Colours Match Details

The email sent to the Colours Squad today…

Okay folks, here are the squaddings and logistics details for the Colours match this weekend. Only one gear conflict in all (sorry Andrew!) so I’m officially surprised. Everyone check your gear on this list and make sure it’s right!

Note that if you’re on the last detail, we may try to move you to an earlier one if space becomes free, just so that we get finished faster!

Now, other stuff:

Logistics.
Plans are as follows. We’re meeting up on the range tonight at 1800 to pack gear and ensure that everything we need goes to Wilkinstown. I’m driving the gear out there tonight so it’s waiting for us when we get there tomorrow.

Then you are all to go home directly and get a good night’s sleep. No partying. No alcohol. I know, I know, but it’s the last time for a while, and you’ll make up for it tomorrow night!

The next morning, we’re all to meet at the DURC Range in college at 0730.

Bring your headband, your earplugs, your shooting diary. Check your equipment checklist in your shooting diary the night before, and it wouldn’t hurt to review what you’ve written in there the night before as well.  You will be reviewing it before you shoot the next day too, but if you only check it then, you’ll feel a right plonker when you read that there’s something you do the day before that makes stuff work really well.

Travel.
We’ve a chartered bus taking everyone out to Wilkinstown from college. Some of you are making your own way there – we’ll see you guys at the range, just be sure to be there at a bare minimum, half an hour before your detail. At least one of you is getting picked up on the way – Richie, make sure you send your mobile number to Iain so he can get the bus to stop to pick you up! – and if anyone else is on the N3 route out to Wilkinstown, sing out now and we’ll try to arrange the same setup for you.

If anyone misses the bus, the emergency fallback is the 109 bus out to Navan from Busaras. When you get there, call me or Iain on our mobiles and we’ll dispatch someone to come collect you from the bus stop in Navan.

Some of you have to leave early on the day; again, the 109 is our friend. We’ll drive people to the bus stop and they’ll be back in Busaras in about an hour.

The Range.
All of you remember what the range looks like, right? Those with poor memories, the website is here:
Wilkinstown Target Shooting Club

Food & Drink.
We usually order in a takeaway meal for dinner, and we also usually make a run to the petrol station down the road for breakfast rolls and the like in the morning after we get there. Those of you on the first detail though, get a good breakfast before going to the range in college because you won’t have time to eat before you shoot! Those of you on later details, make sure you eat at least an hour before you go and shoot, but no more than four hours beforehand. I don’t want to see anyone collapsing on the firing range this year because of low blood sugar because they forgot to eat. Bring some fruit to the range to snack on when shooting in case you get hungry – bananas are excellent, so are raisins. Jaffa cakes are a passable substitute if you have one or two, they’re not so good if you eat the pack. Stay away from chocolate or anything with caffeine in it until after the shoot.

Don’t forget bottled water. You’ll dehydrate faster on the WTSC range than any other because of the gas heating; you need to be drinking almost continually throughout the match, a slug of water every three or four shots. I want to see people drinking it all throughout the match. I want people well hydrated so their eyes work!

The Match.
When you get your targets, count them. Just in case someone miscounted. You should have 60 competition cards and 4 sighters (marked by a black strip in a corner).

When you put your targets into the holders, 1) ensure you have a backing card (a pistol target will do), and 2) ensure you put them in the same way every time so the group diagrams make sense at the end. There’s usually a logo on the target; put that at the bottom every time.

The colours is an odd event in one respect; you don’t get to know who’s on the DURC team. So the individual scores will be published, and the overall team scores as well, but only the two captains ever know who was on the teams. Just so you know.

Costs.
Right, well first off, no entry fee. The bus costs €15 a head and the hostel €20; but the club is subsidising that so you’re paying a grand total of €16 if you’re staying overnight and €5 for the bus if you’re not staying. If you’re coming on your own to the range and not staying over, obviously it’s free. Bring some extra money though, since it’s a bit of a party after the colours with the consumption of refreshing beverages and such.

And Finally…
Remember, no drinking the night before, and plenty of sleep.

Okay, if you have any questions, just ask away. See you tonight…

ps. Don’t forget as well that we have a meeting in the range at 1800 on Monday after the colours (March 5) to talk about where we go from here with the squad – there are other matches coming up after the colours, including the National Championships. We’ll get together, lay out what’s coming up and what’s involved in training for it, find out who’s interested, and go from there. This is for both the Novice and the Senior squad, by the way.