This year, 26 district sporting legends are being inducted to the hall of fame, honour roll and junior honour roll categories in the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame. The News is featuring stories on each of the inductees in the lead-up to the induction ceremony on August 6. Today sports reporter Meg Saultry writes about John Sutherland, who is being inducted into the hall of fame.
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John Sutherland is considered something of an enigma.
Regarded in his peak as “positively the best shot on the planet” by international shooting critic John Melan, it comes as quite a surprise that you won't go finding the name John Sutherland in the record books of national and international trap shooting.
Rather it was “Calrossie” who gathered all the acclaim with Sutherland choosing not to shoot under his own name.
Alas, this anonymity led to some rather humorous train rides, with Sutherland often remarking on Calrossie’s shooting performances to other passengers, only to tell them of “a chap called John Sutherland" who could shoot as well as Calrossie.
From humble beginnings at Katandra to the extravagance of Monte Carlo, Sutherland’s storied career as a trap shooter had him amass more than 100 championships in Australia, and numerous records across the globe.
Sutherland once said: “It was as natural to me as swimming is to a fish. It’s a matter of judgement, good eyesight, steady nerves and practice, but I suppose I must have the flair to get to the top.”
Born in 1878 at Wallan, Sutherland was two when his family moved to Katandra after his father James built a home “Lothmore” there.
A middle child of 11 children, Sutherland's entire family was excellent and keen rifle shooters.
Spending his early life attending Katandra State School, Sutherland often followed school master Donald McLean on rabbit and hare shooting expeditions, with the schoolboy helping carry McLean’s bag and catch home due to the fact the teacher only had one arm.
Shooting game on his walk to and from school, Sutherland later went on to win his Marksmanship Badge as a teenager, before competing in his first shoot — a pigeon match — at 17 in Shepparton.
Failing to get beyond four rounds, it would take Sutherland some time to adjust to proper smokeless cartridges and a more appropriate rifle loaned to him before beginning to figure in the prize-winners.
However, Sutherland would later win enough money to buy a proper competition gun.
Helping older brother George manage the local general store at Katandra and working as a mailman before managing the local creamery for brother Angus, Sutherland went on to win his first championship in 1901 at Kerang before winning his first Australian championship in 1906.
Leaving Katandra about 1905 for Gippsland to become manager at Calrossie Butter Factory, it was here Sutherland's lifelong pseudonym was born.
With many of the factory's men named John or Jack, nicknames were often used, such as “Long John” and “Tall Jack”.
Sutherland would become known as Calrossie Jack, which later extended to his anonymity in the field of shooting.
Two years later, Sutherland started a 25-year tenure with ammunition manufacturer Kynochs, a serendipitous partnership as the shooter often didn't need to pay for cartridges.
In 1928, Calrossie set sail for a world tour starting with the capital of trap shooting, Monte Carlo, his journey by sea taking up to three months.
Once there, he set a new world record of 128 birds straight, while also winning aggregate for the season before going on to win championships in England, France and Italy.
Calrossie's career would eventually span 57 years, his last live trap shoot was in 1958 as an 80-year-old after which live trap shooting was discontinued.
With a keen interest in billiards and snooker and that of Shield and Test cricket, Sutherland lived most of his life in Ormond with wife Isabelle and sons, Leslie, Donald and Keith, before later remarrying after Isabelle's death in 1942.
Sutherland's granddaughter Paula Bongetti (daughter of Donald) said she didn’t know much of her grandfather's achievements as a shooter until more recently, but had fond memories of him before he died in 1968 when she was 12.
“I only knew him as my grandfather; I remember walking into his house in Ormond and the hallway was just full of trophies and silver trays and glasses that he had won over the years of him shooting,” Bongetti said.
“We would walk into the loungeroom and there’d always be barley sugar behind the velvet curtains, and I’d sit on his knee, and we’d always watch TV in the mirror.
“He never watched it live, always in a mirror. I never asked the question why, but I’m assuming to protect his eyesight.
“I just thought that was the norm of what you did at grandpa’s house.”
This isn’t entirely surprising, as it's been told Sutherland often wore spectacles in the office, before discarding them when it came time to shoot.
But after reading and learning more of her grandfather’s sporting achievements, Bongetti said she couldn't be prouder of all he had achieved.
“The extended family, who know of this, are extremely proud of everything he’s achieved in his lifetime,” she said.
“We wish we had more time to sit and talk to him about his achievements.
“It was remarkable in what he did.”
Sutherland has been honoured by the Australian National Clay Target Association and inducted into the Australian Trap Shooters Hall of Fame in 2011.
Now Sutherland is being recognised in his home region, inducted into the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame.
For Bongetti and her extended family, the honour is a little bittersweet.
“I wasn’t expecting it when I got the call about it,” she said.
“It’s sad it happens to people and they’re not here to see.
“But we are incredibly proud that he’s been thought of and inducted into all these different halls of fame.”
Sports journalist