WBS v OWBA shooting - July 1st, 2023.

The Crowl Cup.

It was really good to be back at School for a regular shooting competition.  After the last three years of disruption everything seems to be running smoothly again.  The two shooting ranges are in better condition than we have ever seen them and there was a general air of enthusiasm around the School shooters - staff and pupils.

The Veterans rifle club met at the Crowl Langley range at 1200hrs for a Pre Bisley practice.  Two new faces turned up, namely Andy Robertson and Andy Bell.  We are always delighted to welcome and enlist new “recruits” and look forward to seeing them both at Bisley for the Annual Schools Veterans competition on Thursday, July 13th.  It was good to see Simon Holt back again with new and improved eyesight.

At 1400hrs we moved down to the Albert Beer indoor-range for the WBS v OWBA competition.  Contingency Commander (and OWBA member) David Pollock talked us through range safety and accident response issues and then we started shooting.

Jono Williams (School shooting captain) and Harry Ayres went down in the first detail to shoot against Dave Pote and Hendric Coombs.  I feel it only fair to point out that the School team had a certain advantage here because they were reasonably familiar with their Cadet Force .22 rim-fire rifles.  Most of the OWBA team had never seen or used our old Anschutz rifles, or at least couldn’t remember them.  Hair triggers and reversed sight adjustments caused some early confusion.  Jono and Harry took an early lead with a combined score of 187 against Dave and Hakes’ 156.

Second detail saw Chloe Hall and Jacques Coley take on our ‘new boys’ Andy Bell and Andy Robertson.  Chloe and Jacques scored 165 compared to Andy and Andy’s 175 so the OWBA closed the gap, slightly.

Third detail pitched Sandy Carrick and Heather Easy against Mat Coombs and Simon Holt.  WBS were twenty points in front now and Sandy and Heather accumulated 159 compared to Mat and Simon’s 139 so Jonos’ team were now forty points in front.

For the final detail Dave Pollock put his two youngest and least experienced cadets down by themselves, to remove any pressure from making them nervous.  They both shot very well and scored 67 points apiece, so a combined total of 134 gave the OWBA a chink of light to redress the score-board.

That left Dave Pollock and myself needing a cricket score for OWBA to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and put Pollock in a bit of a quandary.  Was he now competing for ‘us or them’….?  Between the two of us we racked up 196 points and the match was won by the OWBA by a small margin of 23 points.  Pollock retained his dignity by getting the highest score of the day on the OWBA team and was only bested by School captain Jono Williams.

A great shooting match was enjoyed by all.  Many thanks to Dave Pollock for setting up the competition and to the OWBA for food and refreshments afterwards and to all those who turned up to take part.

Chris Wilson.