PIGEON SHOOTING MATCH AT CAMBRIDGE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2484, 12 June 1888, Page 2

PIGEON SHOOTING MATCH AT CAMBRIDGE.

A Piiinox shooting match, of which Mr A Bach of tli3 Ci'itenion Hotol, Cambridge, was thu promoter, was held in Mr John Sharp's paddock on Saturday afternoon. The match was .for a sweepstako of JL'I each, for which thirteen members entered, and of whom eleven turned up to try conclusions. Mr Robert Kirkwoo'l was judge, Mr l'>aeh trapped the birds, and Mr C. Tuck handled the strings in a manner that showed it was not the first time that he had done so. Mr Bach had a plentiful supply of birds, but many of them required a good deal of persuasion before they would leave tho trap, their feathers having become fouled on the jounioy up from Auckland, and they wanted to preen themselves before taking flight. However, with the aid of sticks, atones, etc., they wero all (excepting one, which refused to budge) got upon tho wing and were duly popped at, and generally slaughtered, as only 12 out of the first 55 escaped the ordeal, and some of those were afterwards killed by outsiders. The scoring was by points ; if the bird was killed by the first barrel, it scored two, and if with second one point. When the shooter went to pick up his bird he had to first touch it with the barrels of his gun, and in several instances tho empty barrels did as much killing as the full ones. Tho bouudary was 80 yards, and several of the birds dropped uncomfortably near it (for the shooters), one lucky individual had his pigeon drop on the boundary, but fortunately it was stone dead, -for a single kick would have sent it out of bounds. A strong wind was blowing across the traps that made the shooting more difficult than it would otherwise have been. About 100 wore present to witness the match, and appeared to take a lively interest in the proceedings. The following is a list of the •shooters, the handicaps they received, and the number of points scored :—

J. McCann (215 yards) ■ S C. Hitchman (scratch) S D. Loup (215 yards) 8 J. Arnold, Jun. (20 yards) 7 J. Turiibull (22 yards) 7 (jr. Kay (23 yards) 7 0. K Fraser (25 yards) ... G .1". Case (25 yards) (i ij. 1). Armiboldi (25 yards) (J \V. McMillan (20 yards) f, Lougbottom (2(5 yards) retired. Messrs McGann, Long, and Hitchman having tied shot oft for the prize : the two former missed and Hitchman only had one barrel at his bird, which, however dropped out of bounds and of course did not score. In the next round Hitchman and Long both killed and McCunn failed to soon). In the final bout Hitchman killnd his bird with the first barrel, but Long had to use his second, consequently Hitchmau won by ono point. The shooting on the whole was good, but the winner was decidedly lucky in gathering one of his birds. A consolation sweepstake was afterwards got up, and was won by Mr Longbottom who had retired from the former one, after he had let a bird go, in consequence of having his gun at half cock. We learn that several matches are likely to eventuate from this one.