In a stunning victory Barbara Bell has scooped the prestigious Grand Aggregate in the NQRA queens series 2012. In addition she picked up 1st in the lead up and 2nd in the Queens.

Barbara Bell winner of the NQRA Grand Aggregate 2012

What a remarkable achievement for the long time and much loved Holsworthy member.

Finishing on a monster 100.8, with a Queens Agg of 395.40, and an unbeatable Grand Aggregate of 595.66, Barb has once more demonstrated why she is an Australian Team Member and one of our countries finest shooters.

There are few who would argue that this must be one of the most popular winners of a Grand Aggregate in many years.

Well done Barbara, your team mates, all of Holsworthy and I dare say all of the NSWRA are very very proud of you.

PS thanks for coming Angus

Ladies and Gents,

Our mighty club and its championship are on fire at the moment with many of our top shooters now qualified.

There is an 800m, 600m, 700m, 300m and 500m range left to go. Plus two left open for cancellations.

Up to date results are as follows:

1. Jim Bailey:          999.153
2. Eric Wilson:         993.089
3. Kevin Schwebel  989.106
4. Bill Barry:             984.101
5. Sue Schwebel     979.075
6. Barry Schwebel   945.066
7  Barb Bell:            787.094
8. Donna Negus:     392.037
9. Cath Clarke:        293.027

Division 2
Chris Schwebel:      947.054
Mitch Bailey:            943.063
Dennis Garfield:       691.026

 F Class
Pat Northey:             1031.026
Sean Maloney:          478.017

Our own wonderful Holsworthy shooter and Australian Rifle Team member, the amazing Barbara Bell from Holsworthy rifle club has just won the  NQRA Stevens – Griffiths Aggregate.

This event is billed as the lead up to the NQRA queens and is hotly contested every year.

Congratulations Barb, a truly amazing prerformance, reinforcing once again what a class shooter you are.

Ladies and Gentleman,

After a pretty gentle day at the range today, the statistition for the mighty Holsworthy club has now caught up with the results in the club championship and they make interesting reading indeed.

.....probably Bailey!!!! Again!!!!

Currently Wilson and Schwebel are slugging it out for the lead, but if TG Jim Bailey qualifies with a single 300m shoot, its going to be all over red rover for the young turks who aren’t grandfathers.

The Club championship scores are as follows:

A grade:

1. Eric Wilson 987.088
2. Kevin Schwebel 985.105
3. Sue Schwebel 979.075
4. Barry Schwebel 942.065
5. Jim Bailey 899.138          (300m score needed to qualify)
6. Bill Barry 886.91              (800m score needed to quality)
7. Barb Bell 787.94              (2*500m score needed to qualify)
8. Donna Negus 392.37       (a miracle needed to qualify)
9. Cath Clark 196.2              (dont make me giggle…)

B Grade

1. Chris Schwebel   942.53
2. Mitch Bailey         935.63
3. Dennis Garfield    605.22 (needs 1* 500m, 1 * 600m and 1*800m to qualify)

The NSW state team trials concluded this weekend with two days of competition up at the amazing Lyndhurst range.

The Crest of New South Wales

Both Holsworthy and Lyndhurst Rifle club had strong representation in the trails, and following selection on the afternoon of Sunday the 15th of April, both clubs now have 3 members each of the New South Wales state team that will travel to South Australia later in the year.

For Holsworthy, the State team will see stalwarts Barbara Bell and Donna Negus back, this time joined by Eric Wilson for the trip down to the wild and rugged Lower Light range.

The NSW Waratah

Congratulations to all members of the state team, especially the Holsworthy ones, and many thanks to the Emms family and Lyndhurst rifle club for their hospitality and the use of their great range during trials.

See you in Lower Light!!!

This Saturday produced some outstanding scores at the range.

Jim Bailey, solid as ever, the highest scoring with 100.18 amoungst the possibles, but also joined by Bill Barry, Sue Schwebel and Mitchell Bailey, clocking up his first 100.

The club championship is getting tighter at the top with more and more shooters starting to qualify. Currently Kevin Schwebel and Eric Wilson are locked in battle for first place, but a 300m qualifying score by Jim Bailey would change all that.

Stay tuned for updates as soon as the lazy statistician manages to collect all the results!

Holsworthy A team put in a solid performance this afternoon at the 700m Grade.

....no one yet!

The wind started off far from easy, moving from 7.5 points right to 1 point right and back again during several of the early shoots. Jim Bailey coached superbly allowing the early shooters to get up with 69′s.

As the wind steadied to around a point left later in the day, the centre count started to rise culminating with Holsworthies only 70 of the day…a phenomenal 70.12 from Jim, coached expertly by his Australian Team colleague Barbara Bell.

