OC Rifle Club News 2009

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OCs find success at 140th Imperial Meeting. Report

These are the headlines for 2009.

• 4th April - Short Range Practice
• 18th April - Short Range "Q" Match
• 26th April - Long Range Practice
• 9th May - Long Range "Q" Match
• 6th June - Cranleigh Tankard and Match v. School
• 16th July - The Schools Veterans
• OCs at The Meeting
• 15th August - Long Range Shoot
• 20th September - The Annual Prize Meeting
• 17th October - Season Wind-up

Disclaimer: all the following material was written by the previous Hon. Sec. of the OCRC, Ted Eilley, and represents his views alone.

4th April - Short Range Practice

The turnout was seven for this first shoot of the season. It was a fine afternoon with quite a brisk wind which troubled some of us rather seriously at 600 yards. Two of us managed to record reasonably respectable scores of 96.10 and 96.9; the rest of us did not.

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18th April - Short Range "Q" Match

We went to the Short "Q" Match at a strength of six. Some teams fell short of this, so, a hurried team captain conference delivered the news that the match would be decided by teams of four with three nominated before the start.

We enjoyed fine weather throughout, but, a troublesome east wind took its toll and the scores are a little worse than for the last couple of years; they are as follows.

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26th April - Long Range Practice

Five of us took part in the first long range shoot of the season. The weather was dry and sunny but we had to contend with a very difficult wind. The scores reflect this.

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9th May - Long Range "Q" Match

So far the season has been marked by very agreeable weather accompanied by testing winds; so it was again for the Long Range "Q" Match. In order to include schools with lower turnouts than the OC seven, the match was decided on the basis of teams of four with three nominated before the start. The results are:

The pattern of shooting had to be changed from 2 sighters and 10 at both ranges to 2/7 at 900 yards and 2/15 for those nominated, 2/10 for the rest, at 1000 yards. The reason was that we had range space next to the GB Palma Squad and they needed to complete one shoot at 900 and two at 1000. For obvious safety reasons we had to comply with this arrangement and move back before the half-way point in the afternoon. From a review of all the activity on the Stickledown Range, it seemed that a minor change to the target allocation would have accommodated the needs of the Palma Squad and allowed us equal time at both ranges. This is all rather regrettable.

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6th June - Cranleigh Tankard and Match v. School

The afternoon started off rather damp and progress was hampered by slow marking. In fact two of the OCs failed to finish their 500 yard shoots in the allotted time. Nevertheless, we did achieve some results, the Cranleigh Tankard was won by Simon Hayton, left, with a score of 95.6; the match against the School, because of disparate numbers, was decided on the basis of an average score per shooter ex 70, ignoring "V" bulls, as follows:

Abi Meaker (an '08 leaver) was shooting with the OCRC for the first time and put in a very creditable score - we are very pleased to welcome her to the Club. We are also very pleased to hear that there are two '09 leavers who have shown strong interest in joining the OCRC - James McEntee and Kyryl Popov.

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16th July - Schools Veterans

We had two full teams for this most important match, it was a very pleasant evening weatherwise and our "A" Team achieved its best result for at least a decade, partly, perhaps, because the team selection under new management was faultless. The results follow.

For the 49 "A" Teams entered.

and for the 30 "B" Teams:

The Simmonds Medal was won by Rob Welford with a score of 50.2. Shortly before leaving the range, most of the assembled company was caught looking, on the whole, pretty chuffed.

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OCs at The Meeting

Both the Old Cranleighans who took part in the 138th Imperial Meeting appeared on some prize lists. In the following table SMEH = Simon Hayton and RAW = Rob Welford.

Simon also took part in The Opening Shot on the morning of the Thursday 16th July, a competition at long range for teams of four. Simon was a member of Durham B which took second place, from 17 entries, in the match; Simon scored 146.16 with 75.8 at 900 yards. Later, he represented Northumberland in the Junior Short Range County Championship at 300 & 600 yards; the team won and Simon scored 96.7.

For all the Imperial Meeting results click here.

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15th August - Long Range Shoot

We had an excellent turnout for this shoot: the field was twelve including one guest, William Elliott son of Adrian. With such strong interest one target was going to be hopelessly inadequate and the Hon. Sec. was able to arrange a second one with the NRA; we have not often had to do this - great stuff.

The weather was fine and not too hot but with quite a stiff breeze which some of us mastered to good effect.

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20th September - The Annual Prize Meeting

The programme for the day was:

1. JACKSON CHALLENGE TROPHY: 2 sighters & 10 to count at 300 & 500 yards, a.m.

2. LOVESY CHALLENGE BOWL: 2 sighters & 10 to count at 600 yards, p.m.

3. LONG RANGE TROPHY: 2 sighters & 10 to count at 900 yards, p.m.

4. PRESIDENT'S PRIZE, the Championship: best aggregate score for the day.

A field of ten had been expected but one had to spend the weekend attending to a crisis at work and two more were disabled by injury; one of these was our Hon. Secretary who turned up nevertheless and used his organising and supervisory skills to keep us all in order. On the other hand, it was great to welcome Richard Bourne back after an absence of nearly four years. The weather was excellent, warm with intermittent sunshine, and light but still variable winds. Commiserations to those who could not be there: you missed a very good day! The results of the competitions are:

Second and third in the aggregate were Tim Bourne with 191.19, with a very commendable 49 and 7 "V" bulls at 900 yards, and Andrew Black with 190.16; the rest of us were a bit further behind.

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17th October - Season Wind-up

Ten OCs turned up for the last event of the season and eight of them actually shot at 300 and 600 yards on an overcast day with a northeast wind: probably the coldest outing of 2009. Andrew Black presented a bottle of wine for the score nearest to 96; this was won by Tim Bourne with a score of 97.8. The best score of the afternoon was Rob Welford's: 98.12 with a 50.8 at 300 yards.

The AGM was held in the SRA, after rifle cleaning, under the chairmanship of President Roger Bance. The Simmonds Medal, won by Rob Welford at the Schools Veterans (see above), had been delayed by a supply problem and could not be presented at the time. In the meantime, this difficulty had been overcome and the medal was duly presented by Roger towards the end of the meeting which finally came to a close at about 18.15.

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For more information contact the Hon. Secretary, Rob Pile:

R J Pile
rob.pile@btopenworld.com

To e-mail him now click here.