The 2020 QRA Championships were conducted from August 12 to 26th in near perfect shooting weather with plenty of warm sunshine while the cool August westerly winds sometimes made for challenging conditions, particularly at the long ranges.

The 2020 QRA Championships were conducted from August 12 to 16th in near perfect shooting weather with plenty of warm sunshine while the cool August westerly winds sometimes made for challenging conditions, particularly at the long ranges.

Covid-19 virus pandemic protocols were in place to protect attendees and this lead to some changes from the normal.  Score cards were dispensed with and the ever-reliable Hexta electronic target system recorded the scores.  Check-scoring on the monitors and mound safety for the squads of a maximum of eight shooters per target was undertaken by the last shooter check-scoring for the first 4 shooters and then the first shooter scoring for the rest of the squad.  Some fifteen shot matches were included throughout the program to speed up the daily activities while still retaining the normal total of shots overall.

A total of 153 competitors participated in the Queens Prize matches, a pleasing number considering that all Victorian residents and some NSW residents were precluded from attending due to State border closures.

It was those NSW competitors who proved to be too strong for the local TR shooters with father and son combination of Jim and Mitchell Bailey fighting it out throughout much of the Championships.  Twenty-two year old Mitchell proved to be a “Chip off the Old Block” by taking out his first Queens Prize after a gruelling 15 shot match between the top 25 TR competitors at 1000 yards, the scores from that match being added to the Queens Aggregate to determine the Queens winner.