This allowed the team to cut a 68 and submit all 69′s plus TG Jim Bailey’s 70. Nearest rivals, the little known North Shore club of Mosman, were unable to do better, and the gap between the two clubs at the top of the league remains at 10 points.

Holsworthy also showed its strength in depth with some very solid performances in the 2nd team. Bailey Jnr, the Bush father-son combo, Team Schwebel et al all did sterling work, keeping themselves in a strong overall second place.

After a very eventful weekend at the Lyndhurst rifle range for the ever wonderful Lyndhurst OPM, Holsworthy once again came away with some winners

Chris C grade champion at Lyndhurst OPM

In first place in C Grade Chris Schewebel showed what a great shooter this young man is becoming. In addition the number 2 spot was also taken out by a Holsworthian Derek Bush.

The Bush's

In A grade Jim Bailey was beaten by the wind and had to settle for second place by the narrowest of margins.

In B grade Mitch Bailey also posted a 2nd place, showing what fantastic depth the current Holsworthy squad has.

Mitch shooting for second watched by Chris preparing to win

Great work team, look forward to seeing you all for 700m Grade next week.

A big weekend coming up shooting fans…

In the blue corner next to the ocean we have a 600m club shoot, providing vital points to the club championship.

Malabar Beach (photo from the excellent Beachsafe website)

In the red corner, over in the glorious countryside of Lyndhurst we have the NSW state team trials and the NSW Ladies team trials.

The Crest of New South Wales

Good luck to Barb, Donna and Eric who are trialling for the NSW state side and Sue and Kevin who are trialling for the NSW Ladies team. (We’re proud of you Kev!)

Ladies and gentleman,

After the over whelming success of our last caption competition, I am happy to follow yesterdays big announcement of the winner and provide a new image for your creative genius….

THIS MONTHS PHOTO

"......"

Feel free to put the best of your creativity below in the comments…..

In 3rd place, Interested Shooters effort:

“If I had one more of these fury little buggers I’d have a great set of slippers”

In 2nd place because of its powers of hypnotic persuasion is Blue’s offering:

“Go to sleep-sleep-sleep” i want the whole bag of chicken jerky or i will pee on your shooting mat”

And the winner, because it of its unsurpassable creepiness is…PJ!

“Who’s Daddys girl”

Congratulations to the somewhat scary PJ, whoever you are, you are the winner of kudos, a psychiatric exam and a visit from the RSPCA!

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon the 500m grade was shot with both Holsworthy A and B fielding a strong team.

Bailey bringing it home for Holsworthy

Holsworthy A whilst not winning the day, was able to extend its lead over second placed Mosman A to 10 points.

Bill Barry, Jim Bailey, David Wright and Eric Wilson all went clean.
Barb Bell posted a solid 69.06 with solid performances from Donna Negus, Kevin Schwebel and Sue Schewbel posting 68′s adding up to a very respectable 485.34.

Holsworthy number 2 team also saw some excellent performances with Catherine Clark leading the field with 69.05 followed by Mitch Bailey on 68.07 posting a personal best in a grade shoot. Daniel Jeffrey, Chris Schwebel, Barry Schwebel, Denis Garfield and long time club favourite Dave Jaeger all provided solid support.

Great work Holsworthy

Ladies and Gents,

Its the 3rd grade shoot of the year and we expect to field two strong teams again.

Oh god, not again...

The weather forecast for Saturday at this point is:

Showers and a high of 27 degrees with a 90% chance of rain up to 10mm.

Extreme UV with a 14km wind from the South at 9am and a 18km wind from the South East at 3pm.

Bring your wet weather gear

After only a couple of shooters had got down, and after Eric’s wise prediction that it wasnt going to rain, the heavens opened.

A rainy day at the Butts

The only shooting that got done was a brief 300m session in the morning, and some useful shots through Bill’s chronograph.

Lake Anzac

Next week is the third shoot in the grade series at 500m. See you all on the range, and remember there is a practise session in the morning.

Holsworthy performed well at the Lithgow prize meeting with 3 of our members coming away with a badge.

Beautiful Lithgow

In a stunning performance Mitch Bailey was only just denied a win in his first ever B Grade prize meeting after losing a very close shoot out. He scored 147.15 on the day. A truly amazing performance, and we look forward to seeing great things from this young shooter.

Mitch’s chauffer was also able to shoot a very respectable 149.24 to come second in A grade. Bill Barry also competed and closed with 143.11.

In C grade Chris Schwebel also continued to impress coming third in C Grade and earning yet another badge.

Contraversy strikes at Holsworthy, as the club championship board in the club shows that Kevin Schwebel continues to lead the club championship.

