NINE Channel Islanders are going shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best shooters in the world. The team is competing in Bloemfontein in the annual South Africa Bisley Annual Open. The open competition attracts some of the biggest names in shooting and is the largest competition of its type shot in the southern hemisphere. Teams entered from as far apart as Malaysia to United States and CI team is finding the competition over the next two weeks of the highest standard.

After an impressive opening ceremony, in which the Jersey and Guernsey flags were parachuted onto the range, the opening competition acted as a warm up to the Grand Aggregate that began yesterday.

The first competition was the Scottish Sword, a match fired fired over 300m and 900m with 10 scoring shots to count.

Conditions early in the morning were unlike the weather expected with heavy intermittent showers playing havoc with preparation. Luckily, being accustomed to this weather the CI team ventured onto the range and posted some impressive scores.

Leading the way was team captain Nick Mace who scored 49.5 (ex 50.10), closely followed by Adam Jory on 48.5 and Alan Le Page on 48.1.

Moving back to 900m, with showers becoming heavier and the notorious South African wind picking up, it was expected that the team would have trouble reading the conditions.

Peter Jory, however, led the way with an very impressive 48.3 followed by Alex Langley on 46.2 and Cliff Mallett on 46.1.

The afternoon saw the start of the team competitions. In the invitational match the CI team faced its first problem.

Having only nine shooting members in the team and with it being a 12-man team shoot, the team captain had to use his negotiating skills to ‘borrow’ his wife, Lucy, from the England team and persuade Lynn Johnson (Ireland) and Dot Hume (Scotland) to become honorary Channel Islanders for the day, by virtue of them having competed in Jersey and Guernsey on many occasions.

The match was fired over 800m and 900m, with 15 scoring shots to count. With coaches allowed, life was made easier for the shooters as they would not have to concentrate on the severity of the wind changes.

At 800m, Peter Jory had a maximum score of 75.08 (ex 75.15). Mace fired an excellent 74 and Graeme Harris a 73, dropping all his points on his last two shots.

Lucy Mace top-scored at 900m with a 73.06, followed by Langley with a 72.04, including dropping two points on one shot.

The team finished in fourth overall, behind South Africa, England and Great Britain under-25s.

On the last day of shooting before the South African Grand Aggregate, the CI team was invited to compete in two matches alongside South African regional teams.

The day began with the Hamilton Cup, a match fired over 300m, 500m and 600m with seven scoring shots to count. The team started slowly, averaging a respectable 34 (ex 35) with Graeme Harris leading the way with a 35 with 4 V-bulls.

At 500m, the team hit its potential: Langley dropped the only point at the range with Adam Jory top-scoring with a 35.05.

Then at 600m, the wind began to play its tricks and Mallett had his work cut out coaching the team. However, he managed to guide them to an impressive score of 203.14 with Nick Mace top with a 35.02.

In the afternoon the Rhodes Cup was competed for, fired over 800m and 900m with 10 scoring shots.

Mallett led the way with a 50.03 (ex 50.10) and was followed by Adam Jory with a 50.03.

At the longer distance, the coaches faced wind changes that amounted to 20 feet over the distance. Mace performed excellently coaching Peter Jory and Mallett to 49.02 and 48.01 respectively.

Ahead of the individual competitions, Mace was happy with the performances of all his shooters

‘I am expecting the team will perform very well over the Open Championships and think that we will create a number of upsets.

‘We are aiming to place the islands in the very top echelon of fullbore rifle shooting.’