ONE of Victoria’s oldest shooting trophies will go on the line at the Lake Gillear shooting complex today.
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Rifle shooters from Bacchus Marsh and Port Campbell/Colac will hope their aims are true when they contest the time-honoured Corangamite Shield. The competition first went ahead in 1907, when member for Corangamite J. C. Manifold donated the trophy and invited clubs in the electorate to compete.
Interest has wavered in recent times due to a dwindling number of rifle clubs in the south-west but the shield remains coveted among those who remain.
“It’s been competed for on a regular basis every year, other than war years, since 1907,” Corangamite Shield committee chairman Graham Dyson said.
“That involved all the clubs within the old Corangamite electorate, which spanned from Apollo Bay, north to Beeac and across to Yambuk.
“In the early 1900s, until about 1945 or 1950 there was a lot of rifle clubs in those areas. There was a rifle club every eight or 10 miles.”
Dyson said three teams of six would shoot 10-shot matches over 300, 500 and 600 yards. Bacchus Marsh, which is fielding two teams, holds the trophy.
“The format is a six-man team and the top four scores from each team count in the aggregate at the end of the day to find a winner,” he said.
He said organisers were in the process of changing the format in a bid to encourage entries from further afield.
“We’ll try and change things around a bit until we get it right. Over the last five or six years it’s been really difficult to attract teams to the event,” he said.