The Highland Challenge – cold and wet, but not windy
Recent visitors to Blair Atholl’s Jubilee range might be forgiven for thinking “what’s all the fuss about?’, after all, this is supposed to be the World’s second toughest range – second only to the infamously difficult Trentham in New Zealand. Yet, if anything we’ve enjoyed let another weekend of very benign wind conditions, somewhat similar to the previous match in August, and if my memory serves me right, last year’s matches were also marked by gentle winds. Having said that, the very absence of any obvious wind brings its own challenges; just exactly where does one look for wind indicators? It was a question I heard several times over the course of the weekend. Whatever the answer is, Dan Lomas and David Rollafson seemed to know and they used it to good effect, by becoming the new Highland Challenge Champions.
Numbers for this match were buoyant; pretty much back up to pre-Covid levels, necessitating four details. There were a few late cancellations and planned absences of two or three of the League’s “big guns”, which was unfortunate, but nevertheless it was a convivial gathering. All the more so for having gazebos to shelter under and plenty of hot tea & coffee and a big television to gaze at the scores – how civilised! I must say how all these small touches have helped us come a long way in making League matches more sociable events. All these refinements must be planned for and put in place, it doesn’t happen by magic – there’s one person who does the Lion’s share of all the organising and as you know, that’s Richie. He’s been given many accolades before and they are all very well deserved; our one-man army and human dynamo to mention just two. There are not many guys (actually none) who would put in all the hours that Richie does, just for the love of the sport – he deserves a medal.
Friday Practice
How is it that the weather on the Friday practice often bears no relation to what follows on the weekend of the match? We had a lovely day; bright, dry and mild even warmish – after all it is mid-October and we’re at nearly 1,000ft up. The range was looking good and attracting many comments; the deciduous trees changing colour and the bracken dying off to a russet brown, there had been snow on the high tops, but not right then – more on that later. Members arriving from the North and South reported they had driven through heavy rain and even hail, yet there we were blissfully unaware in our own microclimate; a little pocket of dryness, it was luck but would it last.
About two dozen shooters availed themselves of the free practice; some just checking their elevation setting if they hadn’t been to Blair before and others making full use of the targets to get actual shooting practice in. One factor that everyone was concerned about was the offset of the virtual target centre – we had deliberately raised this above where the actual target centre was in order to give more protection to the West Atholl Kongsberg targets which, although lowered down into the butts, still peep over the mantlet by a couple of inches. The combined effect of raising the offset and shooting at nearly 1,000ft up made for some interesting comments on the firing point!
I am moved to say that although the Shotmarkers (like the Silver Mountains before them) are marketed as being waterproof, I reckon they are not quite waterproofed to British standards. You will recall during the European Championships our North American visitors were amazed that we continued to shoot in simply awful rain, something our visitors would never have done back home. I suspect the eTargets are made with a similar expectation; that they will not be used in torrential rain. To their great credit though, this latest generation of eTarget are miles ahead of where they used to be; our new Shotmarkers actually give a diagnosis of where the problem is; this hint is invaluable and what’s more the targets respond quickly and positively when the highlighted problem is addressed. This meant that Richie zoomed down to the butts (courtesy of Grahame Doe in his 4×4) and within minutes was able to take action to restore the targets back to 100% working order! How good is that! Technology is moving ahead and improving all the while. It helps to build confidence that even when things go wrong, they can be put right in good time.
Saturday
Stage 1
Although the Friday practice had been dry for us, and we knew we’d been lucky, and again on Saturday it started out fine, but that luck streak was about to run out; All morning there had been big clouds moving in and across the faraway mountains, often obscuring the high tops, we hoped they’d stay off in the distance, but it wasn’t to be. Heavy showers rolled in and across the range; the cumulative effect of these over the space of a couple of hours was to thoroughly soak everyone and everything including our new Shotmarkers.
By the time the F Open guys got down to shoot, one of the targets decided it had had enough of the cold wet morning and packed up, but not to worry, this time Richie was the fare and Grahame Doe the taxi driver, they zoomed down to the butts and in no time restored the aberrant target.
