PALMA 2015 opens in style at Camp Perry, USA

Aug 09, 2015 Sports

World Championship of Long Range Rifle Shooting promises to be fierce

By Franklin Wilson at Camp Perry, Ohio USA
with the compliments of NAMILCO, Ringbang,
Fazias Collection, Crown Mining Supply and
Queensway.

The most intensely contested and most prestigious team event in the world, “The Palma Trophy” 2015 edition was officially launched in style yesterday morning at Camp Perry, Ohio, USA where over the next six days, the best of the finest marksmen and women the world has to offer will be battling each other.
Members of the United States Army Parachute Team, ‘Golden Knights’ set the scene for what will be intense shooting at the individual and team levels with a brilliant parachute display.
The opening heralded the return of the Palma Match to the USA after almost 40 years. The first Palma Match was contested in September, 1876 when the Great Centennial Rifle Match was held on Greedmoor rifle range in New York State.
President of the International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Association (ICFRA), Mr. Bernard De Beer in welcoming the teams wished everyone success while thanking them for being a part of the most sought after shooting trophy in the world.
President of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) Mr. Allan Coors in his remarks also thanked the competing nations for taking part whilst also thanking the Under-21 and 25 shooters whom he said are the marksmen and women of the future.
The flags of the respective countries were hoisted to their national anthems. In the case of the West Indies, The national flag of Antigua and Barbuda was used as they are the 2016 host of the West Indies Fullbore Shooting Council Caribbean Championships.
The anthem used was David Rudders, “Rally Round the West Indies”. Following practice yesterday morning from 09:00 – 12:30hrs, the World Long Range Championships (Individual Competition) started with action at 800 yards, the only one for the day.
Last evening the International Palma Teams Dinner was held at Camp Perry Clubhouse.
The World Long Range Championships will continue today at the Viale Range from 08:00hrs at the 800, 900 and 1000 ranges. The same ranges will be contested tomorrow and Monday. On Tuesday morning the 900 and 1000 yards ranges will be contested after which the top ten shooters will go into a Shoot off at 1000 yards to decide the best of the best.
The Palma Team Match will be contested on Thursday and Friday also at the 800, 900 and 1000 yards ranges. The West Indies 16-member team will be named after the World Long Range Individual Championships. An 18-member squad has already been named dominated by the Guyanese shooters.
Guyana is the reigning Caribbean Short and Long Range champions and also the home of the reigning Caribbean Individual Champion in the form of Lennox Braithwaite who has been unstoppable for the past three years.
This year’s Palma Match will be contested by Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and the West Indies, and promises to be fiercely contested.
Brief history of the Palma Match
The first Palma Match was contested by Australia, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the United States of America on a 36 inch bullseye, with no sighting shots and with fires both prone and supine.
Since the first Palma Match, there have been a total of 27 contested by shooters from 30 countries including Cuba, runners-up in 1928.
The USA dominated the early years, winning seven out of the first eight matches held from 1876 until 1928, with Canada taking the top spot in 1901. Great Britain’s first appearance was in 1877.
They had not taken up the previous year’s invitation quickly enough and lost to the USA before a 24 year gap ensued as the 1878 invitation was unanswered.
Camp Perry hosted its first Palma Match in 1913 where Argentina took second place with 7.65 Mausers, but the Great War interrupted the series until 1924 (an ‘unofficial’ match along with 1923’s uncontested match) and 1925, when Connaught Ranges first played host. A 20″ V bull was introduced in the 1920s but, soon after, there was a 38 year gap between matches.
The Great Depression and Second World War are likely to have been factors; but the hiatus also coincided with the disappearance of the original Palma Trophy – a 71/2 foot tall Tiffany creation with a copper spread eagle and silver laurel wreath atop a panel, mounted on ornate steel shaft, bearing the word “PALMA”, which had been outside the office of the Secretary of War in the 1930s.
Before the reinstatement of the match series proper, a ‘preliminary’ match was held at Camp Perry in 1966 between Canada and the USA, with the hosts taking the honours and Canada turning the tables at Connaught the following year with GB also in attendance.
The modern era of Palma had begun, comprising yearly matches until 1974, with the home team winning all but once – no doubt aided by the use of host country issued rifles and ammunition. The last of the annual matches was the first held south of Ecuador, when South Africa triumphed at Bloemfontein, much as they did 25 years later.
From the Bicentennial Match (1976) onwards, the Palma moved to a three year and then a four year cycle, encompassing a wider range of venues. Since 1985 the team size has been standardized at 16.
To date the Palma Match has ‘officially’ been hosted by: USA 11 times, Canada 8 times, Great Britain 4 times, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia 2 times.