The Hancock Challenge and its instigator Dudley Clifford Hancock

Dudley started shooting at 20 years of age, at the Parilla Rifle Club in the lower Mallee in eastern South Australia.  The Parilla Club which Dudley joined started up in 1930 but was a resurrection of an earlier club which had shot from 1910 to 1928 on a range which, for various reasons unknown, had to close.

A group of clubs in the area got together and called themselves the Pinnaroo and Border Rifle Association and arranged their own inter-club team’s competition.  They were the Parilla, Pinnaroo, Lameroo, Jabuk and Murrayville clubs.

The P & BRA was an unofficial body as they were all members of S.A.R.A. except of course Murrayville, which is over the border in Victoria.  Many were the shoots, both team and prize meeting, held between themselves, but unfortunately every one of the clubs is now history.

Dudley’s first trip to the Dean Range to compete in the Kings Prize Match was in 1933 at the age of 21 years.  The following year he was back there and at age 22 won the S.A. Kings Prize, to the best of our knowledge the youngest person to have done so and he still holds that honour.

In his shooting career, he won 8 SA Kings Badges, 3 Victorian Badges, and one Western Australian.

He was a member of the S.A. Team which competed in all States, eleven times.
Dudley was a member of the 1960 Australian team to Bisley, where he topped the Australians, and received 16th Badge. He also won a badge in Scotland.
He was also a team member to New Zealand in 1961 where he won the Championship Belt.  One of his prized trophies or mementos was a photo of himself wearing the Belt.  Dudley also won a West Indies medal when a team from there visited here while he was at his shooting zenith.

1966 South Australian Team

Shooters in photo: Rear L to R: Jack Bartlett, Dene Freebairn, John Cadd, Dave Lindner, Frank Bradshaw, Robert Richards-Mousley, Geoff Kerr, Gordon Natt, Dudley Hancock, Ted Deed; Front: Jack Caspers, Laurie McInerney, Charlie Williamson, Jack Wise, Les Lock, Spin Lewis, Brian Matters.

He was either President or Secretary of the No.2 DRA at various times for a good many years.

In March 1972 Dudley suffered a very serious accident on his farm when he tangled with the V belt drive of the elevator connected with a hammer mill while grinding feed for his dairy cows.

He was rushed to the Pinnaroo hospital where he was temporarily patched up before being taken by ambulance to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he spent the next 13 weeks, followed by some time as an outpatient.  Eventually, he was told by the attending doctor that he would have to have his hand amputated.  When he said an emphatic NO he was told to get another doctor, which he did.  Dr Sweeney operated on his hand and wrist twice in Memorial Hospital followed by three more operations in Calvary Hospital.

The outcome was that Dudley kept his hand, the wrist stiff and his left arm some 2 to 3 inches shorter than the right. He could do a lot with it, except hold a rifle. 

An attempt was made to keep him shooting when a type of pistol grip was attached to the fore-end of his rifle so that he could hold the weapon, but it was not a great success and Dudley had to give the game away.

Dudley Died in 1997 aged 85 at Victor Harbour.  He was the end of an era, the last surviving King’s winner in Australia.

The Hancock Challenge (instigated by Dudley) has been held since 1965 and is contested between two teams of ten shooters, A and B grades, from the No.2 (Southern) DRA and the No. 1 (Metro) DRA with No. 2 acting as host. Since 2007 F Class shooters have also been included.

Dudley proposed the shoot be hosted by No 2 DRA to eliminate the home range advantage for the No 1 DRA, which they held for other inter-DRA shoots, teams to comprise 10 A Grade , 5 B Grade, and 5 under 25 shooters be included in a 20 person team so they could get experience in team shooting.  This was later amended to 10 A Graders and 10 B Graders, as the number of under 25 shooters available dwindled. Trophies for the A and B grade sections of the competition were introduced in 1969.

The competition was originally held on the old Murray Bridge range on the east side of the river, off the Karoonda Road. Since 1980 the competition has been held at the Deed Range at Monarto.

Acknowledgements to Bob Love, Jim Caspers, Don Docking, Colin Kuchel, and John Cadd