As with any large event a huge amount of work had been put into ensuring the smooth running of the weekend. And as always with any large event there is always a curve ball thrown in to make things difficult. For us again this year it was WATER!!! In the middle of January we were again faced with some flooding and trap houses filling with water, electrics and wiring getting wet and traps being removed in a hurry (some after already having a little swim).
This resulted in the layouts only getting a quick test in the lead up to the 3 Day MAIT INDUSTRIES Yarra Valley DTL Classic with machines put in weeks prior. Everytime a machine is taken out in a hurry for fear of flooding you can always count that some minor adjustments need to be made when they are put back in place.
Luckily our guru's in Lynden and Paul worked their magic and despite a couple of minor hiccups on Friday everything for the weekend ran like clock work with great crowds and finishing the events in even better time allowing all our visitors to get on the road nice and early.
Friday saw 23 squads entered (up 2 full squads from 2023) and it was Andrew Brady who was on fire taking the Overall wins for both events! Well done Andrew!!! Also great shooting by new MGC Member Alex De Bono for collecting a 1st and a 2nd!!
25tgt POINT SCORE
OA: A. Brady 111/11
AA: M. Pain 101/102, G. Hipwell 96/99
A: J. Maiolo 108/11, J. Panuzzo 75/78
B: G. Murphy 80/87, W. Roberts 79/87
C: A. DeBono 68/75, B. Battle 72/81
JNR - G. Hesse 66/75
LAD - M.Trembath 68/75
VET - G. McLure 74/75
50tgt DOUBLE BARREL
OA: A.Brady 114/114
AA: M. Pain 113/114, S. Haberman 111/112
A: D. Appleby 62/63, J. Maiolo 56/57
B: S. Morley 62/63, B Tridgell 51/53
C: J. Tombolato 48/50, A. DeBono 46/51
JNR - C. Williams 49/50
LAD - M. Trembath 55/57
VET - T. Coco 51/52
Saturday dawned and the cars started rolling in, more camps had arrived over night and the area for camps was virtually full. It is great to see so many people enjoying our facilities with free camping. Power was supplied to our camps via the generator to ensure we left enough power for the club to run the 7 layouts for competition and 1 practice layout plus the club rooms and cafe! The day got underway with Bridget Vallance our local MP firing the opening shot. Bridget smoking the target on her second attempt to the huge roar of the crowd watching. We thank Bridget for her continued support of our club! The day was overcast and breezy causing the left handers to climb and the right handers to dip for most of the day, then the wind did a reverse with the left handers dipping and the right handers climbing, a tough day for all. Sox got on the board with an early win in the Single Barrel and it was great to see the son of our major sponsor in James Brown taking the honours in the Point Score while Phil Grainger out lasted everyone in the Double Barrel. Dinner was then served and how good was the Pork, Lamb and Beef!!! Thanks Lou!!! A few partied on until the early morning with some sore heads surfacing on Sunday. We had 27 full squads competing for the day just 3 squads less than 2023 which was fantastic considering all the large events that have been on of recent and the DTL Nationals not that far away!
30tgt SINGLE BARREL
OA: S Pilipasidis 47/47;
AA: S Atkins 46/47, A Smith 43/44;
A: R Laureano 30/31, J Tannous 29/31;
B: W Kotlarewski 28/32, R Maiolo 27/32;
C: D Patterson 31/35, L Harrison 30/35;
JNR: B De Pedro 29/30;
LAD: L De Carli 28/30;
VET: G Hipwell 29/30
30tgt POINT SCORE
OA: J Brown 99/99;
AA: S Haberman 98/99, A Lucas 95/96;
A: P Watkins 88/90, C Sessions 99/102;
B: V Burzomi 88/90, D Luelf 86/90;
C: A De Bono 80/90, L Harrison 79/90;
JNR: M De Carli 87/90;
LAD: C Hyde 86/90;
VET: R Williams 116/120
30tgt DOUBLE BARREL
OA: P Grainger 131/131;
AA: A Brady 126/127, A Ferguson 122/123;
A: C Sessions 130/131, A Mccrone 57/58;
B: F Sensi 31/32, R Williams 33/34;
C: G Barnes 34/35, J Tombolato 33/35;
JNR: M De Carli 42/44;
LAD: A Norris 61/62;
VET: T Coco 77/78
Sunday dawned a much better day, no cloud, and only a gentle breeze. 3 possibles were recorded in the 60tgt Mixed Targets and after one set of 5DB, 5SB, 5PTS we had a winner in Stephen Haberman who was really getting some ink out of them, defeating Andrew Brady and Andrew Fiek in the shoot off respectively. The Handicap then kicked off with 27 squads shooting over 8 grounds. 7 possibles of 30/30 were recorded and that could have been much more with a staggering 23 shooters recording 29/30 and 5 of them missing their last target!! The shoot off lasted a further 13 targets and John Tannous come out on top from Marcus De Carli and Kevin Gillespie!!! We had planned to pay out a best C15 Junior prize but unfortunately there wasn't any entered!! So Riley Hughes Gage was the lucky Junior winner with 29/30 and a special encouragement award was given to Michael Burzomi with his awesome display of 29/30!! Well done Riley and Michael!
60tgt MEDLEY
OA: S Haberman 125/125;
AA: A Brady 124/125, A Fiek 122/125;
A: A Papasavva 99/100, J Munn 98/100;
B: D Luelf 97/100, S Swain 95/100;
C: M Quinlan 92/100, R Tombolato 91/100;
JNR: B De Pedro 95/100;
LAD: E Vassallo 97/100;
VET: G Hipwell 96/100
30tgt HANDICAP
1: J Tannous 43/43;
2: M De Carli 42/43;
3: K Gillespie 41/42;
4: C Weingott 39/40;
5: A Smith 35/36;
BM: A Smith 35/36;
Unplaced JNR: R Hughes- Gage 29/30
Encouragement Award - M. Burzomi 29/30
With the handicap out of the way it came down to the High Guns. Haby had a 4 point lead going into the Handicap but a 25/30 left the door open for Andrew Smith if he was good enough to punch the 30 from the back mark. Smithy did just that and took the spoils with a 275/280 for the weekend!! Well done Andrew. It was also great to see Leni Harrison take out the C Grade High Gun!!! Leni has been improving every week with her shooting and B grade wont be too far away!! Well done Leni!
HIGH GUNS
OA: A Smith 275/280;
AA: P Grainger & S Haberman 274/280;
A: J Brown 276/289;
B: V Burzomi 259/280;
C: L Harrison 247/280;
JNR: M De Carli 265/280;
LAD: E Vassallo 259/280;
VET: A Lucas 264/280
The day concluded with presentations and everything wrapped up by 3:45pm.
We again would like to take this opportunity to thank MAIT INDUSTRIES for their amazing sponsorship. It is greatly appreciated!! We hope everyone enjoyed the weekend's shooting and we look forward to seeing you all back in 2025!