Targets elude Army’s best

Shooters: Sgt Darren Parsons, Cpl Danny Ryan, Pte Tim Braybon, Sgt Daryl Bye (ret’d), Cpl Danny Haber and LCpl Andrew Thornton. Photo by LCpl Garth Harvey

By Cpl Damian Shovell

ARMY finished a disappointing last in the annual Interservice Clay Target Championships held at HMAS Cerberus, when on 140 points, Army was well behind second placed Navy on 154 and overall winners Air Force on 168.

Army team captain Pte Tim Braybon, who won two silvers and a bronze at the National Trap Titles at Perth in April, and gold at the National Olympic Titles in January, said although the Army team had trained for the event since July, he knew they had a challenge ahead of them.

“Navy had won the teams’ event title for past three years, and since the annual competition began 16 years ago, Army had only won it three times,” he said.

“I was determined to stop [Navy’s] winning streak, and every fortnight our team met for practice to improve our scores, but as we got closer to the event we knew we had big boots to fill.”

He said practice in the teams event with team mate Sgt Darren Parsons went well, with both scoring well in practice rounds, however, both struggled to combat winds and the Cerberus’ Gun Club’s brown/green back ground, which made it difficult to identify the black coloured targets as they left the trap house.

Pte Braybon said this was compounded by strong winds and slight rain when competition started, but said all competitors faced the same conditions as Navy, Air Force and Army competitors all shot concurrently.

“Competition was tense, taking a break every 10 targets for other members to have their shoot,” he said.

“The scores slowly went up and I knew we needed perfect scores to have a chance at winning.”

Pte Braybon scored well after breaking all but one of the first ten targets, but said he felt the pressure as all Army team members had dropped at least one target each, which meant if Army was to take the title a prefect score was required in his next round.

“Basically, I couldn’t see it after it left the trap house. The black target just blended in the background of the trees and disappeared – so I just had a go and missed, leaving me with 9/10.”

Pte Braybon then managed to score a perfect 10, to put him two ahead of any other Army member and one shot behind the leader for overall ADF champion.

However, the interservice title had now crept out of reach for Army, leaving only the High Gun trophy (best individual shooter), which Pte Braybon won for Army with a score of 34/35 with Sgt Parsons second on 31/35. Sgt Parsons also won second in the Handicap event with a perfect score of 15/15, but missed target 15 in the shoot off with the Air Force.The Tri-service High Gun was won by Leut Chris Carrol.

Pte Braybon said he would be back next year determined to win the shield for the Army.

“I will never give up until that shield is in my hands,” he said.