By Narrabri Pistol Club’s Robert Boutcher
Narrabri Pistol Club conducted the annual New England and North-West Zone Service Pistol and WA1500 Open on Saturday and Sunday.
There were good shooting conditions across the weekend as it was sunny and cool.
The 36 competitors came from a wide area, including Tamworth, Sydney, Canberra, Cowra, Cumnock, Dubbo, Port Macquarie and many points in between. There were also nine Narrabri Pistol Club members in action.
Volunteer non-competing Narrabri Pistol Club members worked tirelessly across the weekend to ensure the competition ran to time. These included Bob Rees, David and Tom Watt, Nick Bradshaw, Jamie and Lachlan Condon, Joshua Smith and scorer Mary Boutcher.
The club thanks those members and gives a special thanks to Mark Murray from Newcastle, who travelled up just to volunteer at the event. The club also thanks the NSW Amateur Pistol Association for providing the two official judges for the event – Cherie May and Ray Gray from Cowra.
The Narrabri Pistol Club’s new air compressor that powers the turning targets, donated by club member Michael Jamieson, functioned flawlessly all weekend.
The catering by club members Melinda Marsh and Lewis Griffiths rivalled any café with the quality and variety of food on offer, from breakfast through to dinner.
Sponsorship and support from local business houses of Narrabri and Wee Waa for the 2025 competitions has been fantastic, with donations of cash and products exceeding all expectations. Narrabri is certainly a big-hearted town that lives up to its name as the Sportiest Town.
Grahame Keys was the most successful of the Narrabri Pistol Club competitors, taking out the service pistol 25-yard event on Saturday.
There were three service pistol matches shot on Saturday and four WA1500 matches shot on Sunday. Results are as follows:
Service pistol off gun:
First – Peter Roughly (Cessnock PC), second – Iain Henry (SSPC ACT), third – Peter Komacha (Cessnock PC).
Narrabri PC members: B-grade fourth – David Jaeger.
Service pistol unrestricted off gun:
First – Simon Taranto (Gosford PC), second – Wayne Turner (Blue Mountains PC), third – Peter Roughly (Cessnock PC).
Narrabri PC members: A-grade fifth – Grahame Keys, B-grade fifth – David Jaeger, C-grade third – David Hayne, C-grade sixth – Bruce Regan, C-grade eighth – Graham Smith, C-grade ninth – Robert Gardner, D-grade first – John McNeill, D-grade third – Paul Wilkins.
Service pistol 25-yard off gun:
First – Grahame Keys (Narrabri PC), second – John Nosworthy (Port Macquarie PC), third – Iain Henry (SSPC ACT).
Narrabri PC members: A-grade 11th David Jaeger, B-grade third – David Dewsbury, B-grade fourth – Graham Smith, B-grade eighth – Bruce Regan, C-grade fourth – Robert Gardner, C-grade fifth – David Hayne, C-grade sixth – John McNeill.
WA1500 revolver off gun:
First – Simon Taranto (Gosford PC), second – John Nosworthy (Port Macquarie), third – Iain Henry (SSPC ACT).
Narrabri PC members: Expert grade second – David Jaeger, sharpshooter grade first – David Hayne, sharpshooter grade second – Robert Gardner.
WA1500 pistol off gun:
First – Iain Henry (SSPC ACT), second – Simon Taranto (Gosford PC), third – Wayne Turner (Blue Mountains PC).
Narrabri PC members: Marksman grade second – David Hayne.
WA1500 optical revolver off gun:
First – Kerry Bell (Dubbo PC), second – Peter Komacha (Cessnock PC), third – Harrison Loftus (Tamworth PC)
Narrabri PC members: Expert fifth – David Jaeger.
WA1500 optical pistol off gun:
First – Kerry Bell (Dubbo PC), second – Peter Komacha (Cessnock PC), third – Peter Roughly (Cessnock PC).
