Thursday.

Today was a slow shooting day with only one match to shoot. The Prince of Wales 600 yard match. We were once again dispersed at different shooting times for the Prince Of Wales relays. 

There was also a 7:00 am team meeting at the Pavilion to go over team training that morning and to announce the 7 man team for the International Team match that would be held Friday morning. This is an important event and very prestigious. Captain Bock made it easy for naming the shooters. He took the top four shooters by their rank in the running total aggregates till Wednesday night. You are allowed 4 shooters, one captain and two coaches for a total of seven medals if you win. The following were the top 4 shooters from the US Team as of Wednesday night:

Jim Murphy,
Jeff Traylor,
Larry Taite 
Shiraz Balolia

Jeff Cochran was next on the list and he was appointed Captain for this match. Bob Mead and Mid Tompkins were the two coaches. That made 7 members on the team.

I had a 9:50 Prince Of Wales match so I could not attend the practice session, but they wanted to get the timing and all that down, so the practice went well. I did not drop a single point at my Prince of Wales match and shot 10 Vs as well, and ended up in 12th place. Sheesh! Came back to the room, cleaned the gun and ran over to the Zero range to blow off 5 rounds. I shoot moly coated bullets and it takes at least 5 rounds to settle the barrel after cleaning. With two sighters and 10 or 15 rounds for record you got no time to mess around. Bang, bang and you are going for record.

The afternoon was free for all of us. A bunch of guys went with no-hubcap-Dean to see Windsor castle. Dean has blown all the hub caps on the Van by jumping the curb so many times that I hold my neck with my hands when I sit with him. I chose to go to see my wife in London where she is vacationing with a friend from India. Mid Tompkins dropped me off at Brookwood train station and I bumped into a South African shooter whom I had met in Raton. He quickly showed me the lowest fare and the type of pass I should get to be able to use the railway trains, the subway trains and buses in greater London area. It is a pretty simple system and after taking one rail and two underground tubes, I ended up at Hyde Park station. A short walk took me to my wife’s hotel. Spent the evening with her, had dinner in London and retraced my steps back to Bisley, getting back at about 9:30 pm. The next day was a big day with several finals and the International Team match. First team match I will ever be shooting for my country so the pressure to perform will be very high.

Prince of Wales top 10

W. Scholze, Germany, 90
D. Brough, GB, 88
RC Mead, USA, 87
A Kritzner, S. Africa, 87
LP Fenlon, GB, 87
MP Plug, Netherlands, 87
E. Bair, USA, 87
D. Kent, GB, 87
H. Mitera, Germany, 87
RA Wood, GB, 86

Friday is a big day. Watch for my next blog as there is lots to tell.