Harry Madden Memorial Benchrest Matches 2006
10 November 2006

Aggregate, Grand Aggregate and the 2-Gun winners
get together after the shoot - Ira Rolley, left, Rob
Carnell, Kevin Duckworth, Barry Warwick, Brendan
Atkinson, Robin Elton and Rob Purcell. Commencing in 1976, this shoot has been an annual event for light and heavy varmint rifles. It is always conducted on the Belmont Range near Brisbane and usually attracts a good crowd of eager Benchrest shooters. It is one of the prestige events on the Australian Benchrest calendar.

The 2006 event had an added attraction, as it was held in conjunction with the inaugural Pacific Regional Shooting Championships. The eight-man Australian team was pitted against shooters from New Zealand and Indonesia and many of these elected to enter the Madden shoot as well.
Following a combined opening ceremony, which included the firing of a small cannon, 53 competitors got down to the business of shooting small groups. Light Varmint was first and competition began at 100 yards in the usual squirrelly Belmont conditions.

Brendan Atkinson jumped out of the blocks with a .134 group on the A target and this remained as the smallest group of the yardage. Ralph Garlick nearly stole it on the second relay with a .135. All of the relay small groups were less than .2. Consistency always pays off and Bob Purcell managed to shoot five groups in the .2s for a winning aggregate of .2412. Hot on his heels was Kiwi shooter Kevin Duckworth, with the 2006 Australian 4-Gun Champion, Craig Whittleton, in third position.


Heavy Varmint winner Brendan Atkinson accepts
the PSECO trophy from SSAA Brisbane President
Rod Shannon. Belmont at 200 yards is never easy and any slip-ups are usually severely punished by the wind. Keeping all five groups below the 1" mark is a difficult but achievable aim. Fergus Bailey set the pace on the first target with a .334, but Steve Nash came back with a .274 on the B target for smallest group of the yardage. Rob Carnell, Stuart Elliott, and Ian Owen from New Zealand, shot small groups in the other relays.

At the end of the day, Fergus Bailey won the 200-yard aggregate with an impressive .2989. Kevin Duckworth was second, with Steve Nash third. The grand aggregate for Light Varmint went to Kevin Duckworth, who was very pleased with this outcome against a tough field. Fergus Bailey was just a fraction behind in second place and Robin Elton took the third position. The light varmint winner was presented with the Albert Zahl Memorial Shield, presented by Gavin Marshall. Albert was his grandfather and was a Benchrest shooter back in the 1970s. As a matter of interest, young Brent Marshall shot well in the 2006 match using one of Albert’s rifles - a sleeved Remington 700 built by John Giles in 1983.

It had been a tough day on the range and the catered barbecue held at the clubhouse that night was well attended. No doubt many groups were ‘re-shot’ during discussions and with the jovial ‘Uncle’ Nick Catlan running the bar, what more could one ask for?


Kevin Duckworth from New Zealand receives
the Albert Zahl Trophy from Gavin Marshall
for the Light Varmint win. The Heavy Varmint event was held on Sunday and shooting commenced at 100 yards. Conditions were much the same as the previous day, with plenty of traps for both the foolish and the brave.

Sebastian Lambang from Indonesia opened proceedings with an official screamer group of .097 - certainly a great way to start. The next two relays saw groups in the .1 area, but on the D target John Jones shot a .094 for small group of the morning. No-one really expected to see any screamer groups shot in those twitchy conditions. The shorter yardage was won by Ira Rolley with an excellent .2196 aggregate. Robin Elton was very close behind, followed by Ralph Garlick. The first four in the aggregate all had scores less than .2500 - very impressive for five targets.

Most matches are won and lost at the longer distance of 200 yards. Conditions were sporting, with alternating strong blows and slower twitchy stuff - very testing conditions. Nevertheless, some fine shooting was done and all the small groups in the relays were less than half an inch.

Fergus Bailey kicked off with a tidy .390 group on his A target. Ken Yates had the best of the B targets with a .440, but Barry Warwick shot the best of the yardage with a .323 on his C target. The battle for the yardage was being fought out with any of about eight shooters showing the way after three groups. It went right down to the last group of the day, but Brendan Atkinson punched in a .557 on the E target to seal the aggregate with .3116, narrowly holding out Peter Fleming, with Rob Carnell third. The 200-yard winner in this event also collects the Harry Madden Memorial Trophy, which was presented by Neville Madden.

The grand aggregate for Heavy Varmint was won by Brendan Atkinson on .2890, with Rob Carnell second on .3183 and Barry Warwick third on .3202. The winner of this event is presented with the PSECO Shield sponsored by John Giles.

The 2-Gun aggregate for the weekend saw a victory for Brendan Atkinson on .3195, with Fergus Bailey second on .3286 and Rob Carnell third on .3352. The 2-Gun winner was presented with the Maddco Shield presented by Neville Madden.

The 2006 event was held in conjunction with the PRSC (International) shoot and was an excellently run affair. National Scorer Max Coady was in attendance and the pad was expertly run by Barry Edgley and Annie Elliott.