Sunday evening

This was, by far, the least hazy day so far. There was an almost clear sky, and tonight we were treated to a display of stars and a little slip of a moon. But, along with the better light, there was an increased breeze from the right which caused its own problems, both for shooters and for the targets. There were intermittent failures, caused by electrical interruptions and by whatever mystical processes govern the behaviour of electronic target systems. We had to shift shooters around, as targets became unreliable, but good or bad behaviour was a transient thing. The ROs, aided and abetted by the Jury members, had a challenging time.

The intermediate results are on the Delhi 2010 web site - I know because I have just looked at it - and probably at Sius Ascor as well. It was a mixed day for Canada as you will see, and on which Des may comment later.

Pairs, after 500 yards:
1. Canada 199.21; 2. Scotland 199.16; 3. South Africa 198.20; 4. New Zealand 198.18. So far, so good!

Individual:
1. David Calvert (NIR) 170.19; 2. Gaz Morris (WAL) 170.19; 3. Jim Paton (CAN) 170.18; 4. Jim Corbett (AUS) 169.20. Des Vamplew was credited with a miss at 500 yards and currently stands 1t 163.20. His appeal will be dealt with tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the same course of fire, all at 600 yards. The weather forecast is for more of the same - sunny, warm and no rain.

Just before we were leaving the range. Mr. Dhillon introduced us to this group of young ladies. They are all models and will be the medal and flag bearers at the last day on Wednesday. There is a magnificent new chair in which the winner will be carried off the range in traditional style. And that terrific CRPF Band will be with us again, starting a 1000 mile journey tomorrow to be back in time.

For our return from the range to the hotel, Phil and I again had our police escort with the Bren gun. The police love using their siren and flashing lights, but our driver was a lot less frenetic than last night!

Des has tonight sent me the following:
"The first day of competition on Saturday went well. I think Jim Thompson and Phil Harrison are pleased with how the program ran. They and the rest of the staff that includes Cliff Mallett of Jersey, Chief Range Officer John McDiarmid from Queensland, Australia and his Range Officer's Peter Turner from the UK and Canada's own Keith Bornn, have done a fantastic job of making sure this match goes off successfully. There are so many layers of detail they have to check and double check when using the electonic target systems. The extreme conditions don't stop them from having smiles and positive attitudes that are infectious on all the shooters.

Today we shoot three matches at 500. Again we start with the Pairs and then a Queen's 1 seven round course of fire followed by a Queen's 2 ten round match. The second relay shooters from yeterday fire first today so I will be shooting first. We don't change our routine for the Pairs match. Jim will start that off. Sandy collects our ammo for the day and weighs each round to make sure they are consistent.

Jim went clean in the two individual 300 yds matches, so he's off to a great start. I have more work ahead of me, as I dropped one in each match, one of them a 49.9v. As mentioned, there's no room for margin on this bullseye. The two I lost were very close to the line.

We're on our way back in the bus after Day 2 of competitions. The conditions were completely different from what we have seen since being here. The winds were blowing today so you were judging the conditions more from the strength and angle of the flags rather than relying on the mirage. The windier conditions cleared away the pollution so it was much easier to see the targets.

Both Jim and I went clean in the Pairs match. The provisional results were posted before we left so we have now moved into first place with a 4 v lead over Scotland. South Africa and New Zealand are down two points.
In the individual matches, Jim went clean again and has not dropped a point yet in the 4 matches to date. He's moved into second place based om a good V count. Sandy has put a protest in on my behalf as one of my shots did not register and was given a miss. I was awarded a provisional shot after bringing it to the RO's attention so I either went clean today or may lose 5 points. We'll see what the jury comes back with tomorrow.

Signing off for Sunday."