WORLD CLASS IRB SCORES
World class performances were recorded recently at the Koolinghat (Taree NSW) in the “Round Robin” 8 club IRB rimfire matches.
Koolinghat range is one of the most difficult ranges to shoot on in Australia and whilst conditions were light they were still quite tricky for most all of the high class field of competitors which included Australian representive shooters.
The highlight of the shoot was a truly world class score for the 3 card match produced by Nick Ward of Glen Inness to win the match recording an amazing 750-51 very close to the world mark set in France in the world titles by Coffs Harbour’s John Radford of 750-55 then next day reset at 750-59.
Considering Koolinghat range is a very difficult range to shoot, Nick Ward’s amazing score rates right up there.
Other contestants recorded excellent scores remembering this is a very difficult range to shoot.
Aussie Group Champion, local Don Powell came in 2nd with a very credible 746-45, followed by Aussie rep shooter John Matthews 745-41, 3 dots ahead of his 18 year old son Nathan Matthews 745-38. Nathans effort was amazing as living 500 km away from Dad and he shoots very seldom, so he will be one to watch in the near future as he has a very promising future in the sport.
Scores were very close with Coffs Harbour’s Ian Thompson only one point behind on 744-38 followed one point behind was Peter Nicoll on 743-39, followed by Coffs Harbour’s Greg Sutherland 742-32, Ron Nutt 740-34 and Bill Buchanan 740-31.
These very high scores shot on one of Australia’s most difficult ranges, demonstrate the value of the intense competition created by the 8 Club IRB series which runs from Koolinghat north to Port Macquarie, Coffs harbour, Grafton and inland to Armidale, Glen Innes, Inverell, and Guyra.
Also the benefit of local coaching has helped numerous competitors steadily improve their match performances.
It is predicted it is only a matter of time until the present word records are beaten and it may well be one of the above northern NSW region shooters to accomplish the feat.
John Radford Coffs Harbour