Årsmøtesjutningen, Eskilstuna

30 March 2003

There is a lot of tradition attached to this rather small and far away match. Firstly the Swedish association has it annual meeting in Eskilstuna, just outside Stockholm, around Easter holiday. The local club in Eskilstuna always has a match the day after, and we insane Norwegians travel 350 miles just to shoot 8-9 stages on a cold Sunday afternoon in the middle of nowhere. That’s the setting and some things do not change, so off we went.

We decided to leave on Friday afternoon so we could arrive just in time for a beer and a half, not to mention the mandatory Plumbers Piss. It’s not easy to plan and meet the plan when you have as diverted souls as we had on this trip. (prove my points later) Thomas the Plumber (i.e. the one who has come up with the Plumbers Piss drink which is AWFUL), Håkan the Cook, they left early (thanks!) so that’s a relief. We have jointly bought a WW COACH for traveling purpose, Frank the Electrician is head of that project. Then we have Chris “the always going to be a junior”, Kyrre the Designer and me. Dag Petter should have been with us on Friday, but had to work, so he joined us in Eskilstuna on Saturday.

Well, after some strange confusion regarding where to pick me up, we got underway a couple of hours behind schedule, no surprise there. No hassle in the custom clearance , we smiled, they smiled, we went and they stayed. The weather was nice blue skies, no wind and almost 10 degrees outside, it might just be that we had some luck on the way.

Frank is rather laid back in his approach and he was driving, so it took its time to get to Eskilstuna. The Plumber and the Cook was deeply involved in the local bar, Oliver Twist so they were rather cheerful when we arrived.

End of the story, it was a late night out and we had fun, one of the few things that went according to plan. Saturday was supposed to be; getting sober, gun cleaning, ammo check and early to bed. Yeah right….. some of us managed to stick to the plan, some didn’t. Even and Sigurd, the fisherman from the west coast came in on Saturday by noon, so all in all we where 9 Norwegian ready for the match on Sunday.

The Sunday morning came early, earlier than usual because we had turned the clock one hour forward according to daylight saving. So it was early, cold and nobody was in the right mood for a match, but we got underway by 0715 from the hotel. Frank and I got an unpleasant surprise when we collected the car from the hotels garage…. The side window was broken and the door was halfway open…break-in…cannot believe my eyes; nothing was stolen since there was nothing to steal. Unbelievable Swedish low lifers.

Anyway after that crushing disappointment we drove to the range with mega air condition installed for free. We got our papers at the registration and went of to stage 3. Bitterly cold outside and nobody was smiling anymore. First stage is of course the second biggest in the match 130 points to collect. We are 11 shooters in the squad, I feel sorry for the two Swedish guys that had to cope with 9 Norwegian’s. Not an easy task, but they took it well.

The Plumber is first man out, and not completely ready, a little gun cleaning in box A is next on the agenda. Kyrre won this stage in open, so that’s the way to get off the line. The rest came away with a decent run all of us except Dag Petter and Chris….I cannot explain what they did, but I did not work, Chris even got a reshoot - did he lean from the previous mistakes? -> NO.

Stage 4 and 5 hotrange, and a silly one. 4 ipsc targets, gun, magazine AND ammo on the table. So how fast are you on loading 8 round in the mag?? That’s the question, never mind the shooting ability. Well I am good on loading the ammo, I came in second on this stage, but well beaten by Limpan. How do you do it?? Training?? The Cook hit a penalty target and needed to reload…the Plummer got a jam and had to rack the gun, but came away lucky. On stage 5 there where also 4 targets, heavy bucket in your weak hand, do the job with strong hand.

Stage 6 and I was first man out. 9 targets and quite straight forward, I managed to get the points secured, a little slow between the hatches, but in all OK. Even won this stage. Then we went for lunch and a break. The sun had gotten high on the sky so temps was rising and it actually felt quite nice. Frosty fingers getting workable for the first time today.

Stage 7, also a 9 targets challenge. The first two behind a barricade and long range, the two next partially covered by penalty target and also cut in half, the rest was close range. It has started to get abit windy during the lunch, so one of the stage walls blew down, but that don’t affect us.

Stage 8 and 9 is hotrange. Turn and draw at 4 targets, stage 9 is 6 targets, 3 on each side of a barricade. Quite good performance form the Norwegian’s with 3, 4, 5 and 7 place on this stage. Sigurd won stage 9.

Stage 1 is the biggest stage of the match, 145 points, lot’s of position, running and shooting. The Plumber  won this stage in open. Very nice stage to shoot. Some long range, swingers, hatches and at the end close range targets. It’s quite windy now and it's cold, only one more stage two go.

Stage 2 and finally the last one. 9 targets and a popper. Some tricky cut in half targets at long range, the rest is at 6 to 10 feet’s away up the gravel hill.

So we finished off at around 1600 with gravel in the shoes. All in all it was as good as it gets. Finally an outdoor match, we have bee shooting indoor since the WSXIII last September.

Back at the club house we started repairing the broken window. Two ipsc targets (NO shoots of course), duct tape and the auto air condition were shut off, temporary.

On the road again around 1800 in the evening, a well 6 hours drive home if all goes well. It didn’t. It started raining after a couple of hours, and you know as well as everybody else that ipsc targets are not waterproof, so the air conditioning came on again…not very nice I tell you. A quick pit stop and it was fixed again.

Then came the “the accelerator throttle is not working” incident. This was caused by the usual out of gas syndrome which only old man with hat or old ladies usually get caught up in. The Plummer and the Cook was well ahead and had to turn and help us. After a few other mixup, (the Cook took the wheel of the Plumbers car and crashed it into the safety fence) and the Coach was running again.

Finally after doing the milk route and dropping people off at totally different places, I got home at around 01:30, Frank still had 30 minutes to go until he was home.

The best part is that we are going to do exactly the same next year, hopefully not that same mistakes but indeed there will be a few memorable events, boy we love this game……….

Kenneth

@Triggerfreeze.com