Organizing our annual trip to Bisley this year was anything but easy. There is a national shortage of full-bore shooting facilities and an ever increasing demand on existing facilities from the MOD, the Police and private clubs like the WBSVRC.

When our secretary Sean Beer contacted the Bisley authorities to book facilities in April he was told he was too early. When he tried again as instructed in May he was too late. The Police had block booked every available target. After a certain amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth Sean managed to reserve two lanes in the hard Roberts 50 metre indoor small-bore range.

This excellent facility was built for the Commonwealth Games in the nineties and was a godsend to us as the weather was awful until halfway through the afternoon. All veterans who turned up competed for the John Squire Cup with the five best shots forming the squad for the National Schools’ Veterans Match at 500 yards.

Many thanks to Sean and his family for the loan of their small-bore weapons. New regulations state that all ‘High Muzzle Energy’ firearms must pass through the Zeroing Range and be certificated before squadding cards can be issued. This created a nasty bottleneck and the possibility of missing the Ashburton completely.

Fortunately Dave Pote had foreseen the problem and was at the front of the queue and with some ’elasticity’ of the rules managed to zero all five weapons by himself, so many thanks to Dave Pote. As we moved onto the Century Range to compete in the 150th anniversary National Schools@ Veterans shooting match, the Ashburton, it stopped raining and the sun came out. Needless to say there was a howling crosswind which kept the range flags almost horizontal.

Mike Baggs qualified for the A Team but was now struggling with a recurring shoulder injury which left him about five points below average. Our final tally of 216.10/250 saw us into 39th position, two places ahead of Blundells.

Dave Pote took both cups home and Bob Van Dissel won the Donegal Badge for the highest score not to qualify for the A team. A good day was enjoyed by all who turned up.

Many thanks to Sean Beer for all his hard work and David Lawton, our president, who turned up to help with logistics. Finally, a note to Pote. You may have both cups but Baggs managed to ’liberate’ your telescope. John Squire’s Cup:

• Dave Pote 1928/2000
• Chris Wilson (Capt) 1874
• Sean Beer 1805
• Matt Coombs 1724
• Mike Baggs 1717

The Ashburton for the Sanders Cup:

• Dave Pote 48.3/50
• Matt Coombs 45.4
• Sean Beer 44.1
• Chris Wilson 42.1
• Mike Baggs 37.1

TOTAL = 216.10/250 Chris Wilson (Captain WBSVRC)