Lower Providence USPSA: April Match Cancelled

Yesterday I was killing time on Facebook when I saw a Status Update from Ted Murphy, Match Director at Lower Providence USPSA. Ted had some bad news for area shooters and went on to explain that the April USPSA Match had to be cancelled due to range conditions.

I’ve you’ve ever shot at Lower Providence, you are aware of the pistol bay setup. It is basically an area that was scooped out of the ground and layered with stone. Because the entire pistol bay is basically below grade, it has issues with drainage.

Between all of the snow and rain we’ve had these last couple of months, the ground is soft and mushy (inside the bays is grass and dirt – stone isn’t placed inside the bays themselves). Having roughly 75 Shooters turn out and run around on the soft ground would cause serious damage, so the match had to be cancelled for the good of the club.

Hello All,
Earlier this week, LP closed our pistol range because of muddy conditions. I stopped by last night and looked things over.

The way the range is now, we would be restricted to stand and deliver stages. It is too nasty to do movement in all but one bay. On top of that, I fear that going down range just to paste and reset will take a toll on the range surface.

I think the correct course of action is to call the match and set out sights on the May match. Mays match will not be a classifier match. We will have our usual mix of stages.
We reserve Nov as a rain date. I will take steps to have a Nov match as a make up date.

I am sorry for this but I think it is what is best for LPRGC as a whole.
Ted Murphy.

In a way, I’m actually glad that the Special Classifier was pushed back. I hate to see any USPSA Match cancelled, because we have so few in area, but I’ve never been a fan of Special Classifiers being grouped together.

Just having shot 4 Classifier Stages at Ontelaunee, I didn’t want to shoot 4 More at Lower Providence. I realize that this gives new shooters an opportunity to be classified before the season gets hot and heavy but it can become a little tedious to those that make the rounds between all of the area clubs.

Edit:

It looks like the Special Classifier won’t be pushed back until November (that was just my assumption). Instead, Lower Providence will run 2 Classifier Stages in each match to make up for the missed Special Classifier Match.

What are your feelings towards Special Classifier Matches?

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