What a week leading up to the NI & NZ Compak Championships with earthquakes and flooding thrown into the area. These were held at my local club the Hutt Valley Clay Target Club.
I did not shoot the Trophy Shoot on Thursday but spent the day getting ready and doing some housework since I was away most of the weekend. One of the guys shot a 99, missing his last target. You would be gutted.
NI Compak Championship
Friday broke with overcast and drizzly weather for the North Island Compak Championship. The weather improved throughout the day. I struggled during the day with 2×16’s and a 14 for the first three rounds but finished on a respectable 19. Giving a total of 65 out of 100, I was about 10 targets light to get a medal.
NZ Compak Championship
Saturday brought on the New Zealand Championship, shot over 2 days with 100 targets each day.
Day 1
The targets were harder with the first field we shot the pairs were all simultaneous pairs and even though I was 20 minutes before the allotted start time, the earlier squad had finished shooting and I did not get to see the birds. This made it difficult to know which one to shoot first.
Thankfully one of my squad members gave me a briefing on where the birds were going and the type. He must have helped as I cleared the first stand. Ended up shooting a 17, 17, 20, and 14 to finish the first day with a 68. I was happy with my performance except to finish the day on 14 after shooting 9 straight and then only getting 5 for the last 16 targets. This put me 11 targets off the lead and 4 behind 2nd equal. Seeing this I thought that first was too far ahead for me to challenge but 2nd was achievable.
Day 2
Sunday started early with us up first at 8:30 am, I did not repeat the earlier days’ performance and made sure I was on the starting grid on time. Before I started Dad gave me some great advice, do not look at the scoreboard until the end of the day, and take it one target at a time.
The format was slightly different with us starting on Field 3, then shooting 2, 1 and lastly 4. I started off well with a 19 and followed that up with a strong 22 and my confidence was growing. Unfortunately, field 1 was having issues with a trap breaking down and another was breaking clays. This meant there was a long delay between rounds and that slowed my flow a bit. I ended up with a 17 which was disappointing as I missed some of the easier birds on that field.
We were quickly up to the last field for the day and the Championship. This was the field they had set the simultaneous pairs again. I shot pretty strong and ended up with a 20, I was gutted to miss the last pair for a 20 but happy to have shot another 20. This was a strong performance for me ending the day on 78 for a total of 146 out of 200.
I was not sure if I had done enough to move into the medals but I had given it my all and was proud. Once done I went and had a look at the scoreboard, a quick glance had me in second with a few shooters to come through and it was looking close.
Instead of sitting there and waiting I went and helped score another round and a bit cleaning up after.
Another check and I was fairly certain I was in 2nd but was not sure until just before the ceremony when the results were on the notice board. I was so proud that I was able to make that deficient up and get clear by 2 targets. I was still 10 off the lead but made 1 target up on Sunday.
A big thank you goes to the Guys and Girls that made it happen with some great targets thrown and apart from the field there were no dramas that I saw.
Hopefully, I can make it to the Sporting Nationals in February.
Until Next Time
Parriehunter