The Narrabri Clay Target Club’s annual King of Kaputar shoot will go ahead in 2020 much to the delight of local shooters and club president Mark Barden.
The event was originally scheduled to be held in July, however the club announced on June 17 that the uncertainty of the guidelines for community sport which were to be put in place from July 1 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic left the club “little time to put things in place to a standard that befits the event”.
The club has since been preparing for its July monthly shoot this Saturday which will be its first since February.
But last Saturday it announced that after much discussion it was planning to run the King of Kaputar event on the weekend of August 22 and 23.
While the event could still be cancelled at short notice due to changes in relation to COVID-19, NSW Health and other government notification and recommendations, Barden told The Courier that he and the club were pleased that they had been able to find a date to host the popular shoot.
“We are quite happy that it’s on,” Barden said.
“We always get given a designated weekend so we had to apply to change the date to when we did.
“The new date doesn’t clash with any other shoots.
“We run a very real risk that this could still be cancelled, they’ve only got to change the rules and we won’t be able to do it but we are hopeful that everybody does the right thing in the state and we can proceed.
“But at the moment we have good interest from shooters and we are well supported by all of our sponsors and we have done a heap of work down at the club.”
The 2020 King of Kaputar shoot will operate using the same program as the 2019 event.
Events one, two and three will be held on the Saturday followed by events four, five and six on the Sunday.
Event one is the 45-target champion of champions 18m, event two is the 25-target single barrel 15m, event three is the 50-target double barrel 15m, event four is the 25-target point score 15m, event five is 30-target handicap – six per lane, and event six is the 25-pair double rise 15m.
Barden said that the program was a difficult one that would attract many top shooters.
“It’s the same program as last year which is a fairly tough program,” Barden said.
“We could make it a lot easier but we don’t, and we do draw better quality shooters because it is a tough program.”
Barden said that the club had proved that it could comply to certain regulations to provide a COVID-safe environment for all shooters.
He added that the new measures put in place would have a minimal effect on the shooting itself, but said the social aspect of the weekend that shooters always looked forward to, would be affected.
The club is unable to provide camping on club grounds like it has done in previous years, but Barden encouraged travelling shooters to instead explore Narrabri’s local accommodation options.
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