As for the results of the first stage, well what can I say, it was millpond conditions; a brilliant, clear, crisp autumn morning with nary a zephyr to contend with, consequently the scores were stratospherically high; of the top six podium winners, out of 120 shots, only 3 points were dropped! That must be some sort of record.
Carrie Ryan had the highest V-count of all, a simply astonishing 15 V’s. I’m conscious that for many members, going to Blair can seem somewhat like an expedition, all the more credit then to Raymond Fitzpatrick who came all the way from County Down in Northern Ireland and got a 99.8 on his first visit to the range. The gold medal was well-earned by Dan Lomas with an outstanding score of 100.10, I understand that Dan uses Phoenix barrels? if I’m correct then I predict a queue of new customers for Phoenix.
On the F Open side, we had a trio of shooters all on 100 points – that’s a very rare sight indeed at Blair Atholl. It was great to see Martin Townsend showing why he’s been a GB Coach for so many years. Martin Miles put all his experience as a top benchrester to good effect to come second. It was most encouraging of all to see Dave Raybould back on top in superb form, he’s clearly got his new Peter Walker rifles tuned to perfection.
| Dan Lomas | 100.10 | David Raybould | 100.11 |
| Ray Fitzpatrick | 99.8 | Martin Miles | 100.10 |
| Carrie Ryan | 98.15 | Martin Townsend | 100.10 |
Stage 2
By mid-morning we were making good progress with Stage 2; it was still very calm indeed, with just the occasional sign of life in the flags, but next to nothing for the most part. Then the rain started, that just added weight to the already lifeless flags, leaving shooters with even less to go on. The rain just seemed to keep coming in fairly heavy showers on and off but increasing in duration. Once again, the Shotmarkers seemed to object to getting wet, this time, three of them downed tools. It meant that shooters had to double up on the three remaining targets to get through their course of fire. That probably added around thirty minutes of a delay.
As mentioned though, the system is clever enough to indicate where the problem lies, so armed with this information Richie and Grahame zoomed off to the butts – again! Given that there were three affected targets, it did take a little longer to resolve the problem, but only a little, I’m pleasantly surprised and relieved that these new Shotmarkers can be brought back to life so quickly. We had Tom Bindley fire some test rounds at each target to confirm all was well and so we were back in action again.
The rain-soaked flags may not have shown any wind, but clearly there was just a tiny bit more than there had been in Stage 1, this was revealed in the scores; there were no 100’s this time, but very nearly and a 99 at Blair is still a very rare event!
Dan Lomas seemed to be in a class all of his own, taking the F/TR Gold medal with a superb 99.5 a score that was only bested by two F/O shooters; David Rollafson and Gordon Waugh. Incidentally, Gordon is using a rifle with a very interesting stock; it’s made of bog oak, that is ancient oak retrieved from a peat bog, it is almost fossilized! As a consequence, it is immensely dense, heavy and stable material.
| Dan Lomas | 99.5 | Gordon Waugh | 99.12 |
| Asad Wahid | 97.9 | David Rollafson | 99.11 |
| Mike Harris | 97.8 | Brogan O’Shea Smith | 98.10 |
Stage 3
Processing four details of 2+20 through the course of fire was perfectly feasible provided there were no delays, sadly even though the corrective action taken to restore the Shotmarkers was fast, it still ate into our time and the rain clouds were still ominously not far off, that clinched it, we voted to reduce the course of fire to a still healthy 2+15.
Regrettably one of our shooters was misinformed that the last stage was to be cancelled, so he made his way home just before we resumed shooting – a unfortunate way to lose 75 points.
The rain thankfully eased off a little in the mid-afternoon, helping to dry out the flags and make them a bit more responsive to any wind out there – and there was some wind, but very little and even just a hint of mirage. In such conditions when there is little wind and few indications to go by, the fall of shot becomes as good as any indicator of what’s happening down range. It is somewhat akin to how we perceive string-shooting. The shotmarkers have a deliberately built-in delay before displaying the score, so no one can simply machine-gun the target, but two quick shooters can sure get through a detail without messing around, it is a valid technique and we ought to be open to adapting how we shoot when the circumstances call for it. At least one notable shooter afterwards regretted his decision to persevere with ‘reading the wind flags’, consequently seeing wind that wasn’t there and dialling himself out.
