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\begin{document}
\Fields{\Address}
\Merge{NTSA.Committee.Addresses}{
\begin{letter}{\Address}

\telefax{+353-1-6772204}
\telephone{+353-1-6081281}
\email{Mark.Dennehy@cs.tcd.ie}
\name{Mark Dennehy,\\{\itshape DURC Secretary}\\Vision Lab\\O'Reilly Institute\\Trinity College Dublin\\Dublin 2}
\signature{\rule{3in}{0.01in}\\Mark Dennehy,\\{\itshape DURC Secretary}}


\subject{Formal Protest}
\opening{A Chara,}
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\begin{center}
\begin{minipage}[t]{5in}
\textbf{
Patrick O'Brien, Fri, 19/04/02 @ 20:59 
}
\\ \it
\small
Hi there.
I wish to inform you that due to some requests, it has been
decided to run a 3 x 40 event on Saturday 27th April, Start
11:00am. This event will be held in Fassaroe range.

On Sunday there will be a prone event, first detail 10:00am
Last entries 11:00am. This event will be held in the Dublin
Rifle Club range. (Kilbride, Blessington, Co. Wicklow)

These events will be registered.

These events are to allow a person an additional opportunity
of setting a qualifying score for selection purposes. There
will be no prizes, but there will be an entry fee to cover
costs.
\end{minipage}
\end{center}

Pat,
Given these dates and venues, I have to submit a formal
complaint as DURC Secretary, as follows: 

DURC officially protests 
\begin{enumerate}
\item the holding of any registered shoot on the same day as the Intervarsity,
\item the selection of DRC as the venue for the registered
   shoot on Sunday, April 28th.
\end{enumerate}

On point 1:

The official Irish Intervarsity event, as recognized by
CUSAI, is to be held in WTSC on Saturday 27th. This event
has traditionally been a TCD/UCD event with a heavy social
emphasis - but its recognition by CUSAI makes it the official
Irish Intervarsity shooting event, and therefore the most
important collegiate event of the year. At present, with
only two college clubs, this may seem a trivial difference
from the old Colours match -- however it is more subtle in
that prior to this year only UCD and TCD could compete -
UL, DCU, DIT or any other third-level institution was not
permitted to do so. Now, however, any third-level institute
may enter the Intervarsity to compete. This has serious
implications for college clubs, including financial ones in
that sporting performance does affect capitation grants,
the primary source of funding for college clubs. Since such
clubs are the largest in the NTSA, a cynical attitude to the
importance of this event is simply unacceptable.

We have had a squad of 16 people training regularly in both
the gym and the range in preparation for this event. In
addition, several of these shooters have been in training for
selection to go to Pilsen for the first World Student
Shooting Games. Pressures on time and venue space are
self-evident and we do not hold the NTSA solely responsible
for them: but to schedule a registered shoot on a day when
another important competition is scheduled (even after that
event was rescheduled to cater to the requirements of the
national squad) is not acceptable to us. 

On point 2:

We do not feel the DRC range is currently of the
required standard to hold a registered shoot. It is in
contravention of several ISSF regulations pertaining to range
standards :

Rule number	Violation

6.3.5.1.2	DRC is constructed facing south and thus the
		sun is almost always going to be in the shooter's 
		line of sight

6.3.7		DRC has no wind flags. In particular, note
		6.3.7.2 and 7.4.1.2, which prohibits private wind flags;
		and 6.3.7.3 which requires a range to have
		two windflags, one at 10m downrange and one
		at 40m downrange, to be placed between each
		and every firing point.
		Further, wind baffles should be installed in
		accordance with 6.3.12.2.7 due to the
		severity of wind conditions which have been
		experienced in DRC in the past.

3.5.2		While no Irish range is at the standards of
		ISSF World Cup requirements, DRC meets only
		one requirement of the 15 stipulated within
		3.5.2 - that of shelter for shooters and
		officials. 3.5.2.15 can be argued to be
		filled, but only cynically as the only
		parking facilities are the ditches on the
		access road. While we do not feel this is
		sufficient grounds for disallowing registered
		shoots in DRC, we do wish to express our
		desire to see DRC fulfill 3.5.2 as far as is
		reasonably possible.

While 6.3.5.1.1 allows technical committee members to allow
small deviations, we feel that the above fall outside this
description and should disallow DRC as a site for registered
events at the present time, as the standard of the range is
prejudicial against shooters attempting to shoot qualifying
scores at DRC. While it is currently outside the resources of
any club in the Republic to construct an international-standard
range, that does not mean that international-standard firing
lanes should be used for registered shoots.

We do not believe that this is in any way the fault of
any member of DRC : nor do we believe these problems are
insurmountable. DRC's range is a valuable resource to both
DRC and the target shooting community in general, and we
welcome it's addition to the list of Irish smallbore ranges.
DRC are to be congratulated on successfully relocating after
their deplorable experiences with their previous range and
the negotiations for alternate sites. We wish to explicitly
state that this protest is not to be taken as a personal
criticism of any member of DRC or the NTSA.

However, we do not feel that shooters should suffer from
the disadvantages of shooting in DRC's range in registered
shoots in its present state. Therefore, while we welcome the
opening of the DRC range in Kilbride and look forward to
shooting there once it has been completed, we officially
protest the holding of the proposed registered shoot there on
April 28th, and request that an alternate venue and/or date
be selected.

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\closing{Mis\'{e} le meas,}
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