There is one prize in the sporting shooter world above allothers. It’s a global prize that shooters from around the world covet for itshistory and prestige and 54-year-old Benalla shooter James Corbett has claimedit after a remarkable week.
It’s HM The Queen’s Prize, a 153-year-old full bore rifleshooting competition that has national heats before the winning shooters fromeach competing country converge on Bisley in England’s south-east for the mainevent.
This year Corbett was among 1300 competitors who took partin the knock-out competition and started with an excellent score of 105, enoughto not only see him through to the Queen’s Two, but put him in a strongposition to win.
Corbett then scored 149 out of 150 with 28 centre bullseyesout of 30 to put him through to the Queen’s Three along with 100 othershooters.
He shot a score of 297 out of a possible 300 to leave him tiedwith three others with the winner decided by the number of centre bullseyes.Corbett’s 46 were six better than the nearest competitor.
The win earned him the £250 prize – the amount unchanged inthe event’s history – a ride to host the National Rifle Association’s pavilion ina wooden chair carried by other competitors and a gold badge.
The badge is one of only five won by Australians in thecompetition, the last one awarded in 1981.
“The winner last year said you can be a great shooter, butnever ever win the Queen’s in Bisley, and that’s pretty true,” Corbett reportedlysaid.
“It’s a very, very difficult one. You need a little elementof luck — I’ve been close a couple of times, but some things just don’t goquite on your way on the day.
“It’s too competitive to be able to say ‘I’m shooting well,I’m going to do well and win the Queen’s’. There’s just too many competitorsaround you and you really have to have everything going for you.”
Corbett was also part of the 12-man Australian team thattook out the Mackinnon Match at the event and is now on track for more CommonwealthGames success in Glasgow next year.
It will be his sixth Commonwealth Games afterwinning a number of medals in previous years.
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