2011 Cops Cup XIX, Göteborg 23-24 July 2011

Gothenburg is another destination that the Team seldom miss a match at. We usually have a really good time both on and off the range in Gothenburg. The range is only 5 minutes from downtown Gothenburg and that adds to the overall experience. This overall experience took a little beating this time, and that put a dark cloud on this trip, the sky didn't lack dark clouds either..

The darkest cloud on this weekend was off course the atrocities in Norway. We held a silent minute at the start of the match to show our respect to the victims.

Stage 12, I was one of few that didn't go prone. Shot it ok.

We normally stay at the Mornington Hotel on Avenyn but this time we stayed a block up the road at Scandic Rubinen, it won't happen again it was way too expensive. Another big reason for this is was parking. We used the Avenyn parking garage and Even's and another Norwegian shooter had their cars broken into. DON'T EVER PARK AT THE AVENYN PARKING GARAGE...

I've helped to put on many matches over the years and looking at this match from an organizer point of view was really impressive. Gylla and team had put a lot of effort into the organization of the match. Some 50 people shot the pre-match showing that a lot of people were going to work the match. The program, the web page, signs and all the administrative things around the match was a dream for potential sponsors, they got their money's worth of exposure.

Stage 1.. Crap grip

I spend most of Friday observing and helping out with the pre-match and the building crews had really put of some really nice looking stages. It simply looked really good.

Coming of a solid performance in Lithuania I wanted to see if I could keep on the plan that I have drawn up for the World Shoot. I was a little worried as I had problems with my dominant eye. I had a foreign object tear up an old scar on the inside of the eyelash that sent me to the eye-doc twice in the week leading up to the match. I was ordered not to strain the eye... well I did my best.. I don't know how much it really effected my shooting but I had difficulty with high speed transitions. I was lucky that most targets were no further away than a few meters so full focus was not necessary. The worst part was driving home on Sunday, It was one of the worst drives ever..

I shot a clean match, no mikes nor penalties, with that I'm happy. But I was at times awfully slow. There were quite a few low apertures and I'm pretty darn good at folding my 197cm together but it does cost me some time. This was an athletic match and that usually suite me fine, just not as much this time.

Robban Stage 4 - This is rockn'roll

When it comes to the stages, I'm not fully so jubilant in may praise as Jack in his report. Yes the match was good but none of the long courses of fire had a paper target further away than 5 meters. Yes there were a few steel at distance on some of them but steel will not generate too many mistakes. A better mix of speed transition would have been more challenging. I'm sure most shooters loved running and gunning at no distance but I require more to give two thumbs up. There were very few variations in how they best be tackled. I usually don't make tactical errors but I did on 3 and 5. A contributing factor to this was the new range surface on 3,4 & 5. It used to be gravel but this time there were rocks, I don't recall running and gunning on a poorer surface before. I sincerely hope it is changed... or just steamrollered.

Stage 3 - not the right plan.

The medium and short courses were fantastic, most of them had a good mix of speed and precision and some were darn right difficult, that was real shooting and they presented more options than the long courses.

I finished second behind our new Team-mate Robert Andersson who fueled by the Blue Jersey rocked the whole match through, a great performance. It's safe to say that Infinity dominated standard.

Stage 4 - Ok

This year a shoot-off was introduced while we waited for the results. I'm sure it will become a tradition as it is exciting to watch and take part in. I had to see myself be beaten in the final by Esa from Finland...Who's first shot in the final was from another planet. If anybody has pictures or film from the shoot-off I'd love a copy.

It was also visible that some effort had been put into the prize table, I got a pair of knee pads - that I could have used during the match... But as all prize ceremonies it took some time to get to the grand prize, A CZ Shadow.

Stage 5 - Not the right plan again, picked 2 mags??? the magnet didn't work...

Gothenburg must be known for some of the friendliest of Swede's and it was apparent in all the helpers, kitchen staff, RO's and competitors - it was all smiles, and friendly attitudes. Great stuff. We'll be back!!

My performance in number.