164 different competitors battled it out over the weekend for the MAIT Industries Yarra Valley DTL Championships in some fairly trying conditions.
Friday dawned warm and sunny and with 18 squads entered things got underway. Event 1 being a 25tgt Point score and it was a battle of the Incani's with both Stephen and Alex shooting it clean with Alex coming out on top after a short shoot off.
OA - A. Incani 78/78
AA: S. Incani 77/78, M Pain 92/93
A: M Rocca 83/84, D Naylor 82/84
B: B Tridgell 80/81, M Carr 77/81
C: D Roberts 72/75, C Climas 76/81
JNR: R Hughes Gage 133/141
LADIES - Deserie Baynes 71/75
VET: D Ball 74/75
The next event the 50tgt DB saw 13 shooters record the perfect 50/50 and a long healthy shoot off ensured with Adam Beechey defeating Ben DePedro at 160/160
OA: A Beechey 160/160
AA: B De Pedro 159/160, A Barling 121/122
A: G McLure 87/88, L Primavera 53/54
B: M Engel 77/78, A Shedrina 52/54
C: B Umback 51/54, C Climas 50/54
JNR: H Pickford 53/54
LADY: D Baynes 49/50
VET: F Bagnato 106/107
Saturday morning dawned and it was blowing a gale!! Practice got underway with a lot of people struggling. We again had Bridget Vallence MP open the weekends events with Bridget also struggling with the windy conditions. 24 full squads for the days events kicked it off and for a while it looked like 29/30 was going to take it out but Steve Haberman had other ideas punching the only possible 30/30 to take the honours. It was also a tight tussle in the Juniors where Riley had to take on sister Chloe in the shoot off!! Riley lucky this time but we don't think Chloe will go as easy on him next shoot off!!!
OA: S Haberman 30/30;
AA: S Howlett 29/30, S Trembath 50/52;
A: D Naylor 30/32, D Johnston 29/32;
B: R Laureano 28/30, M Trembath 27/30;
C: J Adams 28/30, S Incani 27/31;
LAD: E Vassallo 27/31;
JNR: R Hughes-Gage 30/34;
VET: A Lucas 30/33
Event 2 was a 30tgt Point Score and this time we saw a little more red on the board but only just with 3 shooters managing to shoot the lot in Lou Primavera, Alex Incani and Charlie Battisti. A further 9 targets and it was Lou taking the honours.
OA: L Primavera 117/117;
AA: A Incani 99/102, S Trembath 140/141;
A: C Battisti 116/117, F Santoro 89/90;
B: N Harris 87/90, J Wilkie 86/90;
C: C Climas 85/90, M Incani 83/90;
LAD: H Carlesso 86/90;
JNR: K Marcolongo 107/111;
VET: A Lucas 89/90.
30tgt Double Barrel was the last event of the day and despite the strong winds 25 shooters still managed to shoot a perfect 30/30. The shoot off got underway under the smell of the Spits cooking the Pork, Beef and Lamb under Lou's watchful eye. The wind not letting up but after 105tgts and getting down to 3 shooters all 3 decided the warm weather was all too much and they were happy to split the honours and retire to the bar. Well shot Andrew Brady, Mitch Iles and Steve Haberman.
OA & AA: S Haberman & M Iles & A Brady 105/105;
A: Paul Haslam 60/61, A Suckling 56/57;
B: R Burgess 60/61, A Kidd 41/42;
C: M Incani 32/33, L Larubina 34/36;
LAD: A Shedrina 51/52;
JNR: R Hughes-Gage 29/30;
VET: M Rocca 55/56
Saturday night dinner as mentioned was served with the meat cooked again to perfection by Lou and the salads provided from Tasty Az were again an amazing hit!! The team from Helping Hands Kitchen Staff served dinner for us all and assisted in the clean up being as efficient as ever!! Thank you!
Saturday night the wind blew and blew, a few camps were sure they saw Tinman and Dorothy whizz past at one stage. Power outages all over the valley but thankfully for once not at MGC and we were again able to get underway with 23 squads for the day's events.
With the winds blowing the microphones and shootering mats over there wasn't much chance of us seeing a perfect 100/100 in the 60t Medley which consisted of 20DB, 20SB & 20PTS. Shooting in the last squad Andrew Brady had other ideas and smoked the lot to take the event outright.
OA: A Brady 100/100;
AA: M Iles 98/100, M Pain 169/175;
A: K Marcolongo 98/100, J Brown 97/100;
B: R Laureano 96/100, M Cecchetto 93/100;
C: N Court 95/100, L Tingate 92/100;
LAD: M Trembath 115/125;
JNR: R Hughes-Gage 95/100;
VET: A Lucas 120/125
The last event of the day was a 30tgt Handicap with $1000 cash up for the winner. After the first wave 2 possibles came in with Malcolm Pain off 25m and Deserie Baynes off 24m!! Great shooting in the conditions which had now seen a large storm just miss us!!! 2 more possibles came in with Sarah Caldwell and Baden Umbrack and after a few targets in the shoot off it would be these 2 fighting it out. On the 12th target Sarah let it land with Baden taking the honours.
1: B Umback 42/42;
2: S Caldwell 41/42;
3: D Baynes 41/42;
4: M Pain 40/42;
5: A Papasavva 49/50;
Best 25M: M Pain 40/42
The high guns!! Andrew Brady having gun issues on his very last target was lucky it was not costly having to borrow a gun for the last shot which he missed but he still managed to hold on by 1 point!! Great shooting Andrew!
OA: A Brady 273/280;
AA: M Pain 272/280;
A: L Primavera 265/280;
B: N Harris 261/280;
C: M Incani 255/280;
LAD: E Vassallo 255/280;
JNR: R Hughes-Gage 263/280;
VET: K Stevens 264/280
Some thank yous for the weekend:
To our hard working trappers who kept the machines full all weekend (including Liz and Paul on Friday filling in, with help from Kelly). We had tried for 4 trappers for the weekend but only managed to get 2 available but both did a fantastic job in the heat and with 7 layouts working plus a practice trap we didn't have to once call for a trapper to a layout!! Well done boys!
The layouts were looking a treat thanks to Roger and also thanks to Lynden and Rod for their efforts on the traps which "mainly" behaved themselves over the weekend with the odd little niggle here and there that can happen.
Chloe, Lexi & Amali in the office for keeping everything ticking over and to Steve and Judith helping Craig on the board and also Mark Coleman for helping out on Friday!
Thank you to everyone who braved the conditions but still managed to enjoy their weekend and help out with scoring and reffing to get started and shoot off's it is greatly appreciated.
Again a huge thank you goes to MAIT INDUSTRIES for their continued support. Andrew Brown has already committed to 2026 where the event as a one off will see a new date of APRIL 10-12 2026 due to us hosting the World Championships for Universel Trench in February, 2026.
We have some new ideas for the 2026 event but always keen to listen to others so we look forward to seeing a bigger and better event in 2026!!