Wolwehoek history: 1982
I have taken the liberty of using mom’s original documents and compiled them into this club history. She had various type written pages which I have tried to organise, and I have included some extracts from the original club minutes in her story. Later, you will see my input. Some facts might be duplicated but that is my input. – Alan Peeters
WOLWEHOEK GUN CLUB COMPILED BY WIM & DOREEN PEETERS.
During the Second World War, the 22nd air school of the Royal Air Force was stationed in Vereeniging. On the airfield there, pilots and gunners were trained in shooting at a moving target using a trap machine throwing clay targets. In 1944, the pilots invited Norman Roberts, who was manager of the National and Riviera hotels, and Nelson Grant to try their hand at shooting clays.
These men, together with Jack Otto, Gaby Cutler and Dr. Roberts, joined Jack Fergusson to build a clay shooting range on the Vaal Highveld Power (VHP) Station which had an existing .22 range. Here, George Thornhill, then a school pupil, used to pull the targets on a Sunday morning for the national training brigade to practise shooting at 200 meters. The shotgun ammunition (black CAC, (Colonial Ammunition Company) 12 gauge no 7 & 8) was imported from Australia by Alan Falcke, who had a gun shop in Vereeniging.
At the Redan Range when Wim shot at a clay coming towards him, he shattered it and a piece hit him on his forehead. He decided that shot guns were dangerous! George Thornhill, who was now shooting Bisley, also shot at Redan. Most of these men had gun dogs and they went to Barawanath airport where the South African Field & Trap Club (SAFTC) had also built trap and skeet ranges. So, the interest in shooting at clays gained more interest for those who were keen on shooting.
When I told my father about seeing skeet shooting, he told me that as a young man in Kimberley he had seen some local farmers named Hardacre and Sandilands shooting at plates, but they also shot live pigeons! Imagine my surprise some years later when going to
shoot in Kimberley and seeing a large picture of men and ladies holding shotguns, with a basket of “birds” and gun dogs, in the “Sandiacres” club house.
It was during this time that the SAFTC had to move their ranges and the Peeters were persuaded to join Dr. Mick Hearn, William van der Byl and Chancellor Maddison to find new premises. They established the Johannesburg skeet and trap club near Rivonia.
The establishment of the Wolwehoek Gun Club came about in a most unusual fashion and had little to do with shooting the clays initially. So here goes:
During the early 1950’s, a group of young Sasolburg men and farmers from the Wolwehoek area decided to form a flying school. It was possible to get government sponsorship to the tune of £80, which was roughly half of what it cost in those days to do the basic flying required for a private pilot’s licence. Names of those involved that come to mind are: Abe & Mike Goldblatt, Gerry Nel, Hennie Strydom & John Lamb of the farming community and “col” Mike Muller of the sdb section of Sasol, Terry Nel and Rob Duncan of the Sasol pioneers.
George Raubenheimer, a flying instructor Wim knew, was persuaded to come and teach eight pupils the art of flying a tiger moth.
The story of the flying club is another saga but suffice to say that increased insurance policies and two tiger moths later it was decided to disband the flying club. At the final meeting of the flying club it was decided to get together on a regular basis and try our hand at the shooting sport which was cheaper and probably safer than flying around in “stick & string” aeroplanes like the tiger moths.
However, at an all-day fund-raising effort, which included flying displays by George Raubenheimer the club’s live in instructor, clay pigeon shooting was also offered. This was done at a makeshift range on Wim Peeters’ farm where the barn dance was held. A number of people were then bitten by the bug of shooting at clays.
This proved to be so popular that, after bending two tiger moths and qualifying seven of the club’s members, the flying club folded, and our badge lost its wings. The new name was “Wolwehoek Gun Club” and the chairman was none other than the pharmacist Stan Reichman. Shiela Falconer-Smith, who was bookkeeper at M. Abrams & co at Wolwehoek (This was the general supply store at Wolwehoek run by the Goldblatt’s) was persuaded to be treasurer – a job she carried out for another twelve years. The committee consisted of Mike Muller (scribe), John Lamb, Terry Nel, Hans von Poncet, Jack Doherty and Doreen & Wim Peeters.
