Commonwealth Games

demonloop

This might be of interest to a few who want to follow the progress of the NI shooters in Delhi

I've started a Commonwealth Games Thread and hope to update it with news/photos as I get it.

I'm sure a few of you have encountered Floydster.

Great pic on the forum of his Bleiker in BITS, after the heat played havoc with the loading ramp - great start

tac foley

demonloop wrote: »

This might be of interest to a few who want to follow the progress of the NI shooters in Delhi

I've started a Commonwealth Games Thread and hope to update it with news/photos as I get it.

I'm sure a few of you have encountered Floydster.

Great pic on the forum of his Bleiker in BITS, after the heat played havoc with the loading ramp - great start

Thanks for that - great idea. We saw Mick Gault on TV a couple of days ago, going to have his eyes checked out. The man is a phenomenum - but one that only a handful of people has ever heard of. He's not a runner or a footballer, he's a shooter, and one of the best that this country has ever had. He's up for a total of eight medals - if he gets just three of them, he'll be in the record books as the most be-medalled athlete in history of competitive sports.

But I'd bet that nobody here will give it a thought - except us.

Lets hope that Floydster gets his gun sorted out - you don't pay that kind of money for a set of parts that occasionally come together. Bleiker must be wishing the earth would open up in front of them right now - if they're not, then they damn well should be. [GRRRRR]

Betcha he's shooting something else next year. ;=)

tac

demonloop

tac foley wrote: »

Betcha he's shooting something else next year. ;=)

I'll take that bet, he has ANOTHER shiny new Bleiker waiting on him when he gets home

Sparks

He should have bought a Baikal, they take themselves apart during the match for you

tac foley

Well, it's a funny old thing to be sure, and I'm not good enough to be in the same country as him let alone alongside him shooting, BUT -

I shoot a load of old .22 rifles - an Anschutz made in 1967, a BSA Martini made in 1962 and another BSA Martini made in 1959. I've also got my old Mauser ES350B [1937], an old Walther DSM [also 1937] and my dad's old Walther from 1928 or so. THAT's a semi-auto and is still on the original recoil springs. I'll throw in my 1910 BSA for fun.

I've never had a failure on any part of any of these old guns in all the time I've had them. Dozens of people have learned to shoot with them, me included when I was six [that's 58 years ago].

They have had more rounds down them than were fired in The great War, I have no doubt, in temperatures down to -25C on occasions, and up to 40C a couple of times.

Not one of them cost me more than fifty quid - not enough to buy you a couple of screws to hold part of the Bleiker butt-plate on.

I'd be there adapting the Bleiker to the shape of Herr Bleiker's head.

tac

Sparks

By the way, it's not just floydster who's shooting in Delhi; ex-DURC captain sbw is shooting in the air rifle match as well (on the 6th).
And by all accounts the air rifle range there is the equal of Munich, at least in the core facilities, despite all the media horror stories:

tac foley

Sparks wrote: »

By the way, it's not just floydster who's shooting in Delhi; ex-DURC captain sbw is shooting in the air rifle match as well (on the 6th).
And by all accounts the air rifle range there is the equal of Munich, at least in the core facilities, despite all the media horror stories:

...and, along with the rest of you, I wish them all the very best of luck and success.

'Every shot is fired alone.' - Carlos Hathcock

tac

It wasn't me!

That's a very nice looking airgun range. Forgot Steven would be shooting. Best of luck to himself and Gary. Would be nice to see a few medals among friends.

Sparks

Scores up here.
So far, only the pairs matches have been shot:

• 50m Pistol Men
• 25m Pistol Women
• 10m Air Rifle Men
• 50m 3P Rifle Women

Scores look high, but not as high as in the World Championships so far - though the Pairs matches are smaller fields of competition than the Singles matches.

Sbw is shooting tomorrow at 0900 Dehli time (0430 our time).

Floydster's not up until next tuesday if I'm reading this schedule right, but the rest of the N.Ireland team will be shooting before that in pretty much every discipline going.

Coronal

Best of luck to sbw and Floydster Bring home some silverware. And by silver, I mean gold...

Sparks

Sbw didn't have his greatest performance ever with 572, but there was a rather surprising first place in Gagan Narang from India who even beat the Olympic champion Bindra with a perfect 600/600 score.

rrpc

Sparks wrote: »

Sbw didn't have his greatest performance ever with 572, but there was a rather surprising first place in Gagan Narang from India who even beat the Olympic champion Bindra with a perfect 600/600 score.

Did he not medal at the WCH this year? Name's very familiar to me.

Sparks

Never heard of him before; but the surprise for me was him posting a 600 in the match, setting a new games record and beating Bindra...

It wasn't me!

