At the August meeting of Cowra Men's Probus Club members were entertained by two guest speakers.
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The first was Tony Smith who was the man behind the badge for the month. Tony was born in Cremorne but his family moved to the western suburbs when he was young.
Tony had a desire to move to the country and to achieve that aim he studied accountancy and agricultural subjects and graduated with his stock licenses.
His first move and job in the country was at Crookwell where he lived for 10 years.
In his courting days he travelled to Sydney every weekend but after many trips he and Judy decided that it would be much cheaper for them to be married and she made the move to be with him. They have been together for almost 50 years.
Tony came to Cowra to manage AML and F where he stayed until the company was amalgamated and he received a redundancy.
He then worked for Kibblers for 15 years where most people would remember him from.
After leaving Kibblers he worked in insurance brokerage until he retired at 60.
Tony is a member of Cowra Lions and is a past District Governor of that organisation.
In retirement Tony and Judy travel extensively to visit their children, and their families, exploring this great land in their caravan for three or four months a year. When they want a complete relax and to be pampered they go cruising.
Our second guest speaker was a member of the Cowra Pistol Club who spoke briefly on the history of the sport and then explained about some of the aspects.
He spoke about the development of sports shooting and the various branches.
There is a shotgun club, two pistol clubs and a rifle club in the district.
The first recorded pistol shooting competition was in 1896 at the Olympics.
Pistol shooting as a sport in Australia started in Tasmania in 1928 before being gradually introduced to all the other states.
All Pistol Clubs are registered with the Pistol Association of Australia.
The competition is very strong in Europe with really good prize money.
He then showed the members the types of pistols that there were six shooters, air pistols and rapid fire.
A good pistol can cost about $3500.
Air pistols are the updated version of the old pea rifle that most of us had when we were young. It has a cylinder that is pressurized by pumping air into it and it shoots pellets.
He then showed the types of targets used with the larger used in 25 and 50 metre shoots and the smaller for 10 metre shoots.
Imagine trying to hit a 4.5mm bull's eye at 10 metres with a 2mm pellet.
It was stated that safety is very important and when the pistols are not in use they must have a block in the mechanism. Police permission is required to transport these weapons.
We were then treated to a short video showing some aspects of pistol shooting in Europe and concluding with pictures of Chloe Esposito winning the Pentathlon at the Rio Olympics.
A vote of thanks was given by Allan Vorias.