, 2130. Champion Team Match—Opaki Rifle Club (A Team), 484 points. Service Championship and Kynoeh Cup —Won by Captain Mirriolees, Tauranga. Ballinger Champion Rifle Belt—Private L. Loveday, Woodville. It is all over and done with. Young Loveday, a stripling under 21, has won the Ballinger Champion Hide Belt for 1912, while- Captain Mirrielees', of Tauranga, has proved himself to be the best man with tlie Title under conditions approximating those of active service. Which is the greater honour is a question which no amount of argument on tho Trentham rillo range will settle, and it remains therefore to confine one's attention to the events of the great day, and leave the advocates of the bull's-eye school on the one side, and !o the disciples of the Hytho School of .Musketry on tho other, the heat and tho burden of the argument. Trentham Weather. • A cold and misty night gave promise of fine weather for the two championship events, but the hopes of the optimists were crushed, and the fears of t'iio pessimists realised. It rained nnd blew. A violent gusty northerly, sweeping in from the right, with anything from 15 to 18 degrees, and occasionally whipping in from the left with suflicisnt force to requite five degrees left for wind allowance. The rain was not constant, swejning across tho range in fitful squalls, and the great ragged clouds, with occasional glints of the blue canopy above, threw their Hying shadows upon the targets, making problems of Ibib.t and elevation matters for expert riflemen. It was a day for scientific shooting, and the tragic interment of reputations. In the opinion of "tb" old-«-t inhabitant," to use this expression for auV'oriiative reference in matters of Trentham precedent, it was the worst weather ever experienced „for tho King's Match at Trenthanl'. '."It 'was the worst experienced since the Oamaru meeting yrars ago, in the days of peripatetic championships. Under Service Conditions. The firs', event of the day was the decision of the Service Championship, which may i.-a described as the coimter-dcmon-slratiim to the King's Match, lielovod of (he bull's-eye men. Uifiler the conditions of the Service Championship Match the fifty men who scored the highest aggregate points iu the individual service matches, which comprised tho B scries part of the D.R.A. programme, were required to fire off in a final match, which was fired iu four stages. The first stage was a snap-shooting competition at 200 yards, at "head" targets exposed seven times at irregular intervals, with an exposure of four seconds.. Five rounds were tired at this range. In the second stage of the match, a rapid-fire competition at .100 yards, the contestants were allowed a sighting shot, and were then given thirty seconds to get off tea rounds of ainmnnition. The third stage of the match was an interesting test in the "cb=ervntion and appreciation of fire limits." Three figure targets, coloured grey, and representing a standing, kneeling,, and prone figure were exposed. The competitors were required to advanco froin a i-tarting-point GSO yards from the targets, in quick time, firing two rounds each at: 000, ">OO, 400. 300, and 200 yards, tort rounds in all. Twenty seconds were allowed at each firing point for the two rounds, and at each range a competitor was allo.ved to fire at each of the three targets lie preferred. Two points were awarded for each direct, hit. on the standing figure, three points for each direct hit on the kneeling figure, and five for each direct on tho prone figure. The final stage was a "slow practice" competition at COO yards, five rounds. The targets were exposed five times, for twenty seconds each time. As already slated. Captain Mirrielees won the match. In 1 tho" individual series of service matches he compiled 17G points, a. long way behind Sergeant Simmonds, of the 12th Regiment, whose aggregate score .before the match totalled 193, while Rifleman E. C. Russell, of Pctone, aggregated 190 points in the previous matches. There were five other competitors ahead of him, but with a brilliant score of 101 for all the stages ho fired into the head of the list, and won the Kynoeh Cup and a cash prize of .£lO. The runner-up was Rifleman Duthie, of tho Christchurch Club, whoso previous aggregate of 187 stood him in good stead, for he only managed to score 70 points in tho final mutch.