Western Command dents British pride in shoot out at the Curragh Corral

IRISH and British soldiers exchanged gunfire for over an hour yesterday, but there were no serious injuries and the event didn't even cause a diplomatic incident.

In fact, there was one injury. The pride of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, who were representing Britain in the Defence Forces' international shooting competition at the Curragh, was reported to be badly wounded last night after the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Western Command beat them 20 in the best of three final.

It is probably worth noting here that the two armies were aiming at metal plates rather than each other, so the event passed off peacefully. The sides had something in common: both marched into battle behind bagpipers and, of course, they both come from remote colonial outposts - Connacht and Nepal, respectively.

The curtain raiser to the competition, incidentally, was a formation parachute jump. Six volunteers dropped from a dizzying 5,000 ft and, although there was a fresh wind blowing, came down right on the spot marked.

There wasn't a politician present, even though the prevailing conditions - sunshine, war heroes and press cameras - were ideal for electioneering. But then this was a shooting competition, so perhaps their absence was advisable. At the very best, somebody would have volunteered them for the job of setting up the plates in between volleys, which was instead performed by a nervous looking group of soldiers waving a red flag.

The Gurkhas had some consolation on the day, winning the individual competition. In the team event, they saw off Germany and the US 51st Infantry on the way to the final, while the Irish marksmen accounted for Norway and a US special forces team.

Security experts were surprised at the result. The Southern Command has traditionally had the best marksmen, according to one source, while the Connacht men's shooting used to be more on a par with that of their footballers. But the Irish speaking battalion humbled the world's best - including the Americans, who spoke loud and in English, though not the kind you can print.

The big disappointments were the Germans. On yesterday's performance, they couldn't have hit Poland with a frying pan. The Jagerbattaillon had hardly installed their magazines by the time the Gurkhas had felled all their plates in the first round. Then Norway completed the humiliation of the once proud German army, beating them in the loser's play off.