Ashburton Day- Bisley 2016
Once again the Veterans Rifle Club from West Buckland School gathered on the helicopter pad at Bisley for our traditional picnic lunch, after travelling from various distant and remote parts of the country. The National Schools Veterans competition occurs once a year, on Ashburton Day, at the National Rifle Association headquarters at Bisley, in Surrey. WBS used to attend National Schools week in July every year but in recent years haven't been able to because of conflicts with CCF camp. The VRC are however still recruiting from OWBA members who did weapons training and shooting at school and are interested in representing WBS in a national competition annually. If you are interested in joining please feel free to contact me, either directly or through Monica Carter-Burns at school.
Eight shooting members turned up to compete this year and two of them were new recruits to the VRC. Wakefield Morys-Carter drove down from Oxford and Ross McKeller cycled over from ATC Pirbright which took approximately two minutes.
We started by shooting for the John Squire cup, at two hundred yards, on the Short Siberia range, in order to establish who would compete in the team in the National Schools Veterans competition. Mick Baggs had a problem with oil in his barrel so was allowed a re-shoot. Wakefield was a bit alarmed at how far away the targets were as he usually fires muskets with black powder charges. Mat Coombs had a close shave in the butts when his target (8'x8') collapsed on top of him. Otherwise all went according to plan. Dave Pote won the cup and qualified for the main competition along with Ross McKeller, Duncan Gray, Mat Coombs and myself.
The move over to the Century range went smoothly and we were soon competing at 500yds. The weather was set fair and the wind was calm. In other words, we had no excuses and nothing that we could blame any poor scores on. As it turned out the whole team shot very well. We all got at least one v-bull (dead centre) and no-one had any magpies. Dave Pote won the Sanders trophy for the highest individual tally from our team and our final team tally of 219.13/250 was 16 points up on last year. Uppingham veterans RC won the competition with 250.38/250 but most importantly we were six places in front of Blundells Magpies!
The John Squire cup.
Dave Pote. 43.2/50
Ross McKeller. 40.3
Chris Wilson. 39
Duncan Gray. 38
Mat Coombs. 36.1
Mick Baggs. 35
Lewis Pring. 34
Wakefield Morys-Carter. 24 |
National Schools veterans competition- The Ashburton.
Dave Pote. 47.3/50
Chris Wilson. 46.2
Duncan Gray. 44.4
Mat Coombs. 42.1
Ross McKeller. 40.3
219.13/250 |
Many thanks to Gavin Keegan for planning the day and booking ranges. Thank you to everyone who turned up to compete and help out on the day. Especially to our president, David LAWTON for supporting us. Special thanks to my wife, Tracey, for baking the traditional Bisley Cake.
Chris Wilson- (67-72B) chairman WBSVRC.
