Swiss Society Of New Zealand

Dear Auckland Shooting Club Members!

The time is here, to reflect on our traditional Swiss shooting activities of the past year. It has been a year of highs and lows. We have had some hard out working-bees to further improve the butts, shooting hut and its surroundings. For the first time we had Non-Swiss shooters shooting along side us with their own rifle and ammunition. The club has decided to go back to the traditional Saturday and Sunday format after one season in order to better facilitate the increase in club membership and Non-Swiss shooters. As always one of my highlights of the season is to welcome the Hamilton shooters on our range. Sadly, we also had to say good-by to two long standing members of the Auckland Swiss Shooting Club.

First let’s reflect on our yearly traditional shooting championship.

The numbers are as follows:

I am pleased to report that this year we had an increase of participating members, mainly due to the celebration of the 50 years anniversary of the “Swiss Farm Shooting Range”, where we opened the range to new potential members. It is great to see that there is still an interest in one of our forefathers sporting and leisure activities. I am looking forward to the years ahead to further strengthen our membership numbers. So please, if you know a Swiss person or a person with Swiss inheritance then point them in the right direction or just bring them along.

Our traditional Swiss Shooting Competitions have produced some strong winners. Here they are:

Main Competition:

Thomas Matysik further underlined his dominance in the championship and has scored 15 points more than the year before. I recorded an increase of 3 points were Andrea Matysik dropped 3 points. I am sure that Andrea will be doing everything to unsettle her brother or myself to move herself to the top again.

Ladies Competition:

Once again Andrea Matysik confirmed her spot in the Ladies competition. Anilise and Selina swapped places for second and third. Keep it up ladies and hopefully we will soon have a few more challenging for the top spot.

Junior Competition:

After many years of Hamilton dominating, Auckland finally were able to claim the top spots in the Junior competition. Our two shooters came via last years anniversary shoot and are quite new to the sport. Both shooters have already done very well at the anniversary shoot, so I am not at all surprised to see them as far up in the scoring list of our traditional competition. I predict that they will further improve and challenge longstanding shooters in the top position soon. Thomas Fitzi will have another year in the junior division before he too will move up to the higher division. Hopefully the Hamilton Club will be able to find and encourage some other junior shooters to take part in the competition, so that they can once again challenge us, so the trophy can travel south past the Bombay Hills.

Championship Medals Sponsors:

The main championship medals have been sponsored by Peter and Andrea Matthis for the next 5 years, thank you for your contributions.  It is great to have you two as sponsors to support our Swiss Shooting traditions for years to come.

Field-Championship Medals

I had the pleasure to process the scoring cards for Lorraine Vine-Belami, Neil Kaiser, Steyn Krugger, and Bruno Epp for their bronze medal and Walter Zuber for his bronze and silver medal. Those

Medals are a personalised edition and are issued by the Swiss Shooting Federation.

Congratulations to all of you for your achievements.

To all other shooters, please check if you have 8 green cards and 8 white cards. (Anerkennungs-Karte). By now some of you will have a collection and should be eligible for a medal.

Working-Bee’s 

Due to the continuous erosion from the weather, we were forced to fix the retaining wall at the front of the shooting hut. Fully aware of the enormous task it took a bit of time to plan to organise the materials and coordinate people and machinery at a suitable weekend. The job was undertaken by some very dedicated members of the shooting section over two weekends in March and April 2018. Some heavy machinery had to be brought in to drill the foundation for the poles. They were lifted in by the digger, everyone then got busy filling the holes with concrete. Since we had the digger on site, we also took the chance to stabilise the bridge leading over to the 50m small bore targets. To the Team: Ueli Hess with his digger, Ernst, Andre, Adrian, Neil, Daniel, Caleb, Tobias, Lukas, Michael, and Matthew. Thank you very much for your hard work and determination.

Another working bee had to be organised in October because all the targets needed a makeover. The job was undertaken by a small team. The upgrading of the targets has now been completed and we are ready for the upcoming season.

I also would like to thank Ernst and Melissa for organising lunch for every working bee.

New .223 Rifles

Two new rifles are presently being built and hopefully they will be ready when the new shooting season starts. First, we had our mind set on only one rifle, but the Hamilton Swiss Club has come to the party with a very generous donation which gave us the option to order two identical rifles. These rifles will be fitted with the same target sights as the first edition .223 target rifles.

I would like to thank the Hamilton Swiss Club for their generous donation.

Eidgenössischen Schützenfest/Swiss Federation Shooting Competition 2020  

The next big shooting competition based in Switzerland will be happening in 2020, it is now time to put the planning into motion. Please let me know if you are interested in travelling to Switzerland to participate with our New-Zealand team. We need to select the appropriate rifle, as shooting off sandbags is not permitted unless the shooter has reached senior stage, meaning the shooter is 60 years or older in the year of participation.

Participation in Switzerland also means training; therefore, I will organise training days as soon as I know the course of fire. Last time we met about 10 times to fine tune positions, aiming, trigger control and releasing the shot.

Swiss Abroad Shooting Competition

I have just received a letter from Switzerland, informing us that the Auckland Swiss Club has won the worldwide Swiss Abroad Shooting Competition in 2017 with a very good average of 88.032 points.

With the letter I also received a box of medals. Every shooter who participated in the Swiss Abroad competition 2018 will receive a medal. A couple of days later I received another parcel containing prizes for every shooter who took part in the Swiss Abroad Competition in 2017.

The organising club: SG Wilhelm Tell in St. Gallen Switzerland has also now issued a new medal design and Auckland was first up to be represented on the medal.

Obituaries:

On a sadder note

This year we lost two long standing club members.

Hans Enzler passed away on the 23. February 2018, aged 91. In Hans I lost a mentor, a close friend, a very generous person and a person with an enormous passion for shooting and hunting. It never got boring with Hans as he always had a story to tell from the days when he was the first ASC Riflemaster and he had many other tales up his sleeve as well.  Hans had a great vision and thanks to his determination the Auckland Swiss Club, especially the shooting section became a reality. His support and advice over the years have helped me to further develop and modernise the shooting range and its surroundings and to build up club memberships. It has been an honour to have him as a mentor and friend. I shall never forget him.

David Page passed away on the 27 May 2018, aged 89.

The moment I met David I knew he was a special person in his own right. I liked his straight forwardness. He was not afraid to speak up. In David too, we have lost a great story teller, a person with a vast knowledge about anything to do with shooting, and a dedicated club member.  I am definitely going to miss him too as he had a great sense of humour, I will never forget him. Our cheeky and teasing conversations will be sadly missed.

Rest in Peace David

Shooting dates for 2019 are as follows:

All shooting starts at 10 am

Wishing you all: A Merry Christmas and Happy New–Year