Posted by Anthony Hall on Dec 09, 2011; 2:34am
URL: http://oldforum.flyshooter.com.au/Shooter-Of-The-Year-SOTY-qualification-tp5060476p5060583.html

Hi Stuart,

Great topic for discussion and I agree that as the sport grows SOTY is more highly regarded and sought after.

My thoughts, and I have already had some brief discussions along these lines with Pete and Jugs were that maybe we should increase the number of allowable SOTY shoots in each state to 3, it encourages ranges to run more shoots and there are now more ranges that can run shoots each year.

On that basis, there  should be 4 shoots included in the SOTY score and we could specify that they  must include 3 different ranges.... rather than 3 states, as I see no problem for QLD shooters shooting 2 in Brisbane, one in townsville and one in ACT to quality.  Brisbane and townsville might as well be different states as with Batemans Bay and Wagga.

I agree that they should be registered benchrest matches and think that 10 or 12 entries per class is a fair minumum.  Maybe we could have a system where if there were only say 9 heavy gun entries (and a min of 12 was applied) first place gets the points for 4th place, 2nd gets 5th place points etc.  That way if one class falls a little short, at least it can still be a SOTY just the maximum points are not up for grabs.

The shoots have to be run properly, scored well and all rules have to be enforced and applied fairly. I think you will find Batemans Bay has changed a lot .... ask around and I hope you will find good comments on how it was run and scored.... (you will have to come down again sometime and shoot with us.)

I look forward to the discussion on this topic ready for next years season.

Cheers

Anthony