Allan has the original minutes of this meeting taken by John Lamb. The premises were moved to the present location at Saltberryplain. The club house was a split pole affair and drinks were served from the boot of our station wagon.
So, the Wolwehoek Clay Pigeon Shooting Club was evolved, at a meeting at Zwanenberg (the farm) in Coalbrook (the dorp) on the 31st of October 1957.
Present at the meeting were:
R Dutton, S. Reichman, J. Lamb, N. Goldblatt, G.C. Peeters, H.C. Peeters and W.C. Peeters. Also, Madame’s P. Goldblatt and D.C. Peeters. I still have the original handwritten minutes and it makes interesting reading on what and how the club then went on and grew to what it is today.
Extracts from the minutes 31 Oct 1957
“the clubs name to be Wolwehoek Gun Club”
“It was decided to establish a tea club – the ladies being responsible & tea to be sold at 6d per person biscuits being supplied”
The first chairman was Stan Reichman the chemist.
From the minutes of 13th November 1957:
- Chairman S Reichman
- Present were Messer’s. N Goldblatt, G Meyer, HC, WC, GC Peeters. Madame’s. P Goldblatt, G Meyer, JW Peeters, R Reichman and D Peeters
- The fees were as follows:
- Gents Entrance fee £ 10
- Subs £1.10s
- Ladies entrance fee £5
- Subs £1
- Juveniles to be the same as ladies.
- The secretary also minuted, ‘That the proceeds of the first shoot plus administer fees amounted to £22. 11.s 6.p. It was decided to deposit this sum in order to pay for more clays and to pay all outstanding accounts’.
- “The secretary called for a more orderly meeting on the next occasion with one proposal at a time being decided upon” (Ed. Looks like even in those days it was a chaotic meeting.)
Minutes of meeting held on 31 July 1958
- “Mrs S. Smith proposed that in future shoots should be held on a definite day of each month. It was decided that shoots will, unless notice be given to the contrary, be held on the second Saturday of each month”
Minutes of meeting held on 11 Feb 1960.
- “The three Peeters have chosen a site for the new range in the plantation on farm Saltberryplain”
“Building of the range. It was decided to erect a brick building on the site Saltberryplain. Peeters would arrange to have 3000 bricks delivered as soon as possible for £10 and offered to pay anything charged in excess of this”.
The sport of clay pigeon shooting takes four forms: trap, skeet, trench and lately sporting which is a combination of the other three disciplines. The club only shot once a month on the second Saturday. We always encouraged ladies and juniors and set up easy targets.
However, in the big league, international competition was already taking place in the form of shoots annually against Rhodesia for the “Ashes” – a lovely, mounted shotgun. Teams of five were chosen for skeet, trap and doubles. In 1957, the gun clubs had formed an association and colours were awarded to the shooters who competed at Troutbeck and later Rivonia.
In 1960, South Africa was, for the first time, invited to compete in the Olympic Games. Trials were held in the various clubs and eventually Wim and Eric Lucke were selected to shoot in Rome. There was not an Olympic range anywhere in this country, so Wim and Eric were sent
to a training camp in Pretoria where they shot over an international trap and played squash to get fit. Never one for practising to shoot, Wim also played truant over weekends to fly home in his Auster, which he and Obie Oberholzer had converted to do his crop spraying!
Wim qualified for the finals in Rome, shooting the same score as Ivanovich who eventually took the gold medal. Wim actually got a whole inch report in the daily mail which sported a hole page with pictures of a boxer who lost his fight!
On his return, Wim told the secretary that instead of a report he would build an Olympic range at Wolwehoek Gun Club where he had many stalwarts who would help him build the traps and install them in the trench. Thus began many man and woman hours of building up the club.
Credit must go to George Thornhill who made the castings for 20 traps. The machines we copied off the blue diamond machine from the states. George Thornhill had them cast at the refinery where he worked. The arms were copied off the white flyer trap machine we had.
