Saturday 23 July - revised

From Tony de Launay's NRA Diary this afternoon:
"30 year old Ed Compton of the Sussex Rifle Association has won the Queen's Prize on an afternoon of tempestuous head on winds that wrought havoc with the field on the Stickledown Hill. With the wind at the start of the shoot veering in from one and two oclock and then switching either side of the flags for most of the afternoon, many competitors were to visit far-flung parts of the target. David Luckman led after 900 yards with Compton and Rupert Riley sitting on his shoulder. Luckman and Riley had carried through 150s from Stage II and Compton 149. Compton was squadded 2 & 2 in the centre of the range, Luckman on range 1 moving up the hill to 3, and Riley on 4 moving all the way down to range 0 at 1000 yards.
Luckman fell away at 1000, but both Compton and Riley were level pegging at 3 off for most of the 1000 yard shoot. In the end they were level on 297 points but Compton had 35 centrals to Riley's 30. In third place was Parag Patel two point behind but with 41 centrals and in fourth Jim Corbett of Australia. Yesterday afternoon Compton had been finishing fitting a kitchen for a customer in Woking. Today the pipes were playing for him.
Compton had only shot in the St Georges and the Queen's Prize this meeting. Today he borrowed Glyn Barnett's shooting jacket in which Barnett had twice won the Prize. The jacket is now GM3.
HM The Queen's Prize (900 & 1000yds): 1. E Compton (Sussex) 297.35; 2. R Riley (ATSC) 297.30; 3. P Patel (Old Epsomians) 295.41; 4. J Corbett (AUS) 295.39. "

The two Canadians in the Final, Scott Murray and Jim Paton, scored 288.26 and 283.34, finishing 52nd and 80th respectively.

Earlier, the day started with the final of the St. George's. Serge Bissonnette scored 74 to finish 25th and win a St. George's cross. the winner was Parag Patel.

Then Jim Paton fired his tie shoot for the Conan Doyle, finishing 3rd to Tony Jones of Somerset CRA.

The morning finished with the Mackinnon long range team match. Tony's description above of the winds in the afternoon could equally well be applied to the morning. The spread was about 4 left to 5 right, with frequent changes of several minutes between shots. This coach's nerves were totally shattered by the end of it. With the kind permission of Major Jack Kelly, four members of the Canadian Cadet Team fired for Canada this morning. To their very great credit, and that of their coach, Peter Westlake, they were in the top five scorers on the Canadian Team.
1. England 1156.126
2. Ireland 1141.116
3. Jersey 1132.100
54. Scotland 1131.99
5. Guernsey 1117.80
6. Canada 1092.80
7. Kenya 1050.63
8. Wales 1015.90
Canadian Team scores:
B Huget 48.4v 47.5v 95.9v (C)
S Spinney 50.5v 45.2v 95.7v
A Voorthuyzen 49.4v 46.3v 95.7v (C)
SR Montreuil 48.5v 46.3v 94.8v (C)
A Hines 49.4v 45.1v 94.5v (C)
RA Mullin 47.4v 44.5v 91.9v
DS Murray 48.2v 43.2v 91.4v
M Landreville 45.4v 45.4v 90.8v
A Marion 46.3v 44.4v 90.7v
JAM Paton 45.3v 45.4v 90.7v
SJ Bissonnette 42.4v 42.2v 84.6v
D Stanoev 43.3v 40.0v 83.3v

The Prize Giving is about to start, to be followed by the rituals of "Chairing the Winner around Camp" and the "Firing of the Cannon".

Later - 11:15 pm. Peace is descending. The cannon has been duly and safely fired, in the presence of a large crowd, under the guidance of Fred James from the NRA. Queen's Prize winner, Ed Compton was hoisted in the chair up to the moosehead, paid his respects and took the traditional stetson and cigarette in fine style. Those honoured to fire the shots were: Ed Compton, Serge Bissonnette [winner of the Police Rifle], Breaden Huget [winner of the Young Rifleman's Aggregate] and Alix Voorthuyzen (winner of the special award in the Athelings Centenary Aggregate for the top overseas Cadet].