Sam Vance

Sam Vance was the Father of Trapshooting in Canada. The past chief of the Canadian Indians was one of the early life members of the ATA and a member of the Grand American handicapping committee for many years. Sam won the Canadian Trapshooting Championship in 1912 and the Dominion handicap the following year. He was captain of the 1920 and 1924 Canadian Olympic teams. Mark Arie won the 1920 Olympic championship and several weeks later he and Vance met again at Cleveland, 0., where Mark won the amateur 18-yard championship by one target over the Maple Leaf gunner. In 1919 Arie was high amateur on 16— yard targets, and Vance placed 12th among all shooters in the ATA.

Vance won the Ontario 16-yard championship five times and other open championships on both clay targets and flyers. Shortly before the 1924 Olympics in Paris, Vance broke 100 straight to tie for the Middlesex Gold Medal in England and won the Middlesex Handicap beating all Canadians and Americans. The Canadians won the British Challenge Shield with 100 straights by Vance, W. Barnes and R. J. Montgomery, a score that has never been equaled. Vance also won the Waltham Abbey Cup against all international shooters and the Hen-den trophy. During the 1924 Olympics, Canada was the only country with three shooters in the top 10. Vance was one of them.

In 1935 Vance became the first Canadian ever to tie for the GAH, ending as runner-up. He led his country’s averages in singles in 1927 and 1929 and topped them in handicap in 1928. From 1926 to 1937 he won six Ontario provincial titles — the singles and doubles twice and the handicap and all—around once each.

Sam Vance passed away at his home in Tillsonburg, Ont. on May 16, 1947.