To Jack Docherty, John Lamb, Dup du Plessis and Kolomon Jurenka for spending many Saturday afternoons welding and fitting. To – sister Joan Peeters for overseeing the building of the new club house which Mac Bowker had designed and all the wives who made curtains and fed the blokes. To Christina Jurenka being the bar lady in her inimitable way.
The electrics were done by Wim & Deryck Briffa with assistance from Ivan Spence of Sasol. The scrambler for the various trench patterns was an old telephone exchange machine. Every time you index it by hand it would change the sequence. Later Deryck Briffa took over and made an electronic one. These were all manual release by push button and later he made another one which had voice release.
We now have a fancy Italian job with all the bells and whistles.
Trusty Shiela Falconer-Smith cooked the books and Lt. Col. Gerald Briffa, OBE (Order Of The British Empire) became the secretary.
Wim then decided to make clays because the journey to Olifantsfontein to fetch supplies was becoming onerous and expensive even though the opportunity to gab with Major Cullinan was never a trial for me.
Wim remembered our original Bolinder Munktell tractor that had been replaced with new tractors with lights and self starters and blow me down if he didn’t redesign it. The clays are pressed from a combination of fly ash, pitch & sand and are of a regulation size and weight. To cut down on cost, Wolwehoek decided to make its own clays. Wim utilized the old two-stroke engine to form a toggle press. Using water-cooled dies, the machine is manually operated and can turn out 800 clays a day. The biggest problem was to extract the fumes, which seem to create a problem if the operators are kept for too long spells. The accumulated fund, which was made through producing cheap clays, was distributed by Wolwehoek Gun Club to junior shooters in the form of ammunition, which is the biggest outlay involved.
I forget how many cents a clay cost to manufacture, but the proceeds from the clays were all donated to the club to give the juniors a couple of rounds of good old cac (Colonial Ammunition Company) ammunition.
We were awarded the annual shoot against Rhodesia and Mozambique who had joined the annual bash which now included trench.
The original club was situated at Zwanenberg, overlooking a dam. Wim had built a trap range for practising and it was decided to use a discarded water tank for a skeet low house. A high house was made out of corrugated iron erected on four poles. The trap machines were obtained by Wim Chris & Hein Peeters who were all members of the original SAFTC at crown mines. This club shot every Sunday.
In 1960, South Africa was, for the first time, invited to compete in the Olympic Games. Trials were held in the various clubs and eventually Wim and Eric Lucke were selected to shoot in Rome.
On his return from the Olympics Wim, who was now chairman of Wolwehoek, suggested to the committee that instead of writing a report, he would like to build an Olympic range at Wolwehoek. The support was overwhelming. The men got together every Saturday afternoon at the workshop which had now moved to Saltberryplain farm. The range had been moved there because it was felt that all the bird-life at the dam at Zwanenberg farm was being disrupted by the shooting. The flock of flamingos had left, never to return – incidentally until February this year when the dam filled after six dry years.
The first club house during early 1960 was a split pole affair, the office and bar were conducted from the boot of the car. Mac Bowker, offered his help to design the first club house. Which was built, and we used it until after the opening of our club’s Olympic trench range.
It was an offense to discharge a firearm in the Oranje Freestate on Sundays, so Wolwehoek Gun Club held their shoots on the first Saturday of each month. This practise is still in force today. By this time a number of new shooters had joined the club including Koloman Jurenka, Dup du Plessis of Sasol and George Thornhill a springbok .22 bisley shooter from Vereeniging.
We held a South African Open Championship and were then offered the chance to stage the international between South Africa, Rhodesia, and Mozambique. This required a liquor licence, and the present facilities were inadequate. Mac designed a separate bar lounge. A lady’s bathroom and gents shower which was added in 1965 And Joan Peeters was promoted to clerk of works. She supervised the building of the additions to the club house. And we held a very successful international with Sasolburg hosting a cocktail party and Sasol presenting a magnificent silver trophy. Joey & Gert Pinaar presided at the prize giving.
Our membership had now grown by leaps and bounds with shooters coming from Pretoria, the Reef, Potchefstroom, Bethlehem & Kroonstad. The clubhouse had become the venue for many private parties and a “Hogmanay” on old year night became an institution. We had three wedding parties in the 70’s.
