Mahinda’s Little World

Last weekend was, well, eventful. I’d decided to say in Manchestie for a bit of a rest - that’s not to say that I was going to stay in and be especially good, of course…

Painy

Drinks in Red Lion with Housemates Gillian and Paul, Gillian’s mate Erica (who has a thing developing with Paul), plus Pete, Sarah, Rosy and Jenny, then home for pizza, port and music television.

I Went to bed at a respectable 1am, but that’s where my troubles started. I ended up awake until 6/7am with really really painful stomach aches/cramps.

Achey

Knackered. My first hockey match of the season. Ran around lots and lots - had to be substituted for 5 minutes as I was cramping up, but recovered and went back on to run around more. It was a pretty exciting match, with lots of end-to-end play and a scoreline that went 1-0…1-1…2-1…2-2…3-2…3-3. Their first goal was definitely my fault, as I didn’t react to our goalkeeper’s call, while their third should never have been allowed.

People were generally chuffed with my performance, which is always good. I’m still not quite sure why, though - at the end of the day, I’m a defender who’s not all that good positionally or in the tackle

Went home, aching quite a bit. Stayed sitting on sofa watching telly and relaxing for ages, as I just couldn’t face moving.

Eventually went out to meet Linden and the gang in Font. My aching body REALLY didn’t want to go. Finally got to meet Housemate Gillian’s friend Emma, about whom I’d heard loads. Seems like a nice girl, albeit one with a rather mischievious glint in her eye.

We eventually went on to TriBeCa to join Rossko and his mates…met Vicky the saxophonist, whose birthday it was.

MUGSS types (Rosy, Mia, Leila, Gesine) popped over en-route to BaaBar. I later tried to get into BaaBar and say hello to the MUGSS lot…but wasn’t allowed in without a student card. So, MUGSS bunch came over to join us in TriBeCa instead. Which was nice. Ended up there until kicking-out time, when I got a bus home.

Fell asleep on bus, waking up just after Northenden. Oops. Just as well, really, as the bus was going to Sale. Grabbed tray of donner meat and chips, and found a cab to take me home as I just couldn’t walk any more.

Appleton-y

Woke up at 9am (aaargh!) as I had a day of shooting planned.

Got to the rifle club at 10.15am, to meet Pete and grab shooting equipment, e.g. mats and ’scopes, as well as my rifle. I really should name it, in true redneck fashion. Maybe something like ‘Betsy’ or ‘Petunia’…

I eventually made it to Appleton Rifle Club. It’s an absolutely gorgeous outdoor rifle range, in the middle of a deep quarry. Impressive. The drive in, down a slope flanked by rapidly rising sheer walls, was all a bit Tolkien.

The two ranges we used, the main 100yd and 50yd efforts, were both bordered by 6-storey high cliffs, themselves covered in creepers and rhododendrons. Some of the stone showed the scars of heavy artillery - Gatling gun (I think) training was given there back in the war years. I didn’t see it, but there’s also an elite 50m range where some of the Olympic squad train.

The annual day out at Appleton is a club tradition, and about a dozen or so were there from Wilmslow. There were a few Appleton types hanging around too, notably a chap called Mike Babb, who’s the current Commonwealth 50m Prone champion and came 7th at the last Olympics. He was happily practising a few yards from us, with the most gorgeous rifle I’ve ever seen!

So, first up, the 100yd competition. Sighter, then 10 shots into each of two targets. First time I’d ever shot smallbore outdoors - my only previous experience of outdoor shooting had been a trip to Bisley to shoot fullbore at 200yds…and that was in 1996! I thought I did pretty well, considering - I scored 92/100 on both targets.

Next up was the 50yd contest - sighter, then 5 shots into each of four targets. I was fairly chuffed with my effort, scoring 49(/50), 46, 49 and 47.

After that, a pair of novelty cards - a "lucky numbers" target and a "treasure island" one featuring five islands that you couldn’t see at all from 50 yards. I did pretty badly at these, especially the latter.

Then we had a barbecue, before rounding the day off with a clay disc competition - two pairs of shooters would line up against each other and attempt to shoot a number of 3cm (roughly) white clay discs (against a black background) as quickly as possible. Mike and I were knocked out in the first round by Clare and Dennis, who themselves ended up being beaten by Pete and Jon in the final.

Clare generally got a bit mollycoddled all day, in fact - young female shooters are in short supply, and she generally gets mothered by the oldies.

Glory

Finally, the scores were totted up and the prizes given…I won two out of the four competitions! The 100yd shoot and the overall aggregate score (100yd, 50yd and novelty all added up) - I must have done pretty well in the 50yd to win the aggregate comp.

So, I got given a big shiny rose bowl sort of trophy. It’s very shiny!

Unfortunately, the shield for the 100yd comp has gone missing, but I did get two rather fine bottles of wine for my efforts.

All in all, a grand day out. And definitely good for my ego