Defence Rifle Club

Although this is easily the smallest of the four 'Varsity Rifle Clubs, it is by no means the most insignificant. At Tournament we retained the coveted Haslam Shield by the narrow margin of ten points, Canterbury and Auckland following in that order. The team was: D. H. K. Ross (capt.), D. W. Oxnam, P. G. Pasley, and R. J. Corkill. The first three attained places in the first N.Z.U. Rifle Shooting Team, Ross being appointed Captain. No N.Z.U. Blues were gained, the win being due to a high average score-team-work and not the individual brilliance of one or two.

Tournament was eventful in that for the first time, rifle teams met and fired on the one range, rules were re-cast, and the teams for next Tournament increased to six men.

As usual, a team was entered for the local Junior Union Shield Match, and at the present rate of progress it looks as if we may actually win it within the next four or five years. (We have won it before, in those halcyon days of the middle twenties when the Club performed the truly amazing feat of winning the Imperial Universities Challenge Shield.)

Club Trophies were won as follows:-Perry cup (aperture), T. R. C. Muir; Musketry trophy, D. H. K. Ross; Championship rose-bowl, T. R. C. Muir; Mills vase (Haslam), D. W. Oxnam.

The Club will have four good service rifles of its own next season, and it is hoped that the ammunition grant will be restored to the 5,000 mark. Future Tournaments will be definitely more attractive for riflemen than they have been in the past. Freshers with the trigger itch are implored to turn out next season, not only for Haslam practices, but also to learn the complex art of aperture shooting, to say nothing of the proposed annual match with Massey College. We need new members, preferably of the type who know a thing or two, but we will do all we can to encourage tyros, and to all and sundry a pleasant time is assured-the Rifle Club is definitely a club and not a loose collection of individuals. Now, you school champions, you pursuers of the nimble deer and the bobbing rabbit, what about it?