Benchrest competition at Dartmoor has become something of a success story, we were slightly apprehensive today as we weren’t sure exactly how many would turn up for this – the first match of the season. However, our fears were unfounded and an easily manageable 17 shooters drew their numbered disks from the hat to determine the order of service.The weather conditions were ideal, dry with a gradually strengthening wind to keep things interesting. The wind direction was changing very frequently, this offered plenty of opportunities to release shots during the brief lull between these switches. If the shot was timed precisely – a perfect 10x was the reward.
Mike Smith did exactly that with his first card, resulting in a superb 250:14x. Another notable card was produced by Sally Smith, her 248 being the best achieved so far.Today’s scores were universally good – ten competitors recorded totals over 720, and that all important element of consistency was apparent too – in so far as the wind conditions allowed. The perception of a strengthening wind was not really borne out by the card averages of 240.53, 241.53, and 239.41. These suggest a pretty constant degree of difficulty.
The ‘X’ counts certainly influenced the outcome of the final placings today – with no less than 10 shooters producing scores which needed to be separated by those elusive dead centre hits. Those with the highest X counts had undoubtedly timed many of their shots to perfection in order to coincide with those momentary changes in wind direction. Precision AND patience definitely paid off.
Paul. S.
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