Balfour Clay Target Intercollegiate

By Jacqueline Irving | Posted: Wednesday August 16, 2023

Fog and one degree is not an ideal welcome in Balfour.

The sun soon broke through, providing better visibility and warmed us up. It was a warm welcome from the Southland Clay Target community.

Greg King transported his BBQ down from Wanaka and had this cranked up between watching his son Johnathon compete. Thank you to the families who supply meat and other items. Our hospitality at these events is legendary. The range of homemade baking resembles 'The Great Kiwi Bake Off'.

Brendan Stevens installed a large gazebo and provided camping chairs for us and then never got to sit down all day as he marshaled the traps. We see familiar faces young and old as we travel around the intercollegiate circuit of competitions. Maree Whitely joined us to encourage the boys and their parents. Meanwhile, Peter Sim marshaled traps. (Parents of Henry, Nic and Anthony, now old boys.)

Only the Taieri Shield in Alexandra and the Waimate/Oamaru school competitions remain before five of our boys travel to the New Zealand Secondary School's Competition in Hamilton at the end of this term.

Our students will also undertake Dunedin and Wanaka club shoots at weekends to better prepare them. This Sunday our home club hosts a skeet competition where the boys will be competing with the men.

It is great to have more daylight and milder temperatures at Wednesday afternoon training with Bill Mc Kinley and Henry Sim.

Intercollegiate Balfour Squad:

Shamus Young, Johnathon King, Jackson Stevens, Hunter Burgess, Dustin Young and Tom Collie.

Results:

Dustin Young Year 10 placed as follows:
1st Junior Points Score
1st Junior Single Rise
3rd Junior Skeet

Tom Collie in Year 9 made his debut and represented OBHS in the junior section. It was great to have Tom's whole family come and watch him and join the wider group of OBHS Clay Target families.

It is going to be a busy next five weeks as the boys juggle their school commitments and prepare for nationals. We wish them well as they strive to achieve their targets on both fronts.

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