The St. Louis Republic., 1900-12-02
Easily Defeats Doctor Smith in the
Live Bird Race for the
MermOd Trophy.
HE MISSES BUT ONE BIRD.
Stumbles on an Outgoer, Trouble
some Mark for Other Local
Experts The Chicago
Match Is OFF.

Doctor ]. W. Smith was unable to take the
| Mermod trophy from Henry Griesedieck yes
| terday afternoon and was beaten by score
| OF "A to %
The champion missed but one bird. his
second. which was a swift outgoing pigeon.
though not nearly so bad bird as many or
the others which he grassed.
The match was the third Of the Mermod
trophy shoots which have occurred since
Alex. Mermod donated the bronze medal as
the championship emblem of st. Louis anu
vicinity. Griesedieck won the first shoot, In
which ten men participated. Later he de-
feated Charles Spencer, and yesterday ne
cinched his claims of supremacy by defeat
ing Doctor Smith.
The day was almost perfect for good shoot
ing. although there was a bit of a fog. which
made some of the birds hard to follow. In
justice to the doctor IL should be said that
he had the worst OF strong lot OF birds,
hut he seemed TO grass the hardest and miss
the outgocrs. Judging from the races thus
far this season. the st. Louis trap shooter
has not thoroughly mastered the bird that
drives right away from him. and they are
usually the on6s that die out Of bounds or
succeed In saving their lives
Griesedieck's one miss died ten or twelve
yards past the low boundary fence. Doctor
Smith did not hit his fifth bird fair. another
outgoer. and 1t died out of bounds. The men
remained on even terms until the twelfth
round, when Doctor Smith got hummer
which drove straight away from tho traps
and the shooter When it received couple
Of the shot from the first barrel it gave
sudden twist to the left and flew at awful
speed. The doctor nailed ii inside of bounds.
but the strong bird had enough left to go
Just three feet out of the boundary. The
physicians twenty-,hird bird was missed en-
tirely by the first load and only slightly hurt
with the second: although it circied around
I'm such way that ii appeared az though II
would have TO fall within the limits. he took
a brace and cleared the clubhouse.
Meantime Griesedieck was killing them
with wonderful precision. On one occasion
q bird dropped all right but seemed to have
a deal of life in 1t. and the champion would
not take chances with it. so retrieved the
pigeon himself. Doctor Smith did likewise
with one Of the hard ones that he came
near missing entirely. The last bird
brought down by the loser cleared the
:ence and died on the clubhouse porch. but
could have been retrieved easily If neces-
sary. This accounts for the score being %
instead Of 81. as it would have been if the
winner had been hard pressed by losing
more birds.
Henry Griesedieck has downed them all
in turn now, and will have to wait for am
bilious shooters to get their eyes in such
shape that they can kill twenty-five
straight as that Is about the only way
that the present holder of the trophy can
be beaten while In the good form he has
displayed In lis last few races.
After the live-bird match Nessrs. Griese-
deck. Mermod. Spencer. Doctor Smith, EN-
ans and Funger engaged in a twenty-five
match at the targets. which resulted in a
win for Spencer with only two lost. and
Griesedieck second with one more lost clay
pigeon Doctor Smith was third with u
of ol Nv the time this match
started the sun was getting low and the
targets were rather hard to see for first
class shooting. Early in the day Alex. Mer-
mod shot q twenty-five match with Arnold
Funger, and broke all but one of the tar
gets.
The intercity race with Chicago. which
was scheduled to take place in the Windy
City on December s. has practically been
called of, as the Chicagoans are unable to
secure grounds for that date and want the
match shit on Friday. As several mem
bers Of the st. Louis team could not leave
town on that day. 1t Is not likely that the
races will come OF There is talk Of ar
cember to fiji in the date. If this cannot
be done. some OF the local experts are In
favor Of having try at the Kansas City
cracks who shot with the Omaha team in
Nebraska Friday and yesterday. When
Dave Elliott returns from Omaha the mat
ter will be definitely settled;
The score in the Mermod trophy match
er,esed,.ck-3' saaass1 11s1s1asa
Doctor SMITH a2s's2:as
Q 20 2 J :-2o.
Score in the clay-pigeon match:
II, 'r,e'sdisef-l. 2 ]. ! / j l. l. l. o.
l, I. .. 0. J. /. l. I, /, 1-23.
Doctor Smith,. D. /. l. l. !. !. o. I. l. !. /.
o. o. + Asf'a$ai I g ! I .L I II g. q 'atA'
II Evaas-i, .. l. j. = 1. o. 1. 1, /. o.
o. Q. 0. 0. /. 0. /. 0, o. /, al
A. FGnger-1, O. 0. o /, 0. o. Q, O. o, /, o, 0. ],
o. /. !. 0. o. l. 0. 0. 0. /. o-s.