Then sadly to say, the price of petrol and ammunition took horrific increases. Also, a number of old faithful’s had left this area for Secunda including Dup, Bert & Wilma Matern and Paul Kruger.
The club now sports a pistol range rifle range and combat ranges, not to mention a full standard archery set up and shot every Saturday.
The club house now has every convenience. A super ambience for a party braai and there are good restaurants in town. The Indaba is still the only hotel which sports a very good carvery menu. Being Wolwehoek, there is also a landing strip (without lights) but come for the weekend. The Vaal and booze cruises can also be organised.
The younger generation had asked us to allow them to introduce pistol shooting, but it was only when Allan Peeters heard of a contractor with ground to dump from the excavations to create the new Sasolburg station that things got moving. Allan persuaded his father to allow the ground to be dumped in the area behind the clay pigeon range and the walls were formed which today hosts the Wolwehoek practical pistol range. Whilst I am typing this, Jacky Hodson is out with a group of ladies she is instructing in the finer arts of shooting with a hand gun – safely! We are sure that this fills a very great need and are very proud of the way the young people have taken over our responsibility; especially the fact that the facilities which we all worked hard to build and maintain are being used.
The Olympic trench has been converted now to a universal range because South Africa is now out of the international shooting union. However, we have quietly been going it alone in the “Fédération Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportives de Chasse” (FITASC) which so far has not allowed politics into their association, but do not shoot trench. Due to the sports ban imposed on SA, it seems to make better sense to shoot an event which enjoys international competition to which we are welcome.
South Africa also staged a world championship in sporting shooting in Drakensberg gardens in 1984. We are happy that Wolwehoek’s name was kept high as the veteran’s gold medal was won by Wim. Hein had a marathon shoot-off against a venerable Portuguese gentleman for the silver medal which he won.
Allan Peeters is today shooting for the South African team in Vandalia, Ohio in the trap event. The combat pistol section has also decided to keep the name of the Wolwehoek Gun Club, but their badge is a very modern “fat cat”. We are glad that several the local young men are involved in the club’s activities and are also keeping the Wolwehoek name high by shooting in league and championship events.
FROM HERE IS WHAT ALLAN PEETERS CAN REMEMBER AND HIS INPUT.
Wolwehoek became a much bigger shooting facility since I started shooting, not just Clay Pidgeon events. We now offer Handgun, Rifle, Airgun .22 and Bow shooting. And have been affiliated to the following:
- CTSASA clay target shooting association of South Africa.
- Compac SA.
- SAPSA South African practical shooting association.
- SAMSSA South African Metallic Silhouette Shooting Association.
- SAFTAA South African field target airgun association.
- SANAA South African national archery association.
- IFAA international field archery association.
- IDPA international defence pistol association.
Lots of people have asked me: where did we start. We heard such and such about Tiger Moths and shotguns, things people dream about. Well here is the story as I know it, and with help from mom and dad. Wim and Doreen Peeters were, I think, instrumental in the history of the club, and its course as to where it is today.
It started at Wolwehoek about 1945 (you had better believe it) which was the only dorp around. The town of Sasol was not there yet (Sasol only started in 1950). The main places in the area were:
Wolwehoek: The train station and (the hub of activity) – it had its own police station, one cell (and I believe one hell of a rugby team) and the M. Abrams & Co Store.
Coalbrook: The train station and Post Office and general supply store.
Vereeniging: Across the river by Pont pulled by mules to get across. There was a single lane steel bridge at Vereeniging, but it was a long drive to get there, via Viljoensdrif.
It started by a bunch of farmers who purchased 5 tiger moth aircrafts and the Wolwehoek flying club was born. How they purchased them, and with what finance, I shudder to think, something about the war and a loan. But lest said the better. There were 12 farmer/pilots apparently. The club gradually dwindled as the krok landings, slight mishaps and minor hanger rash that occurred started to take its toll. Also, the stories that come out of the club at the time would make a seasoned pilot cry. The emergency landing that Nate Goldblatt performed and wound up, upside down with the tail plain caught in the telephone line. Uninjured. He then produces a Mc Giver knife, cuts the seatbelts, and falls out of the aircraft onto his head suffering concussion. If you think shotgun shooting is expensive – try flying. So, another sport was decided upon. They traded in the last two tiger moths and went shooting at Vereeniging. The skeet range there was apparently built to train the tail gunners of the Buford Bombers that were stationed there. To lead a target when shooting. Aby De Kok, a local farmer, was a tail gunner in the Buford Bombers.
