UC(E)SSA Summer Postal League

Sparks

And for those who wanted to enter a smallbore postal competition, there's the UC(E)SSA Summer postal league, shot over 50m and 100yds (two seperate competitions). The entry forms and details are attached, but here's the quick summary:

Individual League: Ten shooters per division, arranged by average.
Entry fee: £4 per individual, Juniors & Veterans £2 each.
(Juniors - under 18 on 1st May 2005; Veterans - over 65.)

A Junior Championship will be run concurrently with the Individual Leagues, (if entries permit)

Team League: Teams of 3, six teams per division, run concurrently with the Individual Leagues.
Entry Fee: £5 per team

Course of fire will be ten rounds with twenty shots per round. Individual and Team cards will be shot concurrently. All cards can be shot in advance. Stickers are issued to be placed on the target prior to shooting it.

Entries can be submitted by email or post (addresses in the attached document), and the closing date is Wednesday, 16th March 2005.

Sparks

The first three rounds have been shot already (again, sorry for the delay in posting):

Round 1 Individual
Round 1 100yd score correction
Round 1 Team


Round 2 Individual
Round 2 Team

Round 3 Individual
Round 3 Team

The top few divisions see most of the old names in the top slots - Baker, Gaw and Lewis taking first, second and third respectively, but with Aiken coming up fast behind them. Other well-known names (among the ISSF shooters anyway) are also scattered around the top divisions. Depressingly, no ROI shooters have entered the match at all this year Hopefully, with the opening of RRPC's outdoor range we'll see more people shooting 50m competitively and we can give the lads up north a decent bit of competition, we certainly have the talent down here to do it!

Sparks

Been neglecting this recently.
*slaps own wrist*
But here are the scores, with thanks to John Spooner of the UCESSA who doesn't forget such things!

Round 4 Individual
Round 4 Team

Round 5 Individual
Round 5 Team

And as of round five, it's a very tight scrap for first place in division one betweed Davy Gaw and Alan Lewis, with a single point in it. Alan (who represented Ireland in the Sydney Olympics) is trailing on 41 points but is ahead in gunscore on 984; and in third place, Ronan Conway is a point behind Alan and one ahead in gunscore on 985, showing that it's not just about how high you score in these matches, but how well you do against the others in your division in any particular round!

There are a lot more names than there's time to comment on really, but what's a bit annoying is that we've so few shooters from down south taking part in this postal league at the moment. I know, it's a bit much for me to say that when my name's not in there either, but I do try to shoot the indoor 25yd winter league every year, and I don't have a 50m range right now, so that's my excuse - what about all the rest of you with 50m ranges in the NTSA? DRC, MRC, Fermoy, Fingal, c'mon lads! There are at least four shooters down south who could compete with division one, two or three in this league today, so let's get training and give them some proper competition for the next league!

Sparks

Round 6 Individual
Round 6 Team

And showing how fast these things can change over, Division One has seen an upset, with Don Baker taking first place, Davy Gaw hanging on to second, Louise Aiken taking third place and Alan Lewis falling to fourth and Ronan Conway to fifth, all on a single card with a point spread of just two points (from 198 to 196!).

And don't forget folks, the UCESSA Winter postal is now taking entries...

Sparks

Round 7 Individual
Round 7 Team

Davy Gaw moves from second to first, Don Baker falls to second, Alan Lewis and Ronan Conway are now sharing joint third, bumping Louise Aiken down to fifth, although the point spread on this round was a bit higher, with scores for the five ranging from 197 to 193. There are five others in the division as well, and while some are out of the running, there's still no way of knowing who's going to take the medals in this match!

And once again. don't forget folks, the UCESSA Winter postal is now taking entries... and you have only 18 days left to get signed up! C'mon folks! How about a team (three people) from each of the clubs out there? DURC's got several people looking to shoot this, so has Wilkinstown, but there are so many other clubs out there! Rathdrum, Leinster R&PC, DRC, BRC, Fermoy, Fingal, Fassaroe, and all the others - we don't have a national postal yet, so let's use this one, and show how good we can be and show that a national postal match would be worthwhile!

rrpc

Sparks wrote:

Hopefully, with the opening of RRPC's outdoor range we'll see more people shooting 50m competitively and we can give the lads up north a decent bit of competition, we certainly have the talent down here to do it!

Don't hold your breath Sparks, lots of clubs down here have pulled out of this competition due to the cost of sending cards North. As far as I remember, 100g express post to the north is €5.50, and it doesn't take many 25yard cards to get to 100g! - Then look at the cost of sending 50m cards! - and that's to be done at least ten times.......

We have asked, but the UCESSA will not accept our own scoring, which is a bit rich, seeing as the NSRA accepts it for their postal competitions (apart from final rounds).

And finally, we had too many instances of cards being sent North not turning up, even when they had been sent in plenty of time, and in the same envelope as others that did turn up :eek:

Sparks

Hmmm. Well, the UCESSA uses a pool of scorers for the shoot, maybe we could get a volunteer or two to score the competitions in the republic, which would reduce the costs of postage?

edit: I've asked the organisers about this by email, I'll keep you posted...

Did you say something about some 25m postal shoot starting soon?

Sparks

Not 25m OP, 25yd - and that was this postal match. DURC's shot in it for donkey's years, but we've not been as dilligent in the last two or three years....

Sparks

Okay, so here are the final rounds for this year's Summer Postal...

Round 8 Individual
Round 8 Team

Round 9 Individual
Round 9 Team

Round 10 Individual
Round 10 Team

Well, it came down to the last card this time. Don Baker and Davy Gaw were split only by overall gunscore going into round ten, with 74 points apiece, and Don 3 points ahead of Davy on 1774 in gunscore. Louise Aiken was in third place going into round ten, four points ahead of Alan Lewis and Ronan Conway, though not assured of third at all, the way the match has changed about through the postal.

However, in round ten, Don Baker entered a possible (200/200) and so walked clear of the postal in first place. Davy's 196/200 kept him in second place, and Louise's 194 was enough to keep her lead over Alan and Ronan, though they both shot better cards for the last round (198 for Alan and 195 for Ronan). So congratulations to Don, Davy and Louise. Perhaps next year, we could appoint a scorer for cards in the Republic and give the UCESSA lads a bit of competition?