RIFLE SHOOTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 13 March 1911, Page 7

RIFLE SHOOTING.

THE FIGHT FOR THE BELT. LAST SHOT DOES IT. , • The dawn of championship diy'/gave promise of fair weather, and the promise .fleldgood. (says the Dominion), It was a trifle muggy, with big water-looking cloud banks hugging the hills, but still a pleasant day for the public. ! K' n S s Kfty were jnore 'difficult to please. Earlier in the day, while the Champion Teams Match was ,ft<?ing fired, the wind was direspectfuLty Referred to as a "googly"—an expression cricketing parlance. Its. direction was ostensibly from the rear of the riiound straight down the range tpwayds the distant targets, but, exactly described •jy v .pe observant rifleman, "it was a rigfit ad left up-and-down rear wind." This is .a particularly trying spcoies.of' .'fishtail," involving silent cogitation ,concealing allowance for deflection and elein erratic spasms, with a. right arid, left movement all the time. That partly explains the collapse of many a tried marksman. Considered generally, however, the shooting, despite these adverse conditions, was better than that recorded for the previous King's Match, also fired, in rather queer weather. The average score in the final last year was 2!) points per man; this time the average was 32. Rifleman Roots, the champion, did not make top score by fi points. Opening with a magpie for his sighter, lie discarded that, and trusted for better luck with his first business shot, and got it—h. bull. Then came two inners, a magpie, An outer, and two more bulls. These seven shots .brought his agregate of 448 up to 470. Henderson, in the meantime, had raised his aggregate of 441 to 472, with his seven shots, 4435555, and had lessened the distance between them by 3 points. Rifleman Roots' eight shot was an outer (478), while Henderson, putting on another bull, stood just one point behind, with two more shots to go. Roots then placed his ninth shot in the inner (four), while Henderson got another bull. This made level peggin°\ It was an exciting finish, and no mistake. Amid this tense situation Roots got of! his tenth and last shot—an inner again—and all eyes turned upon Henderson's target. If he got an inner he drew; if a bull, he won. He fired. The target slid slowly out of sight, and a jjause ensued. If the ladies.present-had fully understood the statistical and technical, part of the business of winning rifle championships, that awful pause would, perhaps, have got on their nerves; but. as it was, the situation had little meaning for them. Then the target re-appeared. A magpie! After scoring six successive bull'seyes Henderson had finished disastrously with a magpie, and lost the championship by one point! Sergt. Frank, a hot favorite for the i Belt, tied with Henderson in aggregate I points. He started off with a bigger lift, | but the "shoot-ofl"' gave him third place, One curious circumstance about the finish was Cox's ill-luck. He was lvins beside Roots and, in putting a bull oi: Roots' target, Cox forfeited the score for the shot under the, rules, but Roots declined to accept the signal as indieat ' iug a bull's-eye for him and, firing jm

mediately after, scored an outer. Had Cox pal the bull on his own target, he would have been sixth on the list.