The shooting started in 1957 at the farm where I grew up on Zwanenberg. My dad was a pilot, crop sprayer, farmer, shooter, engineer come mechanic… a very clever man. He started me on shooting, getting ahead of myself here… back to Zwanenberg. It had two ranges: one trap and one skeet, shooting over the dam.
The skeet range low house was a 5000 liter water tank with a door and a hole cut in it for the clay to come out. The high house was in poles with zinc box with a door and a hole. There was a machie in each which was loaded manually by trapper boys. The release mechanism was ingenious. It was a pole concreated on to the ground and it could pivot. There were two cables, one to the high house and one to the low house. They ran along the ground through cable guides. Move the pole to the left and it would pull the cable tight to the high house releasing the clay, move it to the right and it would pull the cable to the low house releasing the clay. If you pulled it back it would tighten both cables and would release both machines for a double.
The trap range had a white flyer machine with a long pipe. We used windmill pipes with the rods in it, the rod was connected to the cocking leaver at the back of the machine, and 20 yards behind station 3, was a pole connected to a pivot point concreated in the ground. Push the pole forward it would cock the machine in the trap house, and the trapper boy inside the trap house would put a clay on it. The other trapper boy at the back would then move the pole back to just about a quarter of an inch from the stop. When you called pull, the trapper boy at the back would jerk the pole back, against the stop releasing the clay. Then the process would repeat.
But the birdlife on the dam was being chased by the shooting so the ranges were moved to Saltberryplain during 1960 where they are now.
We used to shoot once a month, the second Saturday of each month. Puller boys were supplied by the farmers, us and uncle Chris and Hein. We used to farm on Saturdays, so the pullers enjoyed the day off at the ranges, getting paid a bit extra.
Shooting on Saturday was crazy, if you did not come early you would not be able to shoot 100 clays. Aunty Shiela Falconer-Smith, my aunt, used to sit in the office and sell tickets to shoot. Val took over from her when she left. Your ticket you put onto a spike on the bar table. There were 3 spikes one for Trap, Skeet and Trench. Uncle Gerald Briffa (Lt. Col. OBE. Retired) would do the squadding; he would take the 5 tickets off the bottom of the pile on the spike and write them on the pad, the left-over ones were for the next squad, and then he called the shooters over the PA system to report to the ranges.
Our bar was run by our resident barman, an ordained minister… Rev Jimmy Smith.
I decided to get a wall of fame going. I used railway sleeper wood and Perspex and its hanging in the club. Luckily George and Hantie du Plessies were into railway sleeper furniture and they built the bar and my wall of fame. It was a job getting all the names and dates and achievements sorted out, but I think I got it right thanks to lots of input from lots of shooters.
Wolwehoek can be proud, according to my records at 2020 it has produced:
- 15 World Champions
- 60 Springbok caps
- 24 Protea caps
- 42 Compact shooters to compete internationally.
- And many many provincial shooters.
For a short time, Jim Van Zyl got involved with Wolwehoek shooting sporting, he arranged many sporting shoots with Wolwehoek and did a lot in developing the sporting side of it. We hosted South African as well as provincial championships. Also, English doubles, and Compac championships. Later combo championships which combined rifle with shotgun. His saying “man I love this game” will always remind me of him. Unfortunately, politics got in the way. He took on CTSASA, with stuff. I am not into politics, I did not back him in his fight. He then left our club to build his own Hippo Creek.
COMBAT SHOOTING
Long, long ago, about 1978, Allan decided that combat shooting was the thing to do. Clay pigeon was for old folks and combat shooting was fun: running, climbing over things, shooting from moving vehicles, from inside tunnels, and knocking over steel plates. Shooting at turning, running, moving disappearing humanoid targets, with steel plates in between – what’s not to like.
