Geoff Grenfell wins Natives Club Prize Meeting
The Natives Rifle Club Prize Meeting was held on the beautifully prepared Belmont range on Saturday and Sunday, June 12th and 13th in lovely Brisbane winter weather, perfect for shooting, resulting in some excellent scores from the 117 competitors whose numbers were bolstered by members of interstate teams who were present to compete in the National Teams Championships which followed the NRAA Queens.
Day 1 saw shooters compete for the Carina Leagues Club Short-range Match comprising 10 shots at 500 yards, 15 at 500 yards, 10 at 600 yards and 15 at 600 yards. Josh Pratt (Natives) won the day in A Grade with 250.35 followed closely by Alexander Hoffman, Geoff Grenfell, Kim O’Loghlen (Natives) and Chris Schwebel (Holsworthy) all clean on 250 points.
In B Grade David Hindmarsh (Pacific) took the trophy on 245.22 from Wendy Latham (Natives) 244.25 and Sandi Moore (Mosman Neutral Bay) 244.19. C Grade was a trifecta for Natives with Isaac Brinin winning with 246.19 (a score which would have taken out B Grade!) followed by Ian Errington 235.16 and Reilly Pitt 232.9.
F-Class Standard A Grade went to QRA President, Andrew McKillop (Pacific) 297.30 from Henk Doggen (Beaudesert) 295.26 and Denis Aarons (Brisbane) 294.19. F-Class Std B Grade was won by Wendy Free (Pacific) 294.23 from Corrie Hooson (North Arm) 291.20 and Gordon Craick (Natives) 289.22. In F-Class Open George Constantinou (Natives) on an excellent score of 299.32 led Brian Hansen (Ipswich) 297.31 and Brian Potter (Brisbane Mariners) 296.31. F-TR was won by Mark Fairbairn (Cannon Hill RSL) 298.23 from Frans Knox (Brisbane) and Gary Towers (Maryborough) 295.20.
Day 2 again dawned bright and crisp for the Menzel Family Long Range Match comprising 10 shots at 900 yards, 15 shots at 900, 10 at 1000 yards and 15 shots at 1000 yards. This challenging combination of ranges was mastered in A Grade by Geoff Grenfell (Bendigo) 198.20 in a close contest from Michael Dickensen (Pratten) 198.18 and Ben Emms (Lyndhurst) 197.19.
Bas Hopkins (Gold Coast) on 194.16 won B Grade ahead of Barney Neilsen (Southern Highlands) 191.14. In C Grade Natives Club members took out the first five places with Reilly Pitt on 194.14 leading Marcia Canty 188.18, Ian Errington 188.10, Teddy Spence 187.12 and Isaac Brinin 185.8. F-Standard A Grade went to Denis Aarons (Brisbane) 232.18 from Andrew McKillop (Pacific) 230.11 and Henk Doggen (Beaudesert) 227.8 while in F-Std B Grade Damien Tansley (Ipswich) 227.11 won from Saxon Fairbairn (Natives) 224.7 and Corrie Hooson (North Arm) 222.10. F-Class Open saw Brian Potter (Brisbane Mariners) 236.20 lead Des Voght (North Arm) 235.12 and Jenni Hausler (QRA) 234.12. Mark Fairbairn (Cannon Hill RSL) 230.14 continued his winning run in F-TR from Frans Knox (Brisbane) 230.9 and John Stevens (Natives) 228.16.
Geoff Grenfell from the Bendigo club won the Les Perrin Memorial two-day Aggregate for TR A Grade with 448.52 from Alexander Hoffman (Concord) 446.58, Alex Davies (West Wallsend) 446.54, Ben Emms (Lyndhurst) 445.55 and Bob Crawford (Natives) 445.43. Barney Neilsen (Southern Highlands) shot consistently in B Grade to score 433.33 ahead of Rudi Mueller (Natives) and Peter Bevan (Central Qld). A highlight for the Natives Club was a top 3 podium finish in C Grade won by Isaac Brinin 431.27 with club mates Reilly Pitt 426.23 and Ian Errington 423.26 taking out 2nd and 3rd places respectively.
Andrew McKillop (Pacific) 527.41 continued his dominance in F-Class Std A Grade winning from Denis Aarons (Brisbane) 526.37 and Henk Doggen (Beaudesert) 522.34. F-Class Std B Grade went to Corrie Hoosen (North Arm) 513.30 from Wendy Free (Pacific) 511.29 and Gordon Craick (Natives) 510.33. In F-Class Open Brian Potter (Brisbane Mariners) 532.51 held off George Constantinou (Natives) 530.45 and Jenni Hausler (QRA) 528.43. In F-TR Mark Fairbairn (Cannon Hill RSL) 528.37 won from Frans Knox (Brisbane) 526.24 and John Stevens (Natives) 513.29.
The top 10 TR competitors shot-off at 1000 yards for the The Keith Affleck Belt, a perpetual trophy donated by Keith for the match. Ben Emms from Lynhurst won the Belt with an excellent 50.6.
Mark Fairbairn of Wild Dog Custom Rifles donated a new perpetual trophy for the winners of a shoot-off at 1000 yards between the top three shooters in each of F-Class Standard, F-Class Open and F-TR. Mark (Cannon Hill RSL) put his name on his own trophy by winning F-TR while Andrew McKillop won F-Standard and Jenni Hausler won F-Open.
