James McKenzie

Popular Southland shooter Jim McKenzie competed in two events at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

McKenzie, who was one of the leading figures in New Zealand shooting for nearly 40 years, was getting a bit long in the tooth by the time he got to his first Games – he’d won his first national title way back in 1952.

In Christchurch he finished 9th in the skeet, just ahead of fellow New Zealander Bruce Anderson. McKenzie was 7th after the first day’s shooting, but began the second day poorly with scores of 22 and 20, and even a maximum 25 couldn’t get him back among the medal contenders. He finished with 180 points, well behind Canadian Harry Willsie, who won with 194.

McKenzie never found his form at all in the trap event and had to settle for 13th of the 14 entrants, with a total of just 165, 31 behind the gold medallist, John Primrose of Canada.

It was a pity McKenzie didn’t acquit himself better at the Games, because he was clearly a class shooter – he beat out a champion swimmer, an All Black and a test cricketer to be named Southland Sportsman of the Year for 1961-62.

A look through McKenzie’s record of New Zealand titles (shooting for the Seaward Downs Club) makes for informative reading:

Skeet: 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1969, 1978, 1980.

Sparrows: 1952, 1968

Single rise: 1956

Single barrel: 1964, 1973

Ball trap: 1972

Trench 1976, 1977

Skeet two-person: 1960-64 (with A Donald) and 1969 (with B Dobble)

He was the championship High Gun in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1977. And he won the A N Turner Memorial for the overall champion at the championships in 1960, 1962 and 1965. In 1960, McKenzie won the New Zealand and Australian Champion of Champions.

McKenzie was a member of 18 New Zealand Mackintosh teams from 1956-78 (this is a postal event involving New Zealand, Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and was the New Zealand High Gun in the event in 1968 and 1975.

He represented New Zealand teams more than 35 times. His record in provincial competitions was astounding - he won 325 competitions. He was forced to give away shooting in his latter years because he suffered from arthritis.

Throughout his career, he made a habit of rising to the occasion late in the competition, learning the score he need to produce in his final round and then doing so.

Besides his shooting prowess, he was a champion angler, known as the “Fishing Maestro” and euchre player.

McKenzie was among the first batch of three inducted into the New Zealand Clay Target Association Hall of Fame, alongside Doug Wareham and John Woolley.

Jim McKenzie, who married Dorothy in 1948, died in 2001. At the time of his death, he was regarded as the finest clay target shooter produced by New Zealand.