We had no range to speak of, so we went to MIDLAND AECI and got involved with Rodger Constable and Alan Steyn who used to do safety training there. They had a sort of a range near the river, (Matty) Johan Matthysen and me, could go try our skill. The bug bit.
We had no range… so we started with jungle lanes. A shitload of plates, a few targets in an old quarry, (a huge gravel pit) dug out by the provincial roads department on the farm. We were joined by Alan and Rodger and a few shooters in the quarry; this was fun, better than at the river range, basically there it was paper punching and shooting fast… standards. Here in the gravel quarry it was more realistic: running, jumping, crawling, shooting. We had a huge range and lots of space.
The lucky break came in 1980, I heard the railway siding at Coalbrook station wanted to expand their siding. I went to see them, they were looking for a place to dump ground…and I had a place!!! I made a road for them, and they started to move earth, lots of it. I had our D6 caterpillar bulldozer and a 944 Cat front end loader to move the soil, and they had the trucks to deliver the soil.
The original plan was to build one big range, the assault range as it is today. They had so much ground available, we finally built 6 ranges. During construction we rolled one truck and my Cat 944 loader, but we got it done.
We had a shooting range with a great clubhouse thanks to the Wolwehoek Gun Club shotgun section. We had a meeting with the shotgun committee, they agreed we could use their facilities… as long as we behaved???
Combat shooting started seriously, Eddie Armstrong from Taaibos PowerStation joined us and he was a great influence to us, him being the older and more experienced shooter than us young windgatte.
We had to affiliate to SAPSA. Bloemfontein was our nearest and only club that did combat, in the Free State province, was a bit far to travel. We decided to join the Transvaal and shot there for many years.
Lots of the Transvaal clubs got to know Wolwehoek. Marksman, Rodepoort, where the world shoot was hosted. Python, PPSC where the Holliday ins was shot. Benoni. To mention a few.
We needed Range Officers (RO) so, me, Alan Steyn, Matty, Eddie, Hennie Combrink went to Transvaal for RO exams. We had a 3-hour exam to write, and 3-day practical course at Roodepoot shooting range. Ran few shoots during the year and qualified as RO’S and instructors. I am RO nr 301. And instructor nr 143. We then offered beginners’ courses at the club, myself, Eddie, Alan and Matty. If you wanted training in combat shooting, we were the guys to teach you. We also offered, intermediate and advanced courses for combat shooters. This went on for many years and we trained lots of shooters in the art of self-defence and the law. Erik Smit even did knife fighting courses.
Now we were really going. We hosted our first league. We were not sure what was involved, but we pulled out all the stops and had all 6 ranges going. We had a sheep on the spit, lots of qualified RO’S: Wolwehoek was on the map. Needless to say, from then on Wolwehoek leagues were ones not to be missed.
Later about 1985 we joined the Free State. FSPSA.( Free State Practical Shooting Association) and there were new ranges opening, e.g. Welkom, Virginia, Reitz, Ficksburg. Lots of fun there.
Ficksburg shoots were normally attended by us during the annual cherry festival. Ingelegte kersies met brandewyn was the order of the day.
Bloemfontein was the furthest we had to go, there we met the Tocknels, Fred and Ann. What nice folks.
I remember many house clearings I organised on the farm. One of our worker’s families moved off the farm and old houses were left standing. Mud walls, windows, doorways and no roof as they took their zincs with them. One big house had, about 6 rooms, the other three, two rooms each. We had many house clearings exercises there. Loads of fun.
The rifle ranges
The “Holiday Inns” at PPC became an annual event. I personally attended 38 in a row, not missing one. We needed a rifle range, specifically a 300m one. Our first rifle range in 1980 was from the single blue gum tree on the left of the gate traveling to the clubhouse, shooting towards the public range as it is today. That is 300m.
As the rifle section grew, I had to put in more ranges. I went over the road to the other side. This was about 1986. I had 2 shooting points. One at the gate and the other one where it is today, they were 100m apart. We built a big wall behind the shooting point so that we could shoot from both points at the same time. From the one at the trees where it now is, is 100m and 300m, and from the point at the gate, we used the same backstops for 200m and 400m.
