The Hearst Trophy is making its first appearance in the National Matches since 2002 when it was placed in retirement. The Trophy used to be awarded to the Highest Collegiate Shooter at the Nationals, now it is awarded to the winners of the new Hearst Doubles Match.

The 2006 National Matches and CMP Games schedule featured several new additions. One of three new events added to this year’s program revived a National Trophy that has not been in competition since 2002. The Hearst Trophy was donated to the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice by the newspaperman William Randolph Hearst in 1940. The trophy, which features a 17th century Spanish flintlock with an ornately inlaid stock, was originally awarded to the High ROTC competitor and subsequently to the High Collegiate shooter in the National Trophy Individual Rifle Match. The decision was made to remove it from competition since the latter award essentially served the same purpose as other High Junior awards. This year, the Hearst Trophy was returned to competition when it gave its name to the new Hearst Doubles Match.

The Hearst Doubles Match is a two-person team match that serves as a transitional event between the National Trophy Individual Match and National Trophy Team Match. Each team member fires the 30-shot President’s Rifle Match Course, 10 shots standing slow fire at 200 yards, 10 shots prone rapid fire at 300 yards and 10 shots slow fire at 600 yards, all without sighters. Teams pair fired the standing and prone slow fire stages.

SFC Lance Hopper USA and SFC Grant Singley USA combined for a 592-16X in the first Hearst Doubles Match.

The Hearst Doubles Match is broken into two sub-events. One is a Trophy Ranking based on the total of the two 30-shot scores fired by each team member. The Hearst Trophy is awarded to the highest scoring team in the Hearst Doubles Trophy Ranking. The second sub-event is a Handicap Ranking where team member scores receive a handicap based on their individual scores during the preceding two days of matches when the President’s and the National Trophy Individual Matches were fired. The use of handicaps in sports such as golf, bowling and trap shooting has become hugely popular because they allow competitors not normally in contention a chance to win based on how far over their averages they can perform. The 2006 Hearst Doubles Handicap Ranking was an experiment to begin the process of determining whether handicaps could be used in shooting as a means of encouraging participation and improvement by shooters who are new or limited in the amount of time they can devote to practice and competitions.

The Hearst Trophy winners in the inaugural Hearst Doubles Match were SFC Grant Singley USA and SFC Lance Hopper USA who combined for a score of 592-16X. Just two points back in second place were SPC Ty Cooper USA and SFC Norman Anderson USA with a 590-22X. Marine Corps shooters CWO2 Billy Ray Williamson and SSgt John Godwin were a close third with 589-22X.

Gary Schwabe Jr. of Covington, LA and Michael Strikmiller of Pearl River, LA won the Handicap category in the first Hearst Doubles Match with a combined score of 616-6X.

Winners in the Handicap Ranking were Michael Strikmiller, Pearl River, Louisiana, and Gary Schwabe Jr., Covington, Louisiana. The Strikmiller/Schwabe team had a 537-6X raw score, but carried a 79 point handicap to end the Handicap event with a winning 616-6X total. “We had no idea that we had won until some of our friends told us later that evening. It really was a great match for everyone,” said Schwabe who attended the Nationals with a group of eight friends from the North Shore of Louisiana.

For complete results from the Hearst Doubles Match visit the CMP homepage at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=1409, for photos go to http://www.odcmp.com/Photos/06/Rifle_Hearst/index.htm.