[April 8] Irish Target Shooting Intervarsities & the Colours match

Sparks

The 2006 Irish Target Shooting Intervarsities and the concurrent UCD-TCD Colours match will be run in the Wilkinstown Air Rifle range on Saturday, April 8th this year. This year we'll have an exhibition shooter from DCU shooting along with the UCD and TCD squads, who have been in regular coaching and training since last year in preperation for this event.

The colours event has been run since the founding of UCDRC, and is a team event between TCD and UCD with two teams (Senior and Junior) per college. TCD's held the bragging rights on this one for several years - will this year see UCD make a comeback?

The colours match was finally officially recognised as the target shooting Intervarsities by CUSAI in 2001, by a special dispensation (usually an intervarsities needs three colleges, but as there are only two target shooting college clubs in the country, a dispensation was needed). This is the larger event in that it's open to all Irish colleges, and is scored in the same manner at present; this year will see an exhibition entry from DCU (an exhibition as DCU do not yet have a target shooting club set up).

TCD have some information on their squad and some basic bios and photos here.

Sparks

Ten O'Clock and the advance party (namely, me ) has the range all open and set up and now we're just waiting for the bus carrying the competitors
Details through the day if possible - we're shooting till at least 1830 tonight, and possibly 2030...

les45

No chasing down to "Tiernans" for refreshments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sparks

Right, match in full swing, scores are dissappointingly low for the DURC shooters. Some photos and intermediate results:

1 Haberstock Stefan DURC 93 97 95 91 97 95 568
2 Dennehy Mark DURC 93 91 93 95 95 90 557
3 Lyons Emma UCDRC 94 91 90 89 92 93 549
4 Nash Iain DURC 93 93 95 91 90 87 549
5 McEllistrem Brian UCDRC 85 87 93 91 87 91 534
6 Gaffney Ciara UCDRC 86 88 83 87 83 87 514
7 Wissema Wiepke DURC 87 79 86 81 89 88 510
8 Raval Raj UCDRC 84 92 83 86 82 83 510
9 Daynes Peter DURC 82 89 84 80 85 85 505
10 Magrath Paul DURC 83 71 83 78 78 83 476
11 McQuaid Tommy DURC 74 68 72 73 66 52 405
12 Cunningham Ross DURC 82 79 77 0 0 0 238
13 Taubert Helge DURC 95 88 0 0 0 0 183

Sparks

The shooters arrive...


First detail...


DURC vs UCDRC, boys...


DURC vs UCDRC, girls...


This shooting malarky is tiring!


Right, back to work...


The german contingent...


...really enjoying themselves


Second Detail...


Third Detail...


The rest of the German contingent...


Down the sights with the germans...

Sparks

A few more photos:

Shane Flynn firing the last shots of the intervarsities for DCU.


DURC senior shooters


DURC junior shooters


The winning DURC squad.


The mascot retired!

Manic Moran

DURC Again?

Other than that one time in.. oh.. 1995 or so (I was much younger then), have we (UCD) won since?!

NTM

Sparks

UCD, with the exception of a dedicated few shooters, seem to have swung away from the more competitive end of the sport for some reason MM; I suspect that the departure of two national champions and a fair few very experienced club officers from the club in quick succession due to graduation and career changes give the club a body blow that it's finding hard to return from. The same thing happened to DURC about eight years ago when pretty much every experienced club officer and shooter all graduated at once, and it took several years of dedicated effort from four postgrad students (who have more flexibility with their schedules) to turn it around; it's been well maintained since by a succession of dedicated undergrad students. It's a continual risk in college clubs unfortunately. I don't doubt for a moment that UCD will rise again; and several of their dedicated shooters right now are very promising so the talent hasn't dried up.

Manic Moran

Just seemed to me that even when we were good, we still lost.

