IT was a busy festive period for Echuca Moama Field and Game, with the club holding its 142-target Christmas team shoot on Sunday, December 15 amid a number of other significant events.
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The club also presented its major award winners for the year and then finished up 2019 with a 100-target shoot held on Sunday, December 29.
The Christmas shoot was a two-person team shoot and is the highlight of the shooting calendar for many shooters.
At this event shooters have to pair up and attempt each shooting station together, where there could be anywhere from two to four targets in the air at the same time.
The shooters need good communication and team work to try and hit as many as possible without wasting shots shooting at the same target.
Daryl Scott has set this novelty course up for many years now and all shooters love the ideas he comes up with each year.
There is always plenty of laughs and cheers heard as the squads work their way around the stations, especially as the very last stand, because if you hit the black super mini target you and your partner got icy poles.
They were much sought after on the rather hot day.
Shooters travel from far and wide to try their luck to win a Christmas ham and for this event the club thanks the support of Moama RSL, which continues to be a valued sponsor of Echuca Moama Field and Game.
In all 134 shooters attended the day, with the top 10 teams winning hams just in time for Christmas.
The children who came along with their parents had a visit from the man in red, with Santa appearing later in the afternoon with a bag full of yummy goodies.
Thank you Santa for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit us.
Each team had their Field and Game handicap added twice to their raw score to give them a handicapped total. The winning teams are as follows.
1st: Robert Hall and Matt Libbis (136/142).
2nd: Cody Storm and Emily Jones (132/142).
3rd: Mick and Ricky Keirl (127/142).
4th: Katrina Brown and Xavier Russell (127/142).
5th: Grant Sandford and Brendan Quaife (126/142).
6th: Adam Valentine and Kaiden Ellis (126/142).
7th: Jason Smith and John Thompson (124/142).
8th: Ron Galea and Mitch McIntosh (124/142).
9th: Craig Scott and Wok Kelvy (123/142).
10th: Nick and Jeremy Guerra (123/142).
At the end of the day Ricky and Mick Keirl had the pleasure of presenting their awards - the junior and sub junior aggregate champions - to the two young shooters who have shot the best for their age categories during the year.
Sub juniors are aged between 12 and 15, and juniors being from 15 to 18 years of age.
The sub junior winner for 2019 was Izzy Keirl, shooting 507 targets including handicap during the year.
The junior winner was Bianca Norris who shot 667 including handicap for 2019.
It is great to see the young talent coming up through the club and everyone looks forward to watching all junior shooters continue to improve and grow in the sport.
Life members George and June Shawcross then made their way to the front of the room, ready to present the two major awards for the club for 2019 - the club champion and the club aggregate winners for 2019 - which they sponsor each year.
George and June are proud of these awards and take great pleasure in awarding the trophies to the winners.
The club champion is awarded to the shooter with the best 20 rounds over the year.
The club aggregate goes to the shooter with the best score including handicap for the whole year.
Shooting 463 out of 500, the 2019 Club Champion was Ricky Keirl.
Ricky’s score is made up of two perfect rounds of 25, seven rounds of 24, three rounds of 23, and eight rounds of 22.
The next closest shooter was Steve Norris, 11 targets behind on 452 targets out of 500.
Topping off a great year, Ricky was also the 2019 club aggregate winner, with a handicap score of 765 for the year.
With a handicap of zero to one, this was a great achievement.
Well done, Ricky.
Other shooters who made the top five for the club aggregate include Steve Norris on 737, Emma Keirl on 684, youngster Bianca Norris on 667, and Chris Cox with a score of 660.
Echuca Moama Field and Game then finished off a very busy year with a 100-target novelty shoot held on Sunday, December 29.
In all 114 shooters braved the 42-degree heat to join us and shoot the targets set by club President Ricky Keirl.
With three sponsors on board for the major event, we were able to award winners down to 5th place in each grade and category.
Thanks to Brookes Building Group, Smiths Outdoors, and Haeusler’s Echuca for their support of our club.
The course saw some fun stations set, including throwing targets at a trampoline to make them bounce off into the sky, and a speed station where shooters had to reload their gun multiple times to try and shoot the five targets, where one was thrown every five seconds.
Videos of these stations can be viewed on the clubs Facebook page.
The High Gun winner for the day was Robert Hall with a score of 94 out of 100.
This score was made up of three 23’s and a perfect round of 25.
The rest of the day's winners are listed below.
The club wishes to extend a big thank you to all of its sponsors who support the club year in and year out.
Club officials are grateful for the support from our local businesses.To the members who continue to support and help out where they can, thank you for making the club feel like an extended family.
The club would love to see even more members during 2020.
It looks forward to kicking off this year with our next shoot on Sunday, January 19.
This will be a 75-target shoot which is very kindly sponsored by Thompson's Concreting.
Any enquiries can be directed to president Ricky Keirl on 0418 922 951 or to the club's Facebook page.
December 100 Target Novelty Shoot Results
High Gun: Robert Hall (94/100).
AA grade: 1st: Mick Keirl (93/100), 2nd: Stephen Spencer (93/100), 3rd: Mitch McIntosh (90/100), 4th: Tom Challis (90/100), 5th: Wayne Stiff (90/100).
A grade: 1st: Wayne Lieshout (90/100), 2nd: Peter McKay (88/100), 3rd: William Cole (84/100), 4th: Clinton Westhead (83/100), 5th: Rod Laidlaw (83/100).
B grade: 1st: Nic Davey (82/100), 2nd: David Spedding (80/100), 3rd: Jason Allitt (80/100), 4th: Jeffrey Bigham (80/100), 5th: Brian Hodgson (79/100).
C grade: 1st: Alan Harridge (75/100), 2nd: Ron Galea (66/100), 3rd: Jason Betts (66/75), 4th: Bob Davey (65/100), 5th: Kevin Wilson (58/100).
Ladies: 1st: Bianca Norris (74/100), 2nd Brenda Murphy (62/100), 3rd: Sandra Brown (59/100), 4th: Nikki Rees (49/100).
Vets: 1st: Ed Treadwell (89/100), 2nd: Ron Purss (77/100), 3rd: Frank Dick (76/100), 4th: Trevor Smith (75/100), 5th: Roger Kerslake (66/100).
Jnrs: 1st: Julian Lieshout (77/100), 2nd: Rhett McPherson (71/100).
Sub jnrs: 1st: Tom Dixon (78/100), 2nd: Jarred Spedding (76/100), 3rd: Taylor Cole (68/100), 4th: Rebecca Ruedin (57/100), 5th: Bailey Gatt (54/100).