SCHOOL SHOOTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1922, Page 7

SCHOOL SHOOTING.

IMPERIAL CHALLENGE SHIELD. NEW PLYMOUTH .SUCCESSES. Detailed results of the Imperial Challenge Shield competitions (junior and senior) for 1922, which are held under the auspices of the National Rifle Association, are now to hand. As the brief cable results indicated both the New Plymouth Boys’ High School and the New Plymouth Technical College teams have acquitted themselves with credit in open competition. The competitions are conducted annually for the two silver challenge shields, value £2OO, presented in 1910 by Lieut.-Col. Raymond W. Ffennell, of South Africa. In addition the .prize-list again included bronze replicas of the shields, as well as silver and bronze commemorative medale, £lll6 in prize money, and grants towards ammunition to unsuccessful teams, all of which were provided Iby Lieut.-Col. Ffennell. An analysis of the tdams entered shows that the total number (senior and junior) has increased from 77 in 1910, when the competitions were inaugurated, to 1803 this year, which marks the record. This year there were entered 1137 teams in the senior competition, 279 of these being New Zealand teams, while of the 666 entries in the junior competition 99 came from New Zealand.

The senior competition was won by No. 1 Platoon area 27a, senior cadets, Unley, South Australia (“A’ - team) with the fine average score -of 98. No. 3 Platoon of the same unit was second with an average of 97. Fifth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and thirty-first places were filled by teams from the New Plymouth Boys’ High School with respective average scores of 96.3, 95.6, 95.5, 95.3, and 92.5. The twenty-fourth and forty-eighth positions are taken by teams from the New Plymouth Technical College with average scores of 93 and 90.8 respectively. As a result of the achievements of its senior teams the High School annexes forty bronze medals and £l4 in cash while the Technical College receives £4 in cash. Both New Plymouth schools appear also among the leaders in the junior competition, High School team taking thirteenth, twentieth, and twenty-eighth and thirty-ninth places with respective average scores of 92, 90, 87 , 90.3, and 88.5, while the eighteenth place is filled by a Technical College team with an average score of 91.2. The competition was won by No. 4 Platoon Area 27a, Senior Cadets, Unley, South Australia (“A” team) with an average of 96.4. In this competition High School teams receive £lO cash and the Technical College receive £3. It will be remembered that the High School won both the senior and junior competitions in 1916, the former with an average of 93.8 (the beet score up till that year) and the latter with an average of 92.2 (which was only 0.1 behind the previous average). Though not successful in again annexing either uf the shields the High School teams have always been high up on the lists and their continued success is gratifying. No less pleasing is the appearance of the New Plymouth Technical College teams in the competitions and the high places they have obtained in these early efforts speaks well for the enthusiasm and keenness of the boys and their instructors. Indeed New Plymouth should be proud of the shooting successes of both its secondary schools, especially when it is remembered that there ate hundreds of entries from all over the British (Empire in both competitions.