IT was a clean sweep for Jersey’s full-bore rifle shooters against Guernsey over the weekend, with Andrew Le Cheminant emerging as Channel Islands champion and the Island team retaining the Lieut-Governor’s Cup for the fourth consecutive year.
Le Cheminant won with an overall points score of 222.28.
The second stage of the CI Championships were initially fired at Guernsey’s Fort Le Marchant Range at L’Ancresse on Saturday afternoon, with the day’s events shortened to 15 rounds at 600 yards.
Le Cheminant was top scorer with 73.9, the variable winds making shooting difficult, with many poorer scores recorded.
The final round, on Sunday morning in Jersey on the range at Les Landes - Guernsey has no 900 or 1000 yard range - was curtailed for a time due to fog, but it didn’t faze Le Cheminant, who went on to score an excellent 149.19 at 900 and 1000 yards.
The JRA’s Bruce Horwood finished a close second, with 221.19.
A member of the Le Cheminant shooting dynasty, Andrew, who has competed at Island Games and Commonwealth events, said he was delighted to win.
‘Conditions weren’t easy, but we shot shoulder-to-shoulder and they were the same for everyone.
Things went well for me.
When you shoot you are only competing against yourself and I enjoy the personal challenge.’ The highest-scoring Guernsey shooter was Sylvia Sirett, who finished fifth overall with 215.17, last year’s champion, Guernsey’s Peter Jory, having not quite such a good day.
Ironically it was the latter who had managed a perfect 150.16 in Saturday morning’s inter-insular at Fort Le Marchant, in conditions that Jersey team captain Colin Mallett described as: ‘Hardly typical of a June day.
It was windy, damp and misty and rained during the earlier stages.’ Top Jersey scorer was veteran Cliff Mallett who totalled 149.20, and with the consistent scores of fellow-team members, Jersey won with a clear 16-point margin to retain the Lieut-Governor’s Cup.
‘The team coped well with the conditions, but with the forthcoming Bisley events in mind, we could have done better in the lead-up.
Having said that, we did sufficient to win and no-one shot badly,’ Colin Mallett said.
‘But there is still room for improvement, particularly at 500 and 600 yards.’ Shooting started at 300 yards, two hours late due to weather delays, and Jersey took a 12-point lead at this stage with Peter Stock and Chris Cotillard scoring 50s.
At 500 yards Jersey increased their lead by another point, Cliff Mallett and Ian Jones scoring 50s.
Shooting at 600 yards became a little trickier and with winds varying, the Jersey coaches Colin Mallett and Bruce Horwood had to use all their experience to hold the bull.
Mary Norman, Alex Langley and Cliff Mallett all shot 50s, and Jersey further increased their lead to finish with a total of 1176.155 to the Guernsey’s 1160.117.
Jersey also won the reserves pairs match convincingly, by ten points.
Article posted on 1st July, 2004 - 12.00am
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