BARBADOS 6 – 11 OCTOBER 1998

Twenty members of the Trinidad Rifle Association attended the 25^th West Indies Full Bore Rifle Championships hosted this year by Barbados. The Team was led by Major Roland Forde – Team Manager, Mr Jerome Lee – Team Captain and Mr Clarion Tang Choon – Team Coach. The other Team members were Mr Terence Paty, Mr John Fong Yew, Captain Norris Gomez, Mr Carl Awong, Mr Oscar Waldron (Trinidad’s 1998 National Full Bore Champion), Mr Benet Thomas, Mr Kenneth Ng Fook, Mr Gregory Clement, Mr Rupert Young, Mr John Soanes, Mr Leslie Chung, Mr Richard Chan, Mr Jonathan Chan, Captain Jeffrey Holder, Mr Michael Perez, Mr Marc Homer and Miss Indrani Jutagir(The 1998 "O" Class Champion).

The Competition consisted of three days of Individual Competition followed by two days of Team Matches with Teams from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad in attendance.

In the first day events at 300yds, 500yds & 600yds, Trinidad dominated the prize lists with Fong Yew winning Silver with a score of 157.19v, being beaten by one v-bull by Guyana’s Goodluck, and Thomas won the Bronze with 154.19v. In the "O" Class Trinidad’s Soanes, R. Chan and Holder won Gold, Silver and Bronze with scores of 145.9v, 141.10v and 141.9v.

In the second day events at 300yds, 600yds & 900yds, Gomez finished 3^rd with 131.9v and in the "O" Class, R Chan won gold with 121.12v and Miss Jutagir Bronze with 120.8v

The third day events were shot at 500yds, 600yds and 1,000yds and in this, Gomez placed 2^nd with 131.9v, shooting possibles of 35.3v and 50.5v at 500 & 600yards. Waldron was 3^rd with 130.13v. Again Trinidad’s "O"Class shooters excelled with Miss Jutagir winning gold with 124.10v and Soanes, Silver with 118.3v.

Gomez won silver for the Short Range Aggregate with 321.37v with Guyana’s Ransford Goodluck winning by 5 v-bulls. In the "O" Class, R. Chan, Soanes and Perez again won Gold, Silver and Bronze with 293.25v, 291.15v & 289.19v.

Trinidad won Gold, Silver and Bronze in the 7 round aggregate with Soanes, Perez and Miss Jutagir producing scores of 95.4v, 94.7v & 93.6v and Gomez Gold in "X" Class with 103.10v. Waldron won the "S Douglas Over 50’s Trophy" with 100.7v.

In the Long Range Aggregate of 900yards and 1,000 yards, Miss Jutagir was outstanding, winning the "O" Class with 91.8v placing 16^th overall and in the process outshooting 17 "X" & 12 "O" Class shooters, in this her first tour and indeed first effort at shooting at these long ranges.

In the Grand Aggregate for the three days of events, Guyana’s Goodluck and Braithwaite won Gold and Silver with scores of 418.56v and 416.46v. Trinidad’s Gomez was edged into 3^rd place with 416.43v. Once again, it was Trinidad’s "O" Class shooters who excelled winning Gold, Silver and Bronze with R Chan 1^ST with 378.29v, Miss Jutagir 2^nd with 378.23v and Soanes 3^rd with 377.16v.

The Team events started on Saturday 10^th October with the Singer Trophy being competed for by Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. This was shot at 900 yards and 1,000 yards with 2 sighters and fifteen shots to score for Teams of Eight(8) persons. Trinidad’s Team were Thomas, Chung, Homer, Waldron, Fong Yew, Awong, J. Chan and Gomez. Ng Fook was reserve and sub-coach with Tang Choon the Main Coach. In spite of Trinidad not having a 900 yard & 1,000 yard range, we emerged the winners with 1091.83v beating Guyana by 16 points. This is the first time that Trinidad has won this trophy and with young and in-experienced shooters on board, a truly magnificent effort.

Sunday 11^th saw all Teams preparing for the keenly contested The WITCO Cup. This solid Sterling Silver Cup was donated by the makers of Anchor cigarettes in 1928, renamed the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1972 and again renamed in 1998, The WITCO Cup. It has been shot for every year since, barring Wars and hurricanes.

This competition is shot at ranges of 300yards, 500yards and 600yards with 2 sighters and 10 shots to score and is open to Teams of 8 persons. The competing Countries this year were Barbados, Guyana (Defending Champions) and Trinidad. Bermuda was absent and Jamaica was only able to field a Team of 7. Trinidad was pleased to loan them one of our shooters, Mr Rupert Young, to enable them to field a full 8.

In spite of some nervousness among the younger shooters, the well trained and well prepared Team of Thomas, Chung, Waldron, Ng Fook, Fong Yew, Awong, J. Chan and Gomez, were superbly coached on target by Tang Choon, Fong Yew and Gomez, winning us the match with a score of 1136.116v’s, beating our arch rivals and good friends Guyana by 22 points. Waldron, Fong Yew and Gomez shot possibles at 500 yards, and Thomas shot his at 600yards. The Top shooter for this Match was Thomas who won himself the Wogart Trophy for the 4^th time with a 146.18v and in the process set two new records: - As the only person to have won it three times in succession, in 1985,86 & 87 AND the only person to have won it 4 times.

We would like to thank WITCO for their continuing sponsorship of this Blue Riband event in the region, and also BWIA, Petrotrin, Paria Sea Foods Ltd, NEALCO and Angostura without whose assistance and donations, this tour would not have been possible and successful.

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