Friday evening.

[my apologies for this being a day late, but there was no internet connection from the hotel last night, and we are still 'blocked' from the range]

This was the last day of the practice period. Attendance was quite small, since,clearly, most teams felt they had done enough.

Tomorrow the serious business gets under way. The format is a little unusual for a Commonwealth Games in that all shoots at one distance will be fired on the same day. Everything on Saturday will be at 300 yards, with 500 yards on Sunday and so on. So, starting in the morning, the Pairs will fire 2ss & 10 each, followed by the Individual 2ss & 7 plus 2ss & 10.

I think I've commented before on the large labour squad that shifts targets. They did a good job over the lunch break today. The target frames are very solid wood and heavy. The gang marches down the range and work very hard. Peter Turner, one of the ROs, has expropriated a motor cycle and roars up and down the range supervising the target machinations.

We did a further extensive calibration of the targets this afternoon and we are now confident that, as far as possible, all is set for a good and fair competition.

Apart from that, the day was uneventful. It was a little less hazy - there were actually some shadows cast by the sun, and down range visibility was much better. There should not be problems at 300-500-600, but it would be a good thing if the smoggy air was to clear bit before the 900 and 1000 next week.

We were privileged this evening in that our police escort had a Bren gun mounted on their jeep. They didn't use it to clear the traffic, although they must have been tempted. They were a bit aggressive in passing other vehicles and nearly forced our car driver into a head-on collision with a large truck loaded with rocks. There must have been all of an inch to spare.

I'm not sure how the India CWG web site will present running results, but do take a look at it http://www.cwgdelhi2010.com/ In addition, Sius Ascor www.sius.com also post competition results quite quickly. I'm not at all sure what the CBC or other Canadian media will do. Probably not much for shooting!

Saturday evening.

It seems as if contact has been re-established.

Today was the first day of competition, with everything at 300 yards. First the Pairs (2 & 10 each), then two rounds of individual (2 & 7 and 2 & 10). All went pretty well, apart from one target that apparently failed towards the end, necessitating a move and partial re-shoot. There were not too many other problems, and they got less as the day wore on. Most involve the procedures for conversion of sighters and shooting in pairs in the electronic system. The shooters are learning and our excellent group of ROs is teaching them. The last detail was almost a pleasure.

But it was a long day and everyone was tired tonight. Not too tired however for the most important cocktail hour before dinner. Last night, in recognition of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo, we had gone to the Chinese restaurant at the hotel - not a great meal. Back to Indian tonight and much better! Phil Harrison and I were delayed leaving the range and I think that our drive felt he should make up for lost time. We kept on telling him that we'd prefer to arrive alive more slowly rather than more quickly in a coffin. We had no police escort, so no Bren gun to impress the traffic and/or to keep our driver under control.

Tomorrow is all at 500 yards, same programme as today.

There are results both at the Delhi 2010 and Sius Ascor web sites. You have to search a little, but they are there! I couldn't see anything on Symaptico or the CBC - shame on them! These are early days yet, but here are some snippets:
Pairs: South Africa 100.15, Scotland 100.7, Guernsey 99.11, Canada 99.9.
Individual: Seven scores of 85, headed by Gaz Morris (Wales), Jim Corbett (AUS) and David Calvert (NIR). Jim paton lies 5th on 85.10, and Des Vamplew 12th on 83.12.


Finally Des Vamplew has sent me the following from the Canadian Team perspective. He promises more!

"Jim and I have been training for 10 days now with Sandy keeping a watchful eye out for us. Today will be the first day of competition. I'm sitting on the bus on the way out to the range right now. It is a one and a half hour ride both ways with 90 percent of it through the city during both rush hours. Delhi has a population of over 20 million. The security and co-ordination to get us out there is incredible, the bus doesn't stop once. They have a dedicated lane for CWG vehicles. Usually 6 police cars escort us, sirens going all the time and there are police at every corner or round about. The back up of traffic at the intersections waiting for us to go by is quite extensive sometimes. It gets a little hairy watching the bus move through the traffic if your sitting up front. There may be a dedicated lane but the drivers will use it every chance they can. Sometimes you'll see 3 cars trying to jam into the same lane, beside each other as they pass cars on either side. There are also a lot of motor cycles on the roads however the driver is the only one who needs to wear a helmet so you'll see motorcycles loaded up with a family of 4 with only the father wearing a helmet. There are 100,000 traffic deaths a year in Delhi. I wonder why.

