Woodville clay shooters win bronze at champs

Bronze medallists at the Clay Target World Championships in Wagga Wagga Australia. From left: Dave Smith (Dannevirke), Roger Bidois (Dannevirke), Paul Black (Nelson), Vance Butcher (Woodville).

There were top shooters at the Woodville Clay Target Club on Sunday, April 29, when it hosted the Manawatu District Championships and four of them had recently performed well in the world championships held at Wagga Wagga in Australia during late March.

Three of the medallists were from the Tararua and each won a bronze in the teams' events, Dave Smith and Roger Bidois of the Dannevirke Club in the men's open and Vance Butcher in the veterans.

March was extremely busy for all top shooters as it began with the national championships in the first week where the Hawke's Bay provincial team won the competition and Vance Butcher won the veterans single barrel competition.

From there they qualified for the New Zealand teams to compete in the world championships at Wagga Wagga.

Shooters taking part in the Manawatu District Championships on Sunday, April 29.

Before taking part in the worlds they shot in the Australian National Championships for six days, gaining some experience of the conditions before moving on to the international event in the last week of March.

Roger Bidois and Dave Smith were in the No 1 New Zealand Team of five shooters which placed third. Vance Butcher was in the New Zealand Veterans Team of three which also placed third.

In the same world championships the New Zealand Ladies won a silver medal and the NZ Juniors a bronze. There were more than 1000 shooters at Wagga Wagga from all over the world.

At the same time shooters qualified to represent New Zealand in the Mackintosh Team. This competes over six months in a World Postal Shoot when teams from around the world put in their best scores out of 100.

The Mackintosh team consists of New Zealand's best 25 shooters and this year includes Roger Bidois, Vance Butcher, Robert Evans and Mitchell Dean.

Woodville Clay Target Club has 25 members and competes in a regular round-robin series of events hosted by the Manawatu clubs. Woodville hosts on the first weekend of each month while Dannevirke is on the fourth weekend.