Dave's Rifle Shooting Experiences

A very entertaining and party like evening! I very much missed not having Sheree there for the ceremony as team England were leading a lot earlier than us. Missed you sweetie!

A good time was had, a little dancing and much flag waving to try n get on tv. I was with a few other Welsh guys near theain speeches podium. So of you saw a flag waving side to side, it was me! :)

A big well done to Helen for bringing the face paints! Brilliant idea and very much in demand, not just by our team!

The group picture is of our support staff, including the general team managers, doctors, sport sciences and Physio's. A great big thank you to all of you and those behind the scenes who make the games what they are for all us athletes. An awesome and pleasurable experience and we would surely struggle without you all. :) Cheers :)

So my third commonwealth games has come to an end, Glasgow beckons as the venue for a potential fourth games. A lot of water to go under many bridges before that! Plans to be formulated, strategies to be set, money to be made and hopefully a pretty large event penciled in for 2013 ;) also need to get various things fixed and sorted, not just shooting straight, but my elbow and fitness. A strange road ahead, that I'm looking forward to traveling :)

Dave

Well if you hadn't already guessed by now, I din't retain my title and didn't reach the final. I had a truly disappointing start to match with a 95 string and struggled from turrets to try and keep it respectable. I am pleased with the way I faught and never gave up, doing the utmost best I could. It just wasn't enough on the day. I've included the pics of score print out for interest :)
Well done to Jon Hammond from Scotland who is the new Commonwealth champion :)

Dave :)

Well let's face it, today was not my best, by so far its untrue.
Sport is so frustrating, one day its all fine and going well, you can hardly put a shot wrongly, and then boom! All of a sudden the momentum that had been building the last 10 days stops and back tracks. Training has been going so well. Comfortable in position and with my abilities, a certain amount of belief was back, the knowledge that the shot would where it was meant to! The 10 ring! Grrr.
I know its not gone, its there lurking under there surface, waiting and so desperately wanting to return the open and show itself, my true self, the form I know I am capable of showing. At least writing these words I confirm at least 1 thing in my mind:
I want it so badly!
The success, the feeling of a good performance, of a great performance, of knowing my score before having to look, of being a champion.
We shall see how tomorrow goes and I promise this: I'll be doing the best I can and giving it all that I can.

It's been a strange 4 years, I wonder how the next 4 will stack up over time.

This is not my last blog post (maybe as current champion), but I do want to thank people for their support and love.
Thank you mum and dad, in many more ways than one I would not be here now or have achieved the things I have without you.
My sister hari, thank you for being there and putting up with me, and john, my official beer tester and surrogate drinker ;)
My fiance sheree, thank you also for putting up with my highs and lows, supporting me and being there in so many ways for me. My wtb :)
Thank to all my other family, adopted, co opted, arm twisted, bribed and everything else. Without my friends who put up with me and my ways I would truly lost - thank you.

Once again, enough talk, time for sleep and then more purposeful action in the morning.

Dave x

Ps. Which side of the force do you think I should go for? Or is better? :)

Yup time is finally here! The training is done, the firing points assigned, the kit prepared, 4 years of hard work, struggle, sweat blood and often tears have fore.to this point. The night before my team (pairs) match.
I'm looking forward to it. Training has gone well, I just wish I could have got my elbow sorted a bit more satisfactorily fixed n settled. Tried lots of differing options and its basically come down to dose up on paracetemol and ibuprofaen! Oh well.

Sorry no pics today, promises there will be many tomorrow!

Fingers crossed!

Dave :)

Thought I'd show you all some images of main dining this morning. Food is good and there is a ready supply and good variety of culinary delights :) the tea here is fairly decent to!

Hopefully the settings have been changed so people can now leave comments if they wish! We'll soon see :)

Dave

Not to bad a day, some steady shooting and some decent 10's. Quite pleased with the way training is going, not doing to much and keeping steady. Getting used to the heat and warmth and humidity, actually starting to feel cool ish when shooting now.
Anyway some pics of the range for now, more of the other ranges to follow. A pic of Jamie to prove he's arrived safe and sound ;)

Cheers :)

Dave

After a hard days watching shooting and training (well done James huckle - bronze) a few of us decided to watch some live other sport. Cycling at the velodrome it was :)

Am interesting start to the evening as we tried to fond our way to the seating, we found ourselves on the field of play ( fop ) oops! So we took some pics and legged it!

The facility there looked prey good to our untrained eyes :) as with many things and many places here some finishing touches weren't quite finished. Still a nice cool venue and some action to watch, we even got on the big screen tv there! Awesome :)

Alas, sleep now as training tomorrow again. Hopefully it'll be more controlled :) will try to remember to get some pics!

Dave :)

Here we have some of my views of the Opening ceremony, which from what I saw was spectacular very well coreographed! The speeches are always needed, but overall: well done India!

These are pics from my pov, so you can see the athletes view. I'll leave the actual ceremony to the papers and tv! I'm sure they are better then my phone can manage :)

Night night

Dave

There was a lot of commotion in main dining this morning! We didn't really know what was going ok at first, but then things became apparent. He's here for the opening ceremony later this evening and stopped by to have look around :) of seems o was the photographer this time as most people were caught of guard and without cameras!

Looking forward to the opening ceremony later, we have our ties now so uniform complete! Hopefully you'll see me waving to you all later :)

Dave

As the title says... Some images of the day :)

Well the evening started of slowly, the journey took a while, but it was so worth it! Being made so welcome, everyone there so friendly :) refreshments and finger food (posh) aS lush :)
Right, training tomorrow so better get back and ready :)

Dave