The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1920-02-23
STORY of WORLDS
:. GREATEST IRAPsHOT
ny PETER r. CARNEY

Il I. - by FElEh =. .s.-s %,
Editor OF National Sports SyndicaIel
fAflow us to present for your inior-
mat ton and guidance something apoul
ms greatest of all trapsnoo.sIS
Charles O. spencer. OF ST. LOUIS, NJ,
~ ffieucer Ia to trapshootins VIVA.
Gshh u 70 baseball; what Evans II 10
r0iY. what Gould Is to court tennis
wt,ot Brookes is to, tennis. VIVA. Mc
Lean II to skating, ana Whot Up
Gears has been these many years "
tho light harness world.
II snortfnr circles phenoms come
ana 70 yearly, but IL is the Fellow
yrylsd sta rtis the pressure of time that
cssss.ss The player with the record OF
citY,.isfency over term of years Is the
ere we look up to with admiration.
II only one year since he broke into
tie Detroit outfieid has Cobb been
surpassed by any other batsman IN
ia American league. That denotes
closs. Bobby" Mclean has just
icst the worlds skating champion
ship after holding it for ten years.
That ten year stretch Is the best EVIL
sdence OF the ability that Mclean
possesses Norman Brookes has play
I'd tennis in worlds matches Tor
reneration and Is still one OF the best
lsEhiek" Evans has been one sn1 our
very best golfers for number OIL
YEAR, and for dozen years or more
Day Gould has proved supreme IS
court tennis player. Not once has ne
been defeated.
: And for eleven years Charley Spen-
Ger has been one of the rear .op
hotchera in the art OF rapshoo.iiis
and his average for this eleven seaI
period far excells that Of any other
frapshooter in the country. Not once
in these eleven years has his average
been lower than .9S meaning ny inns
That he has always been able TO preake
more than s. targets in every nun
xared all the way up in the thousands
for Spencer has Aired ut close 10
1000 targets a year In registercu
Averages are MAINTAIN
cd only on the tournaments thar ar
registered by the American Trap
association. THE targets shot
lat in club competition and friendly
exhibitions are not listed. Spencer
shot Just as many IL not more LAT
gets in club matches as he did IN reg
istered competition and in these
events his average was even better
than in registered tournaments. ~
these we cannot talk, however. Tor
there is nothing official about them
Spehcer's average for eleven years
il .ss77. He shot at 53.s35 targets
AM. broke st.Tos. Twice In TINS
period has he led all the trapshoot-
crs in the country in the average
In 1909 and 1915. No shooter mas
ever euaailed his mark OF 1908, that
OF ayera ging 1870 on more than 5000
targets nor has any one ever touched
hjs iaIs figures when he averaged
$3.50 on nearly 5000 targets. In 1904
at Viola. Ill Spencer compiled run
OF Sos straight-~~meaning that ne
broke 565 targets in succession the
shoot lasted two days Spencer broke
the. entire program OF goo - targeIs
each day and then on the second day
he continued for a record. After
frrakirsr 565 f1e was forced q, disstefs-7
tirue shooting because he had no
more shells. This record still holds
good.
~spencer is of the opinion that his
r~rord run In more than 200 straight
He claims TO have broken in the
neighhorhoad OF $50 straight in the
next shoot he went TO after leaving
viola but as we have been Unable to
locate the figures his record viii have
ID stand as II appears in the record
booklets straight.
And you can take 1t from me that
breaking Sos straight isn't the easiest
thing ia the world, TO accomplish. We
know hundreds of shooters who
would give up gladly the remaining
days Of their life IL they could break
100 straight. We were at Pinehurst
recently and watched eli shooters
perform over stretch OF seven hours
and the best ruQh in all that time was
sasN AT the grand American handicap
In Chicago n year or so ago is the
aeighborhood of 500 shooters Aired
ton or more of powder at more than
sn0, 600 clay targets in six days and
not one OF these shooters broke 100
straight at any time during the week.
THAT gives you an idea how easy it
In Ia break 565 straight.
When a shooter gets going on
string like this 1t Is quite load ON
his mind. Several years ago Harry
I.orenson, of Neun,an. Cal. made
run of 345 straight after missing his