F-Open Diary from the ACT Queens

[AlanF]

Firstly, I ain't there yet - will be driving up tomorrow in readiness for the Queens.

The results of the first 3 ranges of the Rolph are HERE. Looks like the 500 was a little testing for most, but not all. In fact the whole day looked a bit patchy - good ol' Canberra!

Its great to see a few invaders from afar in F-Open - Mark Hamersley from WA, Trev Otto from SA, and Kelvin's back from Qld. Looks like Chris Burdett and Kelvin are neck and neck today, but.... tomorrow is the LONGS , and with a spread of only 13 points over the field today, any one of the 7 has a chance. I hope to get there early enough to talk to them tomorrow night, so will post again, hopefully with some info about calibres. I'm assuming the Queens field will be bigger - there's a few of the locals missing from the lead-up.

BTW looks like Matt got hammered (by his standards) at 500 in F-Std, but he's not far back on the agg - will be a very interesting day for them all tomorrow.

Catch you again tomorrow night.

Alan

[AlanF]

Hello again, this time from Canberra. More of the same with weather apparently, or should I say more of the different (for every shooter) . But I guess it all evens up somewhat with the aggregate, and that honour went to Kelvin Bell. Well done Kel !

The bad luck story goes to Chris Burdett - coming into the last range he'd won 4 out of 5 ranges, and was 8 points ahead of Kel, who then proceeded to beat him by 9 points! Some people just ignore good advice - say it after me Chris - 6.5, 6.5, 6.5

I didn't talk a lot about calibres, but here's what I believe was used - Kel had a 6.5x284, Chris a 6BR, I think Geoff used a 6.5x55, Gary a 6BR, Mark I think has a 6.5x55AI, Trev a 243AI, and Stan (who won't be in the Queens unfortunately) a 6BR.

Rumour has it there will be 10 in F-Open tomorrow - could be bigger, but its more than some Queens I've been in.

F-Std numbers are excellent - one of the WA "raiders" Terry Sheedy took first badge - a just reward for making the long trip. As expected Barb Moritz and Matt Paroz were thereabouts too. Watch out for John Oddy in Queens. If it wasn't for one disaster at 500, he might have won the Rolph.

Signing off till tomorrow night.

Alan

[RAVEN]

Good Luck Bob and Trevor
whoops and mick good result in the lead up for him

[Lynn Otto]

Hey Alan, ask Trev why he's not using the 6BR, lol.

And as a pround mum I have to say that Mick managed 3rd on the 2 day agg, not bad for only his 2nd major event shooting fullbore C grade. He could be back shooting F Class sooner than he thinks, might not take too long to get to A grade so he can get back to some real shooting, F Open that is lol.

[AlanF]

Lynn,

Yes, we heard what happened - that's yet another problem with the 6BR - the ammo is so small and insignificant, you tend to lose it, and leave it behind !

Anyway the 243AI is getting better as the ranges increase, so it may not be all bad.

Alan

[AlanF]

Day one of the Queens is over. I had a solid day plus had a nice patch in the 600 and am a few points up on Dennis, with Gary and Kel knocking at the door. However, it cannot be overstressed how important the dreaded 800s will be tomorrow - if you get a bad patch there it can sink your chances and if you get a good one, it can skyrocket you up the order. So everyone will be hoping for a bit of luck. Weather should be warm again.

More on calibres - the 4 shooters who've arrived for the Queens only, we have Dennis Shallis and Mal Henderson with 243s, Bob Eager with a 6BR (I think), and myself with a 6.5x284.

We had a meeting this eveneing to talk about the F-Class World Championships 2009 (Bisley) - there was not a big number of attendees but it was well worthwhile - James Corbett gave us some detailed advice on things like arranging travel, and choosing the best type of accommodation and transport at Bisley. James goes to the Bisley Queens every year, and does it for well under $5000 all up. If anyone is interested in participating who hasn't already got access to our Bisley forum, please let me know.

To find out who survived the longs, and who didn't, tune in tomorrow night.

Alan

[AlanF]

Hello again from Canberra.

The longs have been run and won - and as usual there have been some spectacular winners and losers!

Count Mal Henderson as a big winner - he won two ranges including the 2nd 800 where he absolutely blitzed us with a 96. Bob Eager had a much better day too (BTW he is using a 6 Dasher, not a BR as stated earlier).

At the other end of the scale Kel, Chris and I had very forgettable days.

The progessive totals have Dennis leading me by 6, with Gary, Mal and Bob all very close. Unless Den has a bad day at the last 2 shorts tomorrow, the main race will be for second. Rain threatened mid-afternoon, but never happened.

I will be driving home tomorrow night so will post again Monday night. In the meatime, use this link for the results: CLICK HERE

Alan

[Lynn Otto]

As the results haven't been posted on the official site, I thought I would let you know that in F Std a big congratulations goes to Warwick Brown, sorry I don't have the other places,

In F Open, the congratulations goes to Dennis Shallis, followed by Alan Fraser and Gary Hunt, well done guys in what Trevor described as his hardest 5 days of shooting, which, when your state range is Lower Light, is saying something, lol.

For anyone here that may be interested, Mick finished with a 2nd in the Queens and a 3rd for the Grand AGG.

Lynn

[RAVEN]

Well done everyone to all the winners and those that competed
Special well done to mick not bad for your 2nd queens at the FB good job M8ty
Cheers
RB

[Lynn Otto]

The official results are now posted and they have Malcolm Henderson ahead of Gary Hunt on the same score so well done Malcolm.

Lynn

[AlanF]

The results are all known, but I'll give you a rundown of the last day as I saw it from the coalface. Congrats to Dennis Shallis on a fine win . He has a superb rifle and put in a consistent performance. I put in my best range when it was all over - scored a 99 when I needed 101 ... Mal Henderson had a near identical setup to Den, but had less luck (at least that's what he'll be telling Den ). Gary Hunt won the Grand Agg with 4ths in the leadup and Queens - watch out for him at the next queens.

We had a great group of shooters again - there's rarely a solemn moment with the likes of Kel and Chris in good form. And how about the likes of Mark Hamersley from WA and Trev Otto from SA and the distance they had to come. If they get F-Open revived in WA, I'd like to go with a group over there one day.

The Queens was bigger than ever, and ran like clockwork as ever. One hiccup with F-Open was that the new 700 and 1000 targets were not used - apparently because they didn't know they were available. With not a single F-Open Canberra shooter in the Queens (after 6 last year), it seems to be going through a bad patch there - hopefully its a short-term thing.

F-Std numbers were terrific. Not sure it needs grading at Canberra - the weather seems to spread the fortunes around very well .

Alan

[Chris Burdett]

Alan if your going to waffle on at least get the scores right

[AlanF]

Chris,

Please enlighten me....

[Chris Burdett]

For what it matters, Mal only won one range at the longs, and I don,t regard winning a range as forgetable.

[AlanF]

My apologies Chris . Your 98 at 700m was a great hit, in fact I don't remember a better score at 700m anywhere.

You'd better come to the Vic Queens so I can apologise properly !

Alan