President Stephen Withnell and overall high gun winner Russell Jaggard.
HOSTED by the Northam and Districts Gun Club (NDGC), the Avon Valley Clay Target Carnival was kicked off in perfect conditions with a warm, sunny day on Friday.
Breaking with club tradition, Friday consisted of two events, a 50T point score sponsored by Bushy Tanks and a 25T single barrel sponsored by Plantagenent Wines.
The 50T point score was taken out by Northam member Mark Middleton.
The 25 Single Barrel was won by Katanning’s Tim Catling.
A frosty start Saturday morning was soon to be followed by another impressive day for shooting.
Sixty-three shooters congregated to start the day’s shooting with the 30T medley.
This event was sponsored by Fenwick Farm which was ironically won by Fenwick Farm’s owner/manager Corey Glass after a shoot off with CMT veteran Ivan Halbert.
The 50T point score was next on the program.
Neil Suckling eventually took the overall after a shoot off with Russell Jaggard and Northam’s Arthur Ward.
A perfect score eluded Jason Oliveri after scoring 49/50 in the 50T single barrel but he was unchallenged for the overall for the event as a result of his great shooting.
A crisp, frosty morning again Sunday was followed by sunshine but a slight westerly breeze picking up through the middle of the day.
Generously sponsored by Better Wear Welding, the 25T single barrel was a hotly contested event with a shoot off between seven shooters all on 25/25.
Included in the shoot off was Northam’s Colin Blanchett who was in C-grade for the event and earned his 25 break badge.
Although the overall title eluded Colin, his great shooting was rewarded by being regraded to B-grade soon after.
Strangely enough the person responsible for doing the handicap books, Anthony Burnard, took out overall.
The inaugural Roy Holtfreter Memorial Trophy was the 50T double barrel.
NDGC’s man of the moment Corey Glass was uncontested for an overall win with his excellent shooting and earned his 50 break badge simultaneously.
The last event for the carnival was the 20 pair double rise which came down to a shoot off between Jason Oliveri and Russell Jaggard with scores of 37/40.
Oliveri eventually got up over Jaggard to take out the overall for the double rise in a highly competitive atmosphere.
Special mention goes to a local boy, Tom Richards, 14, who was unfortunately shooting targets only but could have been in his first shoot off for third in C-grade in the double rise event after only being introduced to the sport three months ago.
Although failing to win an overall for an event, Jaggard was soon rewarded for his consistency by taking out the Overall High Gun with 357/365, knocking off Oliveri by just one point who scored 356/365.
Arthur Ward took out veterans’ high gun, Carol Scheer won ladies’ high gun and won herself a balloon ride from Windward Ballooning.
Connor Hart from Edgehill took out the junior high gun and took home a swag for his efforts.
In the graded high guns Jason Oliveri took AA high gun, Northam members Corey Glass and Mark Middleton took out A-grade and B-grade high guns respectively with Patrick Cream of Geraldton taking C-grade high gun.
By and large the Avon Valley Carnival held in Northam was a great success.
Although down in numbers from last year the weather was fantastic and competition was fierce.
The club thanked the shooters (especially those that travelled from as far away as Geraldton and Leonora), all the sponsors, kitchen staff and members who helped out beforehand and during the event.