The Washington herald., 1917-07-22
TRAP CHAMPION IS
A real CHAMPION
Clay Bird Shooters Must Vanquish
All-Comers to Win the Title.
Rv PETER p. CARNEY,

Why is champion? Speaking
generally. we don't know.
Now. IL you will change the
question to SPECIFIC one and ask.
why Is the national amateur trap
shooting Champion you'll start
something. But before the some
thing gets going and monopolizes
all Of the allotted space, 1t Is but
fair that we explain why we can
not tell just why is a, for instance,
golf or tennis champion, though we
are strong for these games as well
as for all other outdoor sports.
However unneutral you may be
with reference to any particular
recreation you, will admit that
facts is facts" just the same as
pigs Is pigs" and II is a toss up
as to which is the more pig-headed
at times, so not being responsible
for either pigs or facts. we must
ask you to put the blame where
IL belongs II you don't approve OF
pigs or don't like the way facts
AFFECT a phase of your favorite
sport.
To resume. the winning of a golf
or tennis championship Is simply
matter of an aspirant taking a pot
! shot at the champion" who has
won the honor by taking a pot shot
at the champ who, In turn, had
wrested the title from a preceding
| champion" much on the order of
| the endless story that depends for
its endlessness on a repetition OF the
words, then another locust went
| in and took out another grain of
corn, then another locust, ETC., etc,
etc"
Certainly II Is true that our best
\ friends are those who gently and
kindly land privately tell us our
| faults. therefore, golfers and ten
nisers will drink heartily from our
proffered loving cup. Incidentally.
1t is to be remarked that IL Great
Britain ever tried to take golf back
home to Scotland. some half-mil-
lion American trapshooters would
rally in defense of the game, and
| instead of "Hoot. monw it would
be shoot. mon!" Ditto for tennis
in event of an attempt to suppress
| II.
Penning the pigs and again trot-
ting out the facts. the national
amateur trapshooting championship
is a championship, and the shooter
who wins IT Is a champion-a cham
pion OF champions. in fact. for In
order to qualify to compete for the
national title contestants must
first win the championship of their
respective States by out shooting all
comers at tournaments having the
| official sanction of the Interstate
Association.
| Ordinarily, shooters with high
averages are handicapped from one
to seven yards-shooting from the
seventeen to twenty-three-yard line
according to their records, but in
the event to determine a State
championship. all contestants, from
novices to experts, fire from sixteen
| yards back OF the trap, thereby
making each a scratch man and
leaving skill alone to be the deter
mining factor in the scores regis
tered. The slxteen-yard rule Is in
effect also when the champions of
| the different States meet to try
conclusions in the national COM
petition at the Grand American
Handicap Trapshooting Tourna-
| ment.
Last year at st. Louis. Mo. 81
States were represented IN the Ma
| tlonal Amateur Championship Race.
the title going to Washington via
Frank Troeh. a Vancouver gunman.
This year the affair will be staged
in Chicago Ill, during the Grand
| American Handicap week. at the
South Shore Country Club. August
20, 81. %. 90. "a and the iudications
are that every State in the Union
will be represented. and possibly the
\ Atlantic Fleet, U. S. n.
| The Grand American Handicap
| tournament we might add is the
classic event OF American sport
dom. 1t will attract In the neigh
hood Of 1000 trapshooters and a
gallery of from 25,cOo to 5000 per-
sons each day.