A few of our regulars were unable to attend today’s match, resulting in a slightly reduced field. Fourteen of us enjoyed what were perhaps ideal conditions for an outdoor benchrest competition. The Met Office forecast was broadly correct – 7 mph winds with 16 mph gusts, moving from east to south to southeast while the match was in progress. The card averages of 242.79, 242.21, 243.36, confirmed that the wind strength had remained pretty constant throughout.Congratulations to Simon Houseman who achieved his first ever 250 on his first card of the day. Not to be outdone Mike Smith produced the second 250 of the day on his second card and went on to win the match with a superb 744:27x.The Dartmoor benchrest matches have become very closely contested during the past couple of years; it is no longer a foregone conclusion that the same two or three shooters will be in contention for the honours – there wasn’t a single bad score in today’s match. Dropping just one or two points can result in a significant slide down the scoresheet, and a couple of unfortunate ‘fliers’ can put you out of the running altogether. Today’s conditions ensured a liberal sprinkling of those mysterious high or low shots – I had my share, but fortunately none strayed beyond the nine rings. Mark Whiteway wasn’t so lucky, a huge and unaccountable flier gave him a seven – potentially dropping his final position from second to third.
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