It was a clean sweep for the six podium winners of Stage 3 – not a single point dropped between them for a total of 90 shots, a rare sight indeed and very gratifying for the medal winners. Carrie Ryan added a gold to her previous bronze, while Dan Lomas had to be content with the silver to add to his earlier two golds, it meant that Dan had only dropped 1 point all day! Asad Wahid is never very far behind though, closely chasing Dan and Carrie. On the F Open side, only one V-bull separated the top three; Phil Shambrook was on good form, perhaps it was due to him wearing an insulated survival suit?, he may start a fashion now, winning the countback over Tom Bindley, while Ian Bellis was just one measly V-bull behind the pair of them.
| Carrie Ryan | 75.8 | Phil Shambrook | 75.11 |
| Dan Lomas | 75.7 | Tom Bindley | 75.11 |
| Asad Wahid | 75.5 | Ian Bellis | 75.10 |
It seemed like no sooner after the last shot went downrange, that the heavens opened and hit us with an unwelcome deluge us just as we were packing up. That just about summed up the day; Mother Nature had given us an incredibly rare, almost windless day, but the price to be paid was to get soaked through, thereby proving something; you can have wind or rain, which do you want?
Saturday Aggregate
Ryan Goodman had been quietly and assiduously amassing points without appearing on the podium at any stage, while Dan and Carrie fought it out for supremacy every step of the way. While the F Open day had been a little more volatile, it was notable that the same three names cropped up as in Stage 2 albeit not in the same order; Messrs Waugh, O’Shea-Smith and Rollafson were all rising to the top.
| Dan Lomas | 274.22 | David Rollafson | 273.28 |
| Carrie Ryan | 269.30 | Brogan O’Shea-Smith | 272.26 |
| Ryan Goodman | 267.20 | Gordon Waugh | 269.31 |
It had been an eventful day on the range, and the entertainment didn’t finish there; the rain had transformed the parking area into a quagmire, only proper 4x4s with the right sort of tyres should really have tackled it, so with a mixture of alarm and amusement, I watched some cars leaving, doing pirouettes and triple salchows. We headed off back to our digs to get warmed, dried out and ready for dinner. It wouldn’t be a proper League match at Blair Atholl without the customary curry, besides the curry house (and the enchanted forest) there was one other big attraction in Pitlochry; a tiny corner shop; Scotch Corner was doing a roaring trade, with great long queues of mostly foreign visitors standing outside in the cold and rain, apparently waiting to buy ice cream..! It must be some sort of internet sensation as no Brit in their right mind would be queueing in the rain, in the dark, in mid-October to buy ice cream.
Sunday
We awoke to a cold and frosty morning; having to scrape the windscreens and put on an extra layer – Phil Shambrook’s insulated survival suit was beginning to look like a great idea. After such a cold Spring and so-called Summer, it was hardly surprising that the Autumn would follow in the same style, perhaps we’ll be in for a hard Winter? On arriving at the range, the mountain tops had a layer of snow which made the view even more picturesque; several visitors remarked on the sheer beauty of the place. Although it was bitterly cold, the main compensation was that the forecast said it would be mercifully dry – hooray!
Stage 4
The first stage on Sunday is notable by having 3 non-convertible sighters followed by the usual 2 convertible sighters – the Cottesloe format. I originally thought that instead of a blow-off period, it might just help speed things up a little as folk are anxious to get away as quick as possible on Sunday. On reflection, it probably doesn’t hasten things at all, but it does add a bit of unique character and I reckon there is a place for that. As is often the case on very cold mornings, there wasn’t much wind to contend with – pretty similar to Saturday morning in fact, consequently, the scores were as high as they could be; 75 points all round and with fabulously high V-counts. The F/TR and F Open winners were separated by only 2 or 3 V-bulls. On the F/TR side, it was a duel between Dan and Carrie, with Dan prevailing by just 1 V-bull, in F Open it was even tighter at the top with Mark Ellis and Ian Bellis both on 75.11 When you consider the record for 900 yards was set at the Euros this year at 75.15, Dan, Mark and Ian were steadily closing in on that level of shooting.
