26th April - OCs win Short Range "Q" Match!! Report
21st June - Welford Family success at Hants Open Report
This is the plan for 2003 so far. There are some loose ends; we are working on them.
Disclaimer: all the following material was written by the previous Hon. Sec. of the OCRC, Ted Eilley, and represents his views alone.
5th April - Short Range Practice
Six members of the OCRC launched the 2003 season on a glorious early spring afternoon. The shooting was very respectable and three of us managed 95 or more. Your Hon. Sec. thought he was doing well when he got up at 300 yards with 50.5; he couldn't keep it up, however and managed only 45.2 at 600 yards. The wind was quite strong at 300 Picture: target five is ours! (91 kB) but had dropped by the time we moved back Picture: some do it left handed! (104 kB). At 600 and a few targets away there was a fairly large group of muzzle-loading enthusiasts. One of these was demonstrating the back position, seldom now seen but once much favoured by deer hunters and match rifle experts Picture: some do it lying down in a cloud of smoke! (82 kB).
26th April - Short Range "Q" Match
An excellent turnout of OCs, nine no less, and a most welcome fine-weather window in an otherwise showery period augured well for a pleasant afternoon's shooting. That we should also win made for a perfect end to the day. This match has a long history and was originally started by a group of four old boys rifle clubs, including the Old Cranleighans, in the 1960s. The "Q" in the name stands for quadrangular but, over the years, other such clubs have been attracted to join in. Both of the "Q" matches are organised by the Old Lawrentians