Our annual pilgrimage to Surrey saw eight members of the WBSVRC gathering on the helicopter pad at Bisley for a picnic in glorious sunshine.

The customary clerical errors and electronic glitches gave me enough bargaining power to eventually book a couple of targets on the short Siberia range for our in-house competition . This contest- for the John Squires cup- decides who will take part in the National Schools Veterans competition, in a team of five, firing from 500yds. WBS OBA  won the veterans cup in 1947 and have taken part in the competition every year since.

We formed the WBSVRC  in 1997 in order to comply with MOD legislation and also to keep the tradition of competing at Bisley alive. Sadly, at the moment, the school no longer sends a team up for the National Schools week and Ashburton Day because it conflicts with Army camp. This means that current school leavers, having never competed at Bisley, have no reason to take part in the National Schools Veterans competition . Perhaps things may change in years to come.    

We started at 200yds, on the short Siberia range, with mixed results. A loose fore-sight on one rifle left some of us rather red-faced but Dave Pote shot an excellent 50.8 out of 50 to win the John Squires cup. Moving over to the Century range and zeroing sights to 500yds was a mad rush but we were on time for the Veterans competition at 1715hrs-just!

Dave Pote started of with a reasonable 47.2/50. Things went slowly down hill from there. My only excuse for a dismal 36/50 was trying to shoot with cracked ribs wasn't a good idea. Never mind; there is always next year.

Many thanks to all veterans who turned up. Especially Gavin Keegan and Matt Coombs for handling the paper work, Bob Van Dissel for photography, Hendrick Coombs for driving and my wife for baking a delicious Bisley cake.  

John Squires cup.
Dave Pote.             50.8/50 Matt Coombs.         49.4 Nick Dennis.           46.2 Dave Pullman.         45.1 Chris Wilson.          44.1 Hendrick Coombs. 44.0 Lewis Pring.             39.1   Sanders cup- national schools veterans competition .   Dave Pote.               47.2/50 Nick Dennis.             43.2 Matt Coombs.           41.1 Dave Pullman.           40.1 Chris Wilson.            36.0   Total.                         207.6/250.   Chris Wilson- chairman. WBSVRC.