January 8th, 1887, was a bitterly cold day at FitzGerald's for the New Year's first handicap match. They were shooting a 15-yard rise, and the three prize winners of the day were host Rowan FitzGerald, Richards and Haszard. No reason is given, other than his well vocalized dislike of 'bats,' but on this particular cold day the sharpshooting Bill Hobkirk managed to break only one target out of seven to finish close to the bottom of the pack. A new idea had developed over the holidays, and, since President Davies was not in attendance, Doctor Blanchard called a meeting following the shooting to discuss it. Before they got down to serious debate, they took the time to elect Charlottetown City Councillor Wright, and High Sherrif Henry W. Longworth, into the club.

The new idea was that the club shoot in teams, so of course they needed a new handicap system to make it work??? In the course of the evening they devised the following "decree of confusion" that, when combined with previous handicap systems, must have created a small nightmare for whoever was responsible to administer it:

"In team competition, on 10 targets, the following will apply:"

-Hobkirk as against FitzGerald,

A. Peters, F. Peters. 1

-Hobkirk as against Hyndman, Haviland, Richards, Davies,

Blanchard, Haszard, Arnaud. 2

-Hobkirk as against Dodd, Macleod 4 also

-FitzGerald, A. and F. Peters

against Hyndman, Davies 2

-FitzGerald, A. and F. Peters

against Macleod, Dodd 4 also

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