The athletes village is now hopping, there is a community feel, people are into their routines, almost like the way Bisley turns into a mini city for two weeks each summer. The organizers have done a good job supporting athletes and making everyone feel welcome. They have an area called the zone where you find shops, internet services (which is busy all the time), a bar, disco, hair salon, along with a large bowl shaped stage and seating area that offers different types of music each night for athletes to enjoy, giving them a chance to hang out. Our routine would usually see us at the range until 4pm, getting back to the village around 5:30/6pm. We would then stop in at the bar to have a Kingfisher beer and to do a de-brief and discuss things we'd want to concentrate on for the next day. Some of the other shooters on the Canadian team would join us. Now almost all of them are there waiting for us at the end of the day. Jim will say once we get off the bus and have gone through village security , "well I think we need to continue our research at the Kingfisher Institute" and Sandy would say " we can never stop learning" and off we'd go. You'll usually only see shooters or lawn bowlers in the bar. Most of the athletes in the village are not eligible to go in because the legal drinking age in Delhi is 25. They are very strict enforcing that rule. Thank goodness I turned 26 last month.

The village includes 28 apartment buildings of which Canada has 2. Each has 7 floors with 4 apartments on each. The apartment includes 3 bedrooms with a bathroom, along with a communal kitchen, living room/dining room area and a large flat screened TV. Everything is done in marble. Jim and I are sharing the apartment with two shot gunners (a father and son duo) and a couple of pistol shooters. Everyone gets along. After dinner we'll sit around and watch some of the other events on TV as we all learn more about each others sport. The meals are better than many anticipated. The contractor is the same Australian firm that supplied the meals at the Brisbane CWG's. They are going to great lengths to make sure folks are not getting Delhi Belly, for instance the water bottles are all washed before going out on the floor because of previous handling. The dining hall is very large and offers stations that include different foods from around the world, including: pasta, tandouri, oriental, African, Asian, vegetarian and western. It's open 24 hours a day.

We're arriving at the range now so will report back at the end of the day. It was an interesting day. All shooting was done at 300 yds. We started it off by shooting the Pairs match. Jim and I dropped one point. Two teams went clean and there were about 6 that dropped one. Sorry to be so vague but I'm not paying to much attention to the board at this stage. It's still very early. Jim and I have spent well over half of our training time coaching each other. There are a lot of different variations of Pairs shooting being shot by the 21 teams in attendance. (there were 19 in Brisbane). Most have one shooter complete the whole match while his partner coaches him while laying beside the firer and there are a few that shoot together alternating after each shot. We have used the string system. Jim shoots first and I follow. You have to read your score off the TV monitor that is located at each position. We lift the monitor up onto Sandy's shooting seat (it's a perfect fit) and use my small fold-up stool, sit beside Jim and coach him in the same manner we coach back home. We are the only team using this style. We turn the sights for each other. We have had some very good results coaching each other and have communicated well to put a good system in place. Sandy has been very good making suggestions on how we can save time here and there. He is always thinking outside the box. We have cut the transition time down quite a bit so we're not feeling rushed. The Pairs relays are 32 minutes for both shooters to fire 10 on score at 300, 500 and 600. The time goes up to 45 minutes at the long ranges. Mirage plays a big factor on this range as subtle changes occur for almost every shot. When the flags are moving, something is happening. The whole range is baffled on both sides so there isn't as much wind as you'd normally see but it can be tricky especially when you move back to 900 and 1,000. We are using the ICFRA target so there is not a lot of margin for error on that target. We have also spent a least half our training time at the longer ranges because that is where the matches will be won or lost. The other reason we have practised more at the longs is because of the visibility. The pollution is so bad that you can literally hardly see the target. A couple of days it was so bad you couldn't see the number board for your target so you are not only trying to find the aiming mark in a cloud but are also trying to make sure you don't cross fire. Most days the visibility goes from bad to worse. I usually use a 3.9 insert with an eagle eye, here I am using a 4.5 to 4.7 depending on how bad it is. Jim says it was even worse when he was here in April. The range had not been seeded yet so when the wind blew there was the added dust to contend with besides the smog. That along will change the dynamics of the competition later in the week.

More tomorrow."