WBSVRC vs WBS Shooting June 2010

After a glorious hot and sunny June, Sunday 4 July dawned grey and drizzly. Those of us who attended the Summer Ball the evening before and struggled homewards in the early hours of Sunday morning were somewhat ‘dull and overcast’ on arriving at the shorts range on Sunday afternoon.

The VRC were challenging the School for the Derek Holt Memorial Trophy which the School have never yet won. In fact, and I risk repeating myself here, the School hasn’t beaten the VRC since 2001. We were hoping to use our ‘match weapons’ on the Crowl Langley range, before taking them to Bisley next week.

Yet again the school were unable to field a full squad and as some of the cadets hadn’t carried out the relevant training to use our ∙308 weapons we had one choice, using the School’s ∙22 Anschutz weapons (with ‘hair triggers’) in the shorts range. (shorts refers to the length of range and not our attire!) I won’t bore you with the mechanics of ‘hair triggers’ suffice to say that some veterans struggled with the technology. The School managed to get six cadets ‘on the mat’ to start the competition.

Dennis Morgan arrived with seconds to spare with James Bayliss, hot foot from a National Judo tournament in Bristol where he won a bronze medal; James went on to produce the best tally of the day for the School team with 58/65. Lindsey Denyer, Captain of Shooting at School, was pushed back into second place with a reliable 56/65. The rest of the cadets struggled with their groupings.

The VRC managed to produce an interesting score sheet to say the least. Sean Beer and Mike Baggs shot 65/65! Harry Edgell had two misfires with the ‘hair trigger’. Harry’s godmother, Dr Mary Elphinstone, who came along as a spectator, was unimpressed. When she let slip that she had done her MOD weapons training in the Falklands, during the conflict, it was too good an opportunity to miss. Within moments she was ‘on the mat’ where she promptly clocked up a very respectable 48/65, rather to Harry’s chagrin. Hendrick Coombs’ target appeared to have been hit with a scatter gun and Richard Heywood declined to shoot following a disagreement with a cow. So we called it a day with only seven shooters per side.

Final scores left the School nineteen points adrift with 329/455 so the VRC retained the Holt trophy with 348/455. James Bayliss gets his name engraved on the Heather Ludlow cup for the best individual cadet with 58/65. Many thanks to everyone who turned up and competed and especially to David Price for officiating in Dennis Morgan’s absence.

WBVRC VIII

• Sean Beer 65/65
• Terry Curtayne 50
• Hendrick Coombs 35
• Harry Edgell 25
• Mike Baggs 65
• Dr Mary Elphinstone 48
• Chris Wilson 60

TOTAL = 348/455 WBS VII

• Lindsey Denyer 56/65
• Isaak Sadek 43
• Cicely Pring 48
• Sophie Nicholls 45
• Mel Thompson 39
• Harmony Constant 40
• James Bayliss 58

TOTAL = 329/455 Chris Wilson (67-72B) Captain VRC