Hi All

Round 3 for the 2019 SIHFT done and dusted – and indeed it was a tad dusty; being blown all over the place by a breeze which picked up soon after the shoot started and played with pellets as much as it did the dust. Very different from the day we hosted the Southern Hunters in February and had to dig ditches to drain ‘lakes’ from some pegs.

I’ll start with thanks, some of which were not voiced in front of the pre or post course gatherings – firstly to Gerry Jellicoe and Steve Noakes for today’s catering. Steve is a Swallows member who’s not shot in a while; distracted while restoring an ancient Land Rover, but responded to Gerry’s last minute call to arms/spatula to assist in the ‘kitchen’. Thanks too to Graeme Cargan, Aaron Friend and Charles Peal for taking on booking-in duties and end of shoot admin to collate the scores.

And finally, thanks to Vince Guy and Paul Charman for their help 1st thing this morning with final prep and to those early-arrival guests who helped put out the zero range.

Today’s entry list (59) was a little below average but we know that there was interest elsewhere in the form of the National HFT Recoiling Championship at Nomads and an HFT event at Bisley. To make up for this we saw quite a lot of new faces, including no fewer than 6 first-timers (to HFT) from Swallows FTC. Brilliant to see you joining in and hope you’ll be back for more in the future. No doubt that this helped Swallows to achieve 3rd Team place. Chris and Gary who both made it in to our club team are very new to airguns and HFT, but have a lot of transferrable skills they’ve brought over from 3D Archery. Gary seemed quite disappointed with his 45, but this was with an HW97 he’s only owned for a few weeks and he’d never taken a shot prone before today (prob quite tricky with a bow and arrow!). Finishing just a point or two behind Russ and the infamous Pat is VERY encouraging.

For everyone else who attended today, I hope you enjoyed the course and learned something from taking part.

Here is the full set of results …..

Firstname Surname Club Class Score % Badge T(eam place)
Mike Burgess Swallows O 58 100.0% Gold T
Andy Simpson Buxted O 58 100.0% G T
Kevin Hills Buxted O 57 98.3% G T
Charles Peal Oaks O 57 98.3% G T
Mark Rackley Meon Valley O 57 98.3% G T
Simon Whittick Horsham O 57 98.3% G T
Aaron Friend Oaks O 56 96.6% G T
Justin Rayner Buxted O 56 96.6% G T
Gary Channing Buxted O 55 94.8% G T
Roger Dibbens Buxted O 55 94.8% G T
Lewis Hodges Oaks O 55 94.8% G T
Len Smith Bisley O 54 93.1% G T
Vince Guy Swallows O 53 91.4% Silver T
Graeme Cargan Oaks O 52 89.7% S T
Lol Moore Ford O 51 87.9% S T
Nigel Buchan Buxted O 50 86.2% S
Ewan Hobbs Iden Fern O 50 86.2% S T
Trevor Palmer Buxted O 50 86.2% S
Kevin Wickson Buxted O 50 86.2% S
Howard Kalisch Buxted O 49 84.5% S
David West Buxted O 49 84.5% S
Owen Wilson Buxted O 49 84.5% S
Steve Britland Horsham O 48 82.8% Bronze T
Paul Charman Swallows O 48 82.8% B T
Jon Newton-May Buxted O 48 82.8% B
Roy Pearce Iden Fern O 48 82.8% B T
Russ Connor Buxted R 47 81.0% S
Paul Bradford Buxted O 46 79.3% B
Lee Crouch Iden Fern O 46 79.3% B T
Pat Fitzgerald Ford R 46 79.3% S T
Jean Greatrex Maldon L 46 79.3% S T
Daniel Hudson Meon Valley O 46 79.3% B T
Nathan Ingram Buxted O 46 79.3% B
Nick Orr Oaks O 46 79.3% B T
Gary Cole Swallows R 45 77.6% S T
Bob Morris Ford R 45 77.6% S T
Anthony Smith Horsham O 45 77.6% B T
Gary Morrison Buxted O 44 75.9% B
Barbara Pearce Iden Fern L 44 75.9% S T
Hugborg Hudson Meon Valley L 43 74.1% B T
Chris Keate Swallows O 43 74.1% T
Steb Martinez Ford O 43 74.1% T
Martin Nicholls Buxted O 42 72.4%
Nick Byrne Oaks .22 41 70.7% B
Matthew Franks Swallows O 41 70.7%
Harvey Friend Oaks J 41 70.7% B
Mark Belgrove Oaks O 40 69.0%
Bruce Ingram Buxted O 40 69.0%
Barry Blackham Ford O 39 67.2%
Martin Cook Iden Fern R 39 67.2% B T
Gabriel Hobbs Iden Fern J 39 67.2% B
Charlie Sebbage Oaks R 39 67.2% B
Glen Turner Ford R 39 67.2% B T
Elias Ridley Buxted O 38 65.5%
Alicia Franks Swallows L 36 62.1%
Ian Bull Swallows O 32 55.2%
Chris Andrews Swallows O 31 53.4%
Trevor Hudson Meon Valley O 25 43.1% T
Daniel Smith Bisley O DNF

I've a DNF recorded for Dan Smith from Bisley - no card found. Was this correct??

Please let me know a.s.a.p. if you spot anything you think is amiss.

Prize drawer winners today were :
• Russ Connor – the £30 cash prize, and
• Mark Rackley – the Air Arms goody bag

Team scores today and points are:

Club Round 3 score Cumulative Points
Buxted 281 36
Oaks 266 30
Swallows 247 25
Horsham 237 22
Iden Fern 227 18
Ford 224 23
Meon Valley 217 25
Bisley 188 13
Maldon 158 26

Bisley, Horsham, Iden Fern and MAD all required lucky-dip cards. Bisley and MAD getting 3 cards (the max allowed) each, Horsham drawing 2 and Meon just 1.

Happy shooting wherever you are until SIHFT Round 4 at Ford on Sunday week (9/6). Hope in the meantime to see a whole bunch of you at tomorrow’s amazing Cancervive charity event at Mile Oak and the Buxted Open on Sunday 2nd June.

Biggles