Narrabri Clay Target Club hosts 2023 Western Zone Continental Carnival

Narrabri Clay Target Club hosted the 2023 Northern Inland Credit Union Western Zone Continental Championship Day on Sunday, which was contested by 31 shooters.

Conditions were far from ideal as the day saw a consistent northerly wind of 35km/hr, with wind gusts up to 59/km/hr.

Also thrown into the mixed were changeable light conditions of full sun, intermittent cloud and towards the end of the day full cloud coverage.

A presentation was held at the conclusion of the event, which saw the Narrabri Clay Target Club president Mark Barden thank the long running sponsors, the Northern Inland Credit Union, which was represented by Jo Morley from the Narrabri Branch.

Other mentions and thanks were extended to the Western Zone, which was represented by Brett Farlow on the day, as well as Janet and Graham Baylis, Dylan Lewis and Caitlin and Janet Barden for their efforts at the shoot and the working bee.

Club officials said that the day ran smoothly due to the contributions of many shooters who assisted with loading the traps and packing up at the end of the event.

Mark Barden told The Courier that it was a great day with some impressive shooting on show.

“It was a great day,” he said.

“We host about three Western Zone events a year, and this one is a pretty prestigious event.

“The Western Zone here goes out to Brewarrina and Broken Hill. It’s quite a big zone we have.

“We had people from outside the zone turn up too. Some guys from the Northern Zone came in and we even had one from the Southern Zone turn up too.”

The host club had three winners at Sunday’s event, most notably Hayden Johnson who was the overall winner of the 50-Target Double Barrel Continental Western Zone Championship event.

The Moree man, who has been shooting for about a decade and became a member of the Narrabri Clay Target Club three years ago, scored a perfect 50/50 in that event, which was the first of the day.

He also finished tied for first overall in the A-grade division at the shoot across the three events, but had to settle for second following a coin toss.

“It was a tremendous effort from Hayden,” Barden said.

“He is an A-grader, and it’s usually the AA-graders that bang out the big scores. But Hayden just blew everyone away.

“I’m proud of all our members.

“It was very a tough day with the conditions.”

Janet Barden and Barry Thomson also excelled on the day as they both placed in the top two of their respective divisions in two of the three events.

Results from the 2023 Western Zone Continental Carnival are as follows:

Event one – 2023 50-Target Double

Barrel Continental Western Zone Championship:

Overall – Hayden Johnson (Narrabri) with 50/50.

AA-grade:

First – Blake Schwartz (Moree), second – Helen Overton (Guyra).

A-grade:

First – Mark Meers (Coonamble), second – Ian Schwartz (Moree).

B-grade:

First – Janet Barden (Narrabri), second – Matthew McGuiness (Moree).

C-grade:

First – Barry Thomson (Narrabri), second – Kendra Schwartz (Moree).

Event two – 2023 50-Target Single Barrel Continental Western Zone Championship:

Overall – Brenton Kelly (Coonamble) with 48/50.

AA-grade:

First – Blake Schwartz (Moree), second – Brett Trindall (Coonamble).

A-grade:

First – Ian Schwartz (Moree), second – Hayden Johnson (Narrabri).

B-grade:

First – Matthew McGuiness (Moree), second – Bert Wise (Tamworth).

C-grade:

First – Kendra Schwartz (Moree), second – Bill Davidson (Tamworth).

Event three – 2023 50-Target Point Score Continental Western Zone Championship:

Overall – Jason Sipple (Tarawera) with 150/154 – 146/150 after a shoot off with Blake Schwartz and Helen Overton.

AA-grade:

First – Blake Schwartz (Moree), second – Helen Overton (Guyra).

A-grade:

First – Brett Farlow (Moree), second – Murray Johnson (Narrabri).

B-grade:

First – Matthew McGuiness (Moree), second – Janet Barden (Narrabri).

C-grade:

First – Kendra Schwartz (Moree), second – Barry Thomson (Narrabri).

Overall champions:

Open – Blake Schwartz (Moree) with 241/250, AA-grade – Helen Overton (Guyra) with 238/250, A-grade – Ian Schwartz (Moree) won on a coin toss from Hayden Johnson (Narrabri) with 233/250, B-grade – Matthew McGuiness (Moree) with 207/250, C-grade – Kendra Schwartz (Moree) with 224/250.

Encouragement award, donated by Murray and Hayden Johnson -Amanda Farr.