You see Dennis when you are the best shot in the club you get to say "Thanks for coming" alot...

In urgent news however it turns out that the board is missing a range score and in fact Barry Schwebel has now completed all the ranges required to qualify, and now steps into the lead of the A grade board.

Barry Schwebel: 931.067
Kevin Schwebel: 886.093
Sue Schwebel: 880.062

B grade stays much the same with Chris Schwebel dominating the leader board with 932.076.

The heat is on, and the race will really warm up as the A graders start to bring in their final range scores to qualify!

On what was a glorious day on Anzac range, a tricky headwind moving from left to right sorted the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, and the full strength Olds from the shandy…or something.

King of the Hill was the fabulous Kevin Schwebel nailing 98.012, going to show that whatever drugs they pumped him full of last week worked wonders. Nice work mate!

MMMmmm mate, your doing it all wrong....

Second out the blocks was Barbara Bell, getting her first shoot in for several months and finishing up with 98.011, closely pursued by Sue Schwebel with 98.06.

The juniors also shot well in difficult conditions with Mitch Bailey squeezing over the line first with 96.008.

The lead of the club championships has changed hands with the first A grader qualifying…stay tuned for more detail!

Weather for 800m:

30% chance of showers for Malabar

A 30% chance of possible showers with a maximum of 25 degrees and an “Extreme” level of UV exposure.

Wind at 9am will be 11 kpm from the SSE

Wind at 3pm will be 18 kpm from the SE

Its back to business as usual after the Queens and the opportunities to qualify for the club championship are getting fewer.

See you on the mound!

The best Queen’s on earth finished on Sunday, leaving 235 shooters to return to their homes knackered but satisfied.

In a Queens that offered rain, wind and sun, sometimes all within 10 minutes of each other many lessons were learned, glory earned and inner 4′s cursed.

Jim Jeffrey, whilst not a Holsworthian, was a very popular winner and we look forward to reviewing his membership application soon.

Holsworthian badge winners include Jim Bailey, Donna Negus, Bill Barry, Chris Schwebel and Mitch Bailey if the preliminary results re correct. Many congratulations to them and commiserations to a number of other members of the club who only narrowly missed out on a badge.

Full results will be posted when the NSWRA website is back up!!

Holsworthy has two shooters in the top ten at the end of the first day of the NSW Queens with Jim Bailey in 4th place on 174.018 and Eric Wilson in 9th place on 173.15.

Leader Board Day 1 NSW Queens 2012

In hot pursuit is Bill Barry in 16th place with 172.019 and Donna Negus on 18th place with 172.018. Kevin Schwebel is well positioned to challenge for a badge with 169.013.

In C grade the club is in great shape with Mitch Bailey in 5th on 163.012 and Chris Schwebel in 7th on 162.005

As everyone knows a Queen’s last 3 days and no doubt the end will be very different to the beginning, but its a great start for Holsworthy!

In another very promising start to the NSW Queens, Holsworthy A team once again took out the teams match winning the Sargard match for the first time since 2004.

Eric, Jim, Donna and Bill Sargard Winners NSW Queens 2012

What is especially encouraging is the depth of the Holsworthy team, with Barb, Sue, and Kevin all worthy of a place in the team if the “Shop, Sore Shoulder, and Coaching the 2nd Team” hadnt got in the way.

The Sargard Shield - Winners Holsworthy 2012-

Talking of which the second team also performed well, despite Mitch having to deal with some subpar shooters to coach.

"Did that feel like a good shot Kev?"

Joking aside congratulations to the whole Holsworthy side, a great result winning both the Canberra and Sydney Queen’s teams matches.

The Turncoat....

In ugly scenes from Malabar yesterday, following a glorious F Class victory in the McIntosh, TGGE rescinded his application for membership of Holsworthy Rifle Club, deciding to throw his lot in with a little known rifle club from the Lower North Shore.

Greg Emms snubs Holsworthy

Click the link for video evidence…

Retaliatory action from the Holsworthy super club was swift and some might say brutal, leaving a somewhat lubricated Mr Emms Snr searching for his now missing bed which had mysteriously disappeared from the Holsworthy premises.

In what turned out to be an amazing coincidental turn of fate, Mr Emms’ bed eventually was discovered in the previously mentioned, little known club of Mosman/Neutral Bay.

Shocking news indeed…

We are off and running in the greatest Queens anywhere on the planet.

Why is it the greatest? Because its in Sydney, its next to the Ocean, and it has fireworks….

Its true..we live here

Ok, no fireworks, but we do have the Opera house and an amazing bridge. Yay us!

And Yay to all the amazing people who make this happen every year, especially our club members that we love and care about like Barb, Kevin, Donna, Barry, and Bill who put so much work in to make it happen. Thank you, you really are Great Australians.