Off-topic, but since I've not shot competition in Ireland for about two years, do I remain in my class or do I drop down? (For the next time I do a fly-by-shooting)

NTM

Sparks

No, I remember shooting against UCD when Nicola and Ciara were still shooting for UCD and we got hammered back then. UCD's got some advantages over DURC; a larger range, greater freedom with their annual grant, more firing points and so on, but none of that helps when the club loses its core. Like I said, it's a big problem for college clubs because every year you have that high turnover from graduation. On the other hand, it can be a source of strength - it forces the clubs to be run to a very high standard in terms of having the club's officers' roles defined and because of the high turnover, there's fresh blood at the top table all the time which can be good. The problem arises when there's too much turnover which unavoidably happens from time to time. Handover from one committee to the next is key. In DURC we've been lucky for the past seven or eight years in that alumni have stayed involved with the club and have been available to give advice based on what they saw when they were in the club, but haven't tried to dominate the club. In UCD's case, they don't seem to have had that advantage. It's something that worries a fair few people; UCD and TCD provide a lot of new shooters to the sport - should either of them fall off, everyone loses. Figuring out a way to assist either club ought to be a priority but doesn't seem to be

MM, you'll still be in your last class; you'd have to shoot two or three matches before being dropped up or down to whatever class your standard is now in.

Manic Moran

Sparks wrote:

No, I remember shooting against UCD when Nicola and Ciara were still shooting for UCD and we got hammered back then.

Unless I'm missing something, that was back in 95 or so then. I was in the same year as them. If the Nicola years were the only ones that UCD one, then it was just that one year, and that was it. Jaysus, ten years back. I'm getting old.

Fair enough on the classes then. I guess I'm most firmly staying in 'B' : with a four-year-gap between my last two competitions, I only dropped ten points. Unfortunately, Olympic Air Rifle is a rather unsupported sport on this side of the water.

NTM

stevenw

So what were the final scores and how did Mr DCU get on?

All the best.

Steve.

Sparks

Just waiting for a small hiccup in the exhibition match scores to be ironed out Steve, and then I'll post them. But the DCU lads shot reasonably okay - few of the shooters did well, most dropped lots of points from their averages. Not sure why, we'll have to have a chat with people next week about it.

Sparks

Okay folks, here are the scores for the match (better formatted version attached):

Colours Match
Team Name Ten-shot Series Total Team Total Squad Average
1 2 3 4 5 6
DURC Peter Daynes (Captain) 82 89 84 80 85 85 505 2755 503.8
Stefan Haberstock 93 97 95 91 97 95 568
Mark Dennehy 93 91 93 95 95 90 557
Helge Taubert 95 88 89 90 94 96 552
Iain Nash 93 93 95 91 90 87 549
Mike Dunne 85 89 95 90 85 85 529
Wiepke Wissema 87 79 86 81 89 88 510
Ross Cunningham 82 79 77 82 84 86 490
Paul Magrath 83 71 83 78 78 83 476
Brendan Ward 73 70 86 82 85 79 475
Karl Brown 57 75 75 76 74 73 430
Tommy McQuaid 74 68 72 73 66 52 405

UCDRC Brendan Doherty (Captain) 67 77 81 86 88 88 487 2594 518.8
Emma Lyons 94 91 90 89 92 93 549
Brian McEllistrem 85 87 93 91 87 91 534
Ciara Gaffney 86 88 83 87 83 87 514
Raj Raval 84 92 83 86 82 83 510

Exhibition Match
Team Name Ten-shot Series Total Team Total
1 2 3 4 5 6
DURC Mike Dunne (Rifle) 85 89 95 90 85 85 529 935
Mark Dennehy (Pistol) 59 63 76 71 68 69 406

UCDRC Brendan Doherty (Rifle) 67 77 81 86 88 88 487 968
Raj Raval (Pistol) 77 81 80 76 84 83 481

DCU Shane Flynn (Rifle) 93 89 88 85 86 90 531 986
Thomas Skellig (Pistol) 67 74 77 79 79 79 455

So a round of congratulations please folks, for DCU - despite not (yet!) having a formal club, they managed to win the exhibition match - maybe this will help with convincing the college authorities to let them start one!

Sparks

We've had a change in those results; there was confusion on the day as to who was in the UCD exhibition match. All three teams consulted on it, and here are the updated results for the Exhibition Match:

Exhibition Match
Team Name Ten-shot Series Total Team Total
1 2 3 4 5 6
DURC Mike Dunne (Rifle) 85 89 95 90 85 85 529 935
Mark Dennehy (Pistol) 59 63 76 71 68 69 406

UCDRC Brian McEllistrem (Rifle) 85 87 93 91 87 91 534 1015
Raj Raval (Pistol) 77 81 80 76 84 83 481

DCU Shane Flynn (Rifle) 93 89 88 85 86 90 531 986
Thomas Skellig (Pistol) 67 74 77 79 79 79 455

Sparks

Nice to see some positive press, even if it's only the college newspaper (took a while to scan it in, this was printed a few weeks ago):