A quick perusal here shows it's not his first 600, and he's fairly well established. Indeed, he shot a 600 in the World Cup Final in 2008 and set a new Final World Record, so definitely not a new name.

tac foley

It wasn't me! wrote: »

A quick perusal here shows it's not his first 600, and he's fairly well established. Indeed, he shot a 600 in the World Cup Final in 2008 and set a new Final World Record, so definitely not a new name.

sigh...it should come as no real surprise to see his name up in lights, folks. According to gossip over here, India has at least a thousand more like him waiting to take their turn. At home these top athletes - in ANY sport - are treated like film stars, and mobbed by their fans. No doubt there will be a song out about him before the end of the week. And I'm being serious.

More power to the small nations like us who do so much with so little, and are never heard of. India has 24/7 live coverage of EVERY aspect of the games - here in yUK we had a three-second clip of Mick Gault in training, but nothing of any other part of the sport [shotgunning has gone rather well].

tac

STOP PRESS - British women take archery gold in the compound event.

rrpc

It wasn't me! wrote: »

A quick perusal here shows it's not his first 600, and he's fairly well established. Indeed, he shot a 600 in the World Cup Final in 2008 and set a new Final World Record, so definitely not a new name.

I remembered correctly so , third in the WCH. He's a big guy: 180cm and 95kgs! I see he lists cricket as one of his sports, quelle surprise

It wasn't me!

rrpc wrote: »

I remembered correctly so , third in the WCH. He's a big guy: 180cm and 95kgs! I see he lists cricket as one of his sports, quelle surprise

He is a big guy, nearly bumped into him in Munich coming out of one of the buildings. He's as broad as me too.

Sparks

The BBC got a shot of sbw shooting:

tac foley

England men just won the GOLD in the compound bow comp - by three points from India. One of the archers was 14 years old. :O

England women won GOLD this morning.

Well, it's shooting, isn't it?

tac

dCorbus

Well, it's shooting, isn't it?

It's "loosing" isn't it?:rolleyes::p:D

But fair play to the archers all the same:) (and I don't mean the BBC Radio agricultural soap).....

Nor do I mean this either:



:rolleyes::D

(Apologies to all today - I'm in a rather flippant mood, in case no-one's noticed!)

Sparks

*cough*nokoreansthere,eh?*cough*

tac foley

Sparks wrote: »

*cough*nokoreansthere,eh?*cough*

Well, Sir, if you want to take the p*ss, there are no Irish there either, although the chance was there back in 1922.

tac

dCorbus

Hmmmmm......

there are no Irish there either'

Who's that floydster chap then? Northern Irish, but Irish all the same!

(What's a wee additional adjective amongst friends?!)

tac foley

dCorbus wrote: »

Hmmmmm......

Who's that floydster chap then? Northern Irish, but Irish all the same!

Archers?

tac

dCorbus

Ah, I see....apologies!:)

Sparks

tac foley wrote: »

Well, Sir, if you want to take the p*ss, there are no Irish there either, although the chance was there back in 1922.

Actually, we (in the Republic) have been invited to go to the Games several times...

It would appear that the organisers don't take polite correction terribly to heart!

Sparks

And there are seven Northern Irish archers there at the moment...

tac foley

Sparks wrote: »

And there are seven Northern Irish archers there at the moment...

Sparks wrote: »

And there are seven Northern Irish archers there at the moment...

I stand corrected.

I was attempting to point out that there are no archers from the RoI, although, as has been pointed out, you have been invited to participate on numerous occasions.

It is accepted that IF South Korea had been taking part, then very few there would have been good enough to make much of an impression.

Count in the USA as well and the Commonwealth archers would only be there as an interested audience.

tac

Sparks

tac foley wrote: »

I was attempting to point out that there are no archers from the RoI, although, as has been pointed out, you have been invited to participate on numerous occasions.

Well, yes, but there is that pesky matter of sovereignty -v- membership of the commonwealth holding matters up! (Though with our current economy, that matter may not be such an issue next time round...)

It is accepted that IF South Korea had been taking part, then very few there would have been good enough to make much of an impression.

Oh, I don't know about that. The GB recurve team's pretty good. Medalling wouldn't have been a bet with very long odds.

Count in the USA as well and the Commonwealth archers would only be there as an interested audience.

Pffft. The GB recurve team is far better than the US recurve team. Can't speak to their compound shooters though.
Mind you, all of this is really more the Archery Forum's territory...

dCorbus

there are no archers from the RoI, although, as has been pointed out, you have been invited to participate on numerous occasions

An invite is all very nice and all.....but there's still the "minor technicality" that Ireland is not in the Commonwealth, well not since we chose to remove the Saxe-Coburgs from our letterhead and to opt out of "free association" with the British Empire from 1948 anyways.

For sporting reasons, it would be nice to have the opportunity to compete at such a widely-entered event, but not being in the commonwealth kinda stymies that one. That's probably why the Koreans aren't there either (or the Americans for that matter, who were also part of ye olde Empire too once upon a time - But I'd be very surprised if anyone invited them along).:D;)

tac foley

Sparks wrote: »

Mind you, all of this is really more the Archery Forum's territory...