We did away with the two points in about 1990 and built backstops at 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 meters, as it is today.
We are now expanding our ranges to accommodate big bore silhouette.
I organized one hunting competition on my farm. We had a huge quarry hole (400m across) with 2 little dams and heaps of gravel all over the place with shear walls on the side. I made a shooting point on top of the wall overlooking the quarry. On the other side I cut out a cardboard life size kudu bull, horns and all, and put him 300m away in the quarry next to a wall. Next to the dams I put 3 springbok targets, 2 warthog targets and 2 rooibok targets. It looked like they were at a waterhole, ranging from 50m to about 200m. And for good measure a guinea fowl target on the water’s edge. Three shots on the kudu, 2 shots per animal and 1 shot on the guinea fowl. Total of 18 shots. It was a great day’s hunting and immensely enjoyed by all.
We also did combat jungle lanes there, lots of running, long shots and various angle shooting and various hights. Because of the high walls no doppies could be recovered.
At about 1998, a huge storm hit the farm and ripped half the roof off the clubhouse. What a mess due to the rain water and no roof, lots of the memorabilia was damaged. But we got together, and a bunch of us replaced it all nicely and then we installed a ceiling as the inside got extremely hot during summer.
Louise got involved with the catering food and running the bar. We had great shoots, the after shoots became more famous with Louise running the kitchen – the steak burgers were a great hit. Jacques’ daughter, Janine helped behind the bar as well as Schultz’s two
daughters.
From then onwards lots of combat shooters got involved in the running of the club, e.g., Erick Smit and his son who also helped behind the bar. Frans Van Rawenswaai ran combat shooting for a while. Good times.
Then came silhouette shooting. About 1991. Jimmy Bekker was the big kahuna here, I did a bit, but was not too involved in the running of .22. Built it as it is today, there is a covered shooting point with 4 x 100m silhouette ranges with 8 shooting bays and two airgun ranges for air rifles and two for air pistols. The whole setup can also accommodate .22 pistol events as well.
Jimmy went on to become world champion and so it grew. Dave Wilson and the rest joined in, and it developed into a strong discipline.
Bow shooting start about 1985. I was keen to do this and Karel Haefele, who was already a combat member started driving this. Johan Shultz and his two daughters helped build this section. With the help of Cobus Cilliers of Magnum Archery we became the strongest bow club in SA. We hosted many competitions, had a permanent set up practice range and also a permanent 28 butt range. Seppie Cilliers also became a world champion. Ian Labuschagne, and his daughter Marjorie also became one of our world champions. And we also produced numerous Protea bow shooters.
Airgun. Started about 1990. Who has not got a pellet gun? This was great to get the kids involved. But not to be. Eddie Armstrong said at the conception of air rifle: “Allan it is an equipment race”… Me: “No way”. I was keen to start pellet gun shooting for the children. I was hoping for a normal pellet gun, like I grew up with on the farm as a kid, but they have developed into expensive guns, hence ‘” equipment race.”
I was shooting indoor air rifle at the scout hall in Vereeniging with George Thornhill, Robby Crawford-Brunt and Errol Sparg, who invited me. It was great…
So, it grew. Here, Shultz, Dave Wilson and Pikkie and a few others got it going and Pikkie went on to become world champion. Dave ran a school indoor shoot at the Emerald casino.
Here I must take my hat off to Tom Diedericks, he and his sons took over the airgun section, the club hosted many competitions. We hosted an SA trial for the team selection for the South African team going overseas. The best airgun shooters in SA were there. There are silhouette and field target shooting ranges, we had a permanent air rifle field target range setup. Here I saw what Eddie meant, an equipment race. They do not even look like pellet guns. And they cost a fortune.
At 2018 we had a huge fire which caused a lot of damage – we lost 3 containers of equipment.
But what the hell. We got going and are running again, thanks to all the helpers and shooters who volunteered work to rebuild and fix up the damage we had. Thank goodness the clubhouse was not affected.
“Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.” - Oscar Wilde
