Mattersey Rifle & Pistol Club

THE MATTERSEY TEN 2005

Sponsored by S.Y.S.S. & Conway Security

By Pete Whomersley

The Mattersey Ten Event Open returned to its ranges in north Nottinghamshire on the 1st of May after a year without either the Open or the Mattersey Steel Challenge, mainly because some of us needed a well earned rest (especially me). This year the format was changed so that instead of the large mixture of events that have been run in the past, we ran the 1500 match, Timed and Precision and Multi Target in small bore gallery rifle, centre fire gallery rifle and long barrel revolver , with the usual fun shoot finale at the end of proceedings.

As usual the range was set up on the Saturday with most of the range crew shooting then, so that Sunday could be kept for official duties. Quite a few people stayed over at the range on Saturday night with the obligatory Bar-b-que and beer. During the night the rain poured down, which was a little worrying, but as competition day dawned the sun came out and shone all day.

The event was reasonably well attended with around 50 or so being squadded, not quite as good as in the past but at short notice it wasn't that bad. It was nice to see Mattersey running this type of open comp again with shooters on all the ranges and the smell of burgers and hotdogs from the food tent, small groups of shooters talking tactics or, in my case, using excuses as to what went wrong!

THE COMPS

The 1500 was back at Mattersey after quite an absence and those of you who remember the 1500 in the heady days of pistol shooting, will recall that Mattersey held the first Nationals for the 1500, also the first Bianchi Nationals for that matter.

The scores indicate just how some shooters have really got to grips with Gallery rifle, also the interest in the LBRs is growing at a rate of knots, in fact I've just bought one myself, although I call it an LBCH ( long barrel coat hanger ). Ahhh! It feels so good to shoot a revolver again.

We had two fifty metre ranges running the 1500 matches and the .22r/f match was run by Layne Chisholm, Pete Harvey, John McCue, Simon Arnold and Dale Pearmain. The feedback that I've had indicates that the R Os made the new shooters feel welcome and at ease, which is great if you feel a little nervous, but the quality of ROs in this line up goes without saying.

The centre fire matches ( lever -action and LBR ) were ably run by Bob Peace, Dave Stanley, Chris and Paul Monaghan and of course Martin Cooper, with Ian Cox also throwing his weight in after shooting. There were some great scores in these matches with John Robinson out on top in the .22r/f by some 27 points with a score of 1496 and 128 Xs, Clive Ferguson was second with a score of 1469 and 90 Xs, and third was Rob Hufton scoring 1472 and 84 Xs.

The Centre Fire Gallery Rifle 1500 was won by that man again John Robinson with a fantastic score of 1499 and 127 Xs, in second was Dave Holt 1484 and 86 Xs, third was Jim Smith who scored 1480, 98Xs.Dave and Jim had a small bet and let's just say Dave was glad to get 4 points in front other wise the moon would have been out, if you catch my drift!

The LBR 1500 only had 4 shooters but I have to say it looked great to see the barricades in use again. I filmed some of it and I've played it back several times. Layne Chisholm came in first with a score of 1472 and 77Xs, second was John Robinson 1447 and 77Xs, and third was JimSmith with 1394and 46Xs.

The Multi Target This match was run by John Kime and his range crew was Paul Langfield, Adrian Evans and Mick Jones. There were some good scores here too and the GRSB was won by Clive Ferguson with a good score of 117, second was Mike Shields who scored 112, and John Lynch came third with 110. The GRCF saw 3 shooters with a score of 115, with Dave Holt in first place, Mike Shields in second, and Jim Smith in third, after placing was decided on countback. There were only two shooters in the LBR Multi Target, Jim Smith with a score of 98 and Doug Green with 78.

Timed & Precision The T&P match was run by Malc Dukes, Malcolm Palk, Paul Stockill, Maurice Barrott and Alan Smith. There were some great scores here too, three shooters with a possible in the centre fire match which was decided on X's. Mike Shields was first on 300 with 21 Xs Tony Cannon second on 300 with 17Xs, and Phil Milsom third on 300 with 13 Xs. The GRSB match was won by Mike Shields with a score of 298-15Xs, Rob Hufton was second with 296-13 Xs, and third was Paul Stockill who scored 295-11Xs. The LBR match was won by Neil Roberts with 288-6Xs, second was Steve Adams scoring 283-4Xs, and third was Susan Armstrong with 263-3Xs.

FUN SHOOT

The day rounded off with the usual Fun Shoot Finale and stake cutting was the order of the day. Some faces were pulled when the teams were told that there would be two stakes, there was a run down from 25 mtrs to 15, the teams had to use a mix of centre fire and rimfire, but as much ammo as needed could be used. This event was won by a team called the Strangers in 28 seconds 84. This is always a popular event as you get to expend lots of ammo at great speed, and eventually there were smiling faces all round!

A great day was had by all, most people went home happy particularly the members of Llandudno who went away with a small skip full of prizes, all very well deserved. They brought a lot of new shooters with them this time and I think we should take our collective hats off to these guys for holding as many open days at their own range as possible and bringing new people into the sport.

As usual, a lot of hard work went into the competition behind the scenes. Pete Harvey ensured the turning targets were up and running again and there was a lot of activity going on in the food tent. Feeding the shooters and range staff is a full time job but as ever Toni Young, Lyn Whomersley, Allison Tedesco, Trevor Ashley and Mike Russell (nice pinny Mike!) slaved hard over the gas bar-bie. Great food guys !
I would like to thank all the people who worked hard to make the event happen, not least the range officers and members who made target frames beforehand and a special thanks to Sue Peace and Darren Whitley for collating the scores and producing the results accurately and on time.

And now for good old Murphy and his law ! Well what could go wrong did, the trophies I ordered did not arrive, there was a power out at Parcel Force in Wolverhampton and they were delayed. I tracked them to Rotherham but was told I could not have them because they had not been attempted to be delivered. Luckily we had some great sponsorship from Roger Francis of South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies and Mike Russell of Conway Security which allowed us to give away some great prizes such as wines and spirits, boxes of chocolates and the like on the day and the missing trophies have since been received and despatched to the worthy winners.

Thanks once again to our sponsors Roger Francis of SYSS and Mike Russell of Conway security and all the people who helped make the event so successful and enjoyable, and if I've missed anyone I apologise.