Advance Australia Fair

Good luck in the MacIntosh and the Queens!!! Regular updates to follow!

The club championship at the end of this week’s shooting scientifically proves that the Schwebel gene pool is obviously superior to the rest of us lesser mortals.

1st Place:       Chris Schwebel     918.74

2nd Place:      Kevin Schwebel    883.87

3rd Place:       Sue Schwebel       827.56

4th Place:        Barry Schwebel    752.57

"Thanks for coming Dad"

We will run our caption competition every couple of weeks. Praise and the satisfaction of knowing you are smarter than everyone else to the winner!

This weeks photo….

There wasn’t a breath of wind at 700meters today when shooting started, and what a day it was….super high centre counts and some seriously good shooting.

Top uncoached shooter Sue Schwebel

Top of the pile uncoached was the fabulous Sue Schwebel nailing 100.11, Eric Wilson sent down 100.16 under the watchful coaching eye of Jim Bailey.

Jim himself wasnt without drama only narrowly missing the elusive 50.10.

Next behind Sue was Kevin Schwebel with 99.14 and Bill Barry with another 99.14.

Father and Son eyeing up the target

Other shoots of considerable note are Mitch Bailey shooting his first stage with an amazing 50.8, and Chris Schwebel shooting a very solid 98.7 including a 50.5. Nice work gents.

Finally a note of congratulations to all the Holsworthy members that have been involved in preparing for the Queens coming up this long weekend. Thank you for all your hard work, the range looks amazing.

Donna Negus - Australian Shooter Extraordinary - Loudest Female Burper on the Planet

Due to a certain event coming up in March, a few Holsworthians have been asking about “Black Tie” dress code and what it entails. Below are a few pictures to give some insight and a weblink for further information.

The Dirty Harry Black Tie

Body optional...

Oh yesh Miss Moneypenny

Finally should you wish for some more guidance info can be found at http://www.blacktieguide.com.

Suppliers of black tie rentals in NSW include:

http://www.formalwearexpress.com.au/

http://www.chorleys.com.au/

http://www.myer.com.au/services_formal-hire.aspx

The club championship has really stepped up a notch with the range scores beginning to be filled out and lower scores starting to be cut.

Is he REALLY a champion?

Who is in the lead? Who will gallop like a sparkly pony only to be taken down in the final furlong by the thoroughbreds? Or something like that…

The scores below show Current position as of 14/1/12 but we have also added the number of points still unshot in brackets along side.

DIVISION ONE

Kevin Schwebel. 883.087      (100 points)
Sue Schwebel. 823.56           (150 points)
Bill Barry. 681.55                    (300 points)
Eric Wilson. 742.70                (250 points)
Jim Bailey. 697.106                (300 points)
Barry Schwebel. 660.51         (200 points)
Barb Bell. 545.62                    (450 points)
David Garfield. 524.24            (400 points)
Catherine Clarke 196.20        (800 points)
Donna Negus. 196.17             (800 points)

JUNIOR DIVISION
Chris Schwebel. 915.73          (0 points)
Mitch Bailey. 754.32                (150 points)

F CLASS
Pat Northey. 839.15                 (150 points)
Simon Moloney. 94.3               (900 points)

The last coloumn below uses our amazing mathmatical formula, boffins, guesswork and current seasons form to predict the winners!!! Do you agree?

....ME!!!!!!

PREDICTED PLACINGS FOR 2012 SEASON

1st Place: Jim Bailey
2nd Place: Barbara Bell
3rd Place: Eric Wilson
4th Place: Kevin Schwebel
5th Place: Bill Barry

On an overcast day, with the rain falling towards the end, Eric Wilson took the first place at 600m today amongst the Holsworthians with a score of 100.5.

Holsworthy Score Card 14/1/2012

In second place was Jim Bailey on 99.05, followed by Kevin Schwebel with 98.9.

In the B/C grade Mitch Bailey shot a strong 49.03 in the second stage to finish with a hard earned 91.04, but was ultimately overtaken by Chris Schwebel with 92.3.

Good shooting all, and please Barb come out of the shop…we miss you

It was a quiet start to the New Year down at Anzac with people still on holidays and a strong blustery north easterly wind requiring 6-7 points at 500m.

It was tad windy on Saturday....

The results started the new year in much the same way as the old with Jim Bailey showing why he is a senior member of the Australian squad. In second place was Kevin Schwebel followed by Sue Schwebel.

Full results can be found in the results section.

2 more ranges until the awesome Sydney Queens takes place, and the range is looking great.

Many thanks to Jim Bailey for the info for this post. The Secretary of the club also wishes to convey how much he is looking forward to seeing all members of the club next week after far too long away.