More apologies - I didn't know there was one.

tac

tac foley

dCorbus wrote: »

That's probably why the Koreans aren't there either (or the Americans for that matter, who were also part of ye olde Empire too once upon a time - But I'd be very surprised if anyone invited them along).:D;)

This post, thanks to me screwing it up by mentioning TWANG-type shooting rather than BANG-type shooting, has drifted quite aways from the original posit, and may be getting on some folks' nerves with all this mentioning of former associations, now long dead and gone.

Let's just get back on track and I promise not to interfere with the real direction of the thread again.

tac

PS - emoticons are wasted on me, so I'll make no assumptions as to what they represent by ignoring them.

demonloop

dCorbus wrote: »

An invite is all very nice and all.....but there's still the "minor technicality" that Ireland is not in the Commonwealth, well not since we chose to remove the Saxe-Coburgs from our letterhead and to opt out of "free association" with the British Empire from 1948 anyways.

For sporting reasons, it would be nice to have the opportunity to compete at such a widely-entered event, but not being in the commonwealth kinda stymies that one. That's probably why the Koreans aren't there either (or the Americans for that matter, who were also part of ye olde Empire too once upon a time - But I'd be very surprised if anyone invited them along).:D;)

Now if we could only persuade Australia to leave the Commonwealth...

rrpc

demonloop wrote: »

Now if we could only persuade Australia to leave the Commonwealth...

That's a slippery slope

demonloop

Just a reminder folks, Gary and Matt shoot in the pairs tomorrow at 12.00, Louise Aiken shoots at 9.00

Don't know if those times are local or what the story is. I assume so.

Hopefully some action here...

http://results.sius.com/Championships.aspx

It wasn't me!

Looking forward to seeing how the two of them get on. If those training photos haven't been too selective it'll be a good show.

demonloop

It wasn't me! wrote: »

If those training photos haven't been too selective it'll be a good show.

Aye, noticed they were only shooting 100's

It wasn't me!

demonloop wrote: »

Aye, noticed they were only shooting 100's

No harm in that.

rrpc

demonloop wrote: »

Aye, noticed they were only shooting 100's

Or only photographing them

demonloop

Just posted this on another forum

Confirms times for BBC coverage.

Louise Aiken shoots in the 50m prone women at 9.00 (4.25 GMT) and will be on the BBC Red button - might try and catch this.

On Wednesday Matt & Gary both shoot in the individual event. Qualification at 9.00 (0845 GMT) Will be on the BBC Red button - a more social hour

rrpc

Gary and Matt were just pipped for a medal by 3 centre tens! They finished with a score of 1174 (61x) just behind the Australia pairing of Waren Potent (joint WR holder) and David Clifton with 1174 (64x) and England's Mike Babb (triple WC winner) and Richard Wilson with 1178 (59x).

Scotland's Neil Stirton and Jonathan Hammond won the event with a score of 1181 (74x).

Behind Gary and Matt were India's Gagan Narang and Hariom Singh with a score of 1173 (53x)

Sparks

Damn, that's fustrating

FLOYDSTER

Balls,balls,balls lol!!, must try harder!!;)

It wasn't me!

Well done Gary. Hope tomorrow goes well for you now. Fourth is still a cracking result given who you were beaten by, to say nothing of the ones you beat.

tac foley

A great hoorah! for ALL the Irish shooting team. You can all truly hold your heads up. :=)

tac

rrpc

FLOYDSTER wrote: »

Balls,balls,balls lol!!, must try harder!!;)

I think yourself and Matt must have used up all your tons in training

FLOYDSTER

rrpc wrote: »

I think yourself and Matt must have used up all your tons in training

The range was a completely different animal today!!;), good to see although not easy to shoot!

rrpc

By the way, that is the highest place finish for NI in the event and equal highest score. Previous best place was 6th which was done three times: 1982, 1994 and 1998. 1174 was scored in 1998.

So you're both the new record holders, congratulations! :cool:

rrpc

FLOYDSTER wrote: »

The range was a completely different animal today!!;), good to see although not easy to shoot!

Figured as much from the scores. Highest was 594 (Warren Potent) which is a long way shy of his best :eek:

It wasn't me!

Now head out and sort them in the singles tomorrow Gary. That Potent fella's looking smug, give his shoulder a shunt.

demonloop

Gary & Matt safely through to the final, a fantastic achievement in itself!

1 264 HAMMOND Jonathan SCO 99 100 99 100 98 99 595-43x
2 21 POTENT Warren AUS 100 100 99 99 98 98 594-41x
3 228 HALL Matthew NIR 99 99 98 98 100 99 593-32x
4 85 BABB Mike ENG 99 98 100 98 100 97 592-37x
5 275 STIRTON Neil SCO 99 99 100 99 98 97 592-31x
6 227 DUFF Gary NIR 100 99 98 99 98 98 592-30x
7 146 SINGH Hariom IND 98 99 98 99 98 99 591-36x
8 302 SAMARAKOON Mangala SRI 98 100 98 98 98 98 590-31x

Kicking off now, not on TV