Framlinghamian 2019 - Single Pages 72dpi - Flipbook - Page 158
OF SPORT
“Best intentions for an early night failed
totally.”
MONDAY 22 JULY
The sun is now well and truly out
with the great yellow bead of Sauron
pouring down on our leathered
bodies, only our shorts exposing
sallow calves. Temperatures on the
shadeless range vary from 35C to
above 40.
“Position horrible and cheek piece all
over the place. But I am getting the
hang of it!”
“Very, very hot. These conditions require
a different preparation. A sweat band and
something to cool down the shooting mat. I
burned my legs.”
WEDNESDAY 24 JULY
We wave goodbye to Frodoverbury as
he sets out to distant Suffolk.
Hours later he sends on WhatsApp:
“Home and work. Very depressing.
Where are you guys?”
“Having a drink in the Artists,” replies
Gollom with a wicked smirk.
Kim ‘Galadriel’ Pope
The afternoon is taken up with the
Intercounties with McDowell in the
coaching chair for Suffolk at Long
Range and firing at short. Pope fails
in her attempt to be a non-playing
Suffolk Captain so she can eat ice
creams while sitting in her portable
paddling pool to cool off.
Bilbo is sulking about his ruined Grand
Aggregate on WhatsApp: “I got 34
with three misses.”
She has a miss at 900 yards thus
dooming the team to mediocrity.
Leggless manages to keep everyone
in the black in severe winds, bar one.
Guess who? He makes up for it by an
effortless custard 49.6 at 600 in the
short range.
McDowell: “I am eating cheese,
drinking redders and looking at the
stars if anyone fancies a nightcap.”
Mehta, newly appointed Captain of
Essex, whips his team into shape for
a creditable 6th place at Long Range,
but fails to beat Suffolk at Short
Range.
Suffolk barbeque at the hut. Cooked
potato salad and roast veg for the
Suffolk team. This is such fun.”
Gorgeous pouting Galadriel Pope,
now OFRC captain as well as Suffolk,
does the honours. Her small car
bulging with goodies as 25 OF and
Suffolk acolytes devour the feast.
“Will I never get an early night?”
TUESDAY 23 JULY
The rest of us head for the range for
another hot day.
156
THE FRAMLINGHAMIAN 2019
Gimli responds: “I got 50.8. Where
are the Hedgehog Boys?”
Burnip: “Good question.”
Burnip: “I’ll be right there!”
THURSDAY 25 JULY
This extra day to celebrate the 150th
Imperial Meeting was devoted to team
matches. A rare occasion to host the
America Match in the UK saw Walker and
Mehta performing for Scotland against the
other assembled countries, and to claim
a silver medal to England’s gold, with the
USA a long way back in 4th.
For the rest of us this was the NRA 150
match – a special celebratory and one-off
competition which shows Logaless McD
in the coaching chair, Kim la Pope, The
Chairman Gandalf and two tyro shooters
representing the OFRC in the competition.
Lacking as we do any Tyro-class shooters
we had to recruit one (which was needed
for the team) so we ended up with two.
One of them, a 14-year-old Bradfield
College lad called Matt Keel who out-shot
us all and the other a 56-year-old vascular
surgeon from Aberdeen called Ewan
Crawford who endured the worst luck with
dodgy ammunition anyone can recall.
He was much more gracious about it than
any of the OFs who whined like a turbojet
with a seagull in it.
La Pope coped admirably with the 37C
heat with her paddling pool.
Bafta Thorp, shooting for the under 25s,
won silver.
FRIDAY 26 JULY
Friday James McBilbo is in the St
George’s Prize final. This is a big deal
– second only to the Queen’s Prize. The
early morning conditions are benign:
hot and a low, predictable wind.
With 15 rounds to count at 900 yards
and McMehta is in an enviable position
carrying through a maximum 75 with 7
v-bulls from the previous round at 600
yards.
Knowing the scores will be high, but full
of his own braggadocio he decides he
needs more Vs to improve his chances
of a high position and so declines to
convert an ordinary cooking-bull 5
sighter. Naturally the Law of Custard
comes into play and he drops his last
shot for a 74.7. This plunges him from
16th place to 42nd. It becomes known
as a Cascade of Custard. Walker of
course makes the coveted top 25.