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THE 2011 EUROPEAN F CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS BISLEY - ENGLAND


other competitors in a field of 76 did better than five and there were cartloads of nil to two counts! Russell Simmonds and Adam Bagnall nearly tied here on 71.6v & 71.5v respectively and most of the top Brits were in the 69 to 71 points band alongside visitors Paul Eggerman (Germany). Maksim Semonovykh (Ukraine), John Hennessy (Ireland), Alejandro Hildago and Enrique Orti (Spain).


Bad Start! The afternoon’s 1000 yard match was straight after the lunch break for my relay, a 1.30 pm start. The wind was still running from 7 o’clock, the overcast was thicker but the light was good and it still hadn’t rained on me – things could be much worse, and they soon were.


The wind was running pretty well as before, at least initially with the extra 100 yard taking it up to 3½ to 4-MOA left of my scope zero. My wind calls for sighter 2 and score shot 1 were for once good, the first just below the Bull line. Put a quarter minute on the elevation, add an extra quarter minute left wind on too ... and score a ‘three’ at precisely 12 o’clock, barely in the ring too! Damnation!


Despite my experiences in the previous two matches, I foolishly took three-quarter MOA off the elevation (lack of food clouding judgement, had to be) and paid for this folly with a low four. Two shots on and three possible points gone, but things now went from bad to really bad. Put the elevation back on and shot 2 was fine now in that regard, only it disappeared off to the right – a ONE. I looked again at the flags (no visible change), looked again at the target (still a ‘One’) and couldn’t believe it.


As neighbouring targets rose, groans and curses erupted on either side – I wasn’t alone even if the 308s had mostly just stayed in the black for a ‘two’. Our partners faced a dilemma: the flags looked the same as for their last shot but they’d just seen evidence of a near two minute wind rise. Which should they believe? There was what seemed a very long silence along the firing line and I suspect most went for what


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their eyes and judgement said about the flags – and they shot way off to the right too! Anyway, this was really dandy on a personal level – three shots into the match, seven points dropped! Actually, I made a good recovery with a couple of fives, got restarted mentally and had nearly as good a shoot after that as I’d get all weekend ending up on 64.2v for a top 20 place, ‘One’ or no ‘One’. The wind generally ran at a higher level after its dramatic lift, never dropping below 4½-MOA and peaking at 6-MOA left on my plot.


Surprise, surprise, scores dropped – Ireland’s John Hennessy got the medal on 70.0v, and Alexandr Nicolaev (him again!) had the only 69 – with the equal highest V-count of five too. This man is good! Russell Simmonds, wind reader extraordinaire, was third on the sole 68 with one V and relative league newcomer, Altcar’s Richard Jones, followed up with Paul Eggerman on 67s, Richard being the only other competitor to find the V five times. Of the other leading League contenders, Stuart Anselm and George Barnard shared 66s, Paul Harkins had shot 65, while Adam Bagnall, Ian Dixon, and Steve Donaldson were down on 63s, John Cross on 62. Around 30 competitors were down in the 50s too – suddenly I didn’t feel too bad after all. To inject a bit of European lingo, Schadenfreude (pleasure in others’ misfortunes) can be a most enjoyable sensation but it can work both ways as we’ll see.


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