| Dan Lomas | 75.11 | Ian Bellis | 75.11 |
| Carrie Ryan | 75.10 | Mark Ellis | 75.11 |
| Mike Harris | 75.8 | Gordon Waugh | 75.9 |
Stage 5
By late morning, the day had started to warm somewhat, the mountaintops lost some of their snow caps and the rise in temperatures brought slightly more variable wind, it was still very little though and didn’t show very often in the flags; only occasionally would one see a gentle wave slowly making its way down the range. As always, an element of luck is involved in avoiding these tricky winds. Some folk don’t rely on luck though; Mike Harris scored the only 75 of the entire stage, he seemed to have a very good handle on things. Carrie and Asad were close on Mike’s heels though, just a point or two separating them, still keeping themselves in contention. Poor Mark Ellis lost out on the countback yet again – twice in one day, how unlucky is that! his 74.7 was pipped at the post by Celt Ridout who took the gold, as ever the rule is drop your point or V-bull sooner than later in the detail. Not far behind them, Brogan was still making steady, consistent progress in accumulating precious points.
| Mike Harris | 75.7 | Celt Ridout | 74.7 |
| Carrie Ryan | 74.5 | Mark Ellis | 74.7 |
| Asad Wahid | 73.8 | Brogan O’Shea-Smith | 73.8 |
Sunday Aggregate
That concluded our course of fire for Sunday, there had been no problems at all with the new Shotmarkers – just like shooters, perhaps they have a preference for dry days, it had so we made good progress and were able to finish pretty much on schedule. It had been another very rewarding day for those with superbly accurate rifles. Those who had done their homework assiduously and tuned their rifles and ammo to perfection got their just rewards. When there isn’t a lot of wind, it can mean that there is little opportunity for placings to change – if everyone plays their part and keeps up their scores. The F/TR aggregate displayed this particularly clearly; the same three shooters took eight of the nine available medals on Sunday; Mike Harris, Carrie Ryan and Asad Wahid. In F Open, Mark Ellis finally won through after losing out on two countbacks. There was rather more churning of positions on the F Open side, perhaps due to them shooting in the third and fourth details and thereby encountering more of what little wind there was?
| Mike Harris | 150.15 | Mark Ellis | 149.18 |
| Carrie Ryan | 149.15 | Tony Marsh | 147.15 |
| Asad Wahid | 148.16 | Ian Bellis | 147.12 |
The Highland Challenge Final Results
Dan Lomas seems to be turning out to be a Blair Atholl specialist, he won four out of five available stage medals and the Saturday aggregate by dropping just one point all day, that gave him an unassailable lead, what an outstanding performance, he racked up the highest score including F Open, that doesn’t happen very often at long range! Carrie Ryan can take comfort in having the highest V-count of any shooter all weekend, over half her shots were V-bulls and if we used the old V=6 scoring system, she’d have won easily. Mike Harris seemed to be “getting the hang of it” on Sunday, racing onwards and upwards all day.
David Rollafson may be a recent convert to F Open but he is certainly no debutant at wind-reading, he showed great skill and most importantly, great consistency all weekend, only once on the podium for a stage medal, but never far away from the top. With David’s top placing and Carrie’s second, we very nearly had a Husband & Wife take the two silver salvers home, what a photo that would have made! We had a duel going on all weekend between Brogan and Gordon; they each had won two stage medals and an aggregate medal, so there was very little to separate the pair right up until the end when Brogan finally prevailed. Gordon will not be disappointed though with netting himself another 18 league points.
| Dan Lomas | 422.36 | David Rollafson | 420.38 |
| Carrie Ryan | 418.45 | Brogan O’Shea-Smith | 418.39 |
| Mike Harris | 416.35 | Gordon Waugh | 416.42 |
My thanks to everyone for all the help all weekend in so many ways; checking & inputting scores, putting up and taking down the gazebos, helping to shift all the kit & caboodle we have gathered. My biggest thanks are reserved of course for our greatest help and greatest asset; Richie Jones! How did we ever manage before without him? He does so much on the range and an awful lot more that you don’t see behind the scenes before every match and all for the love of the sport, if we could only clone him!
See you all soon at the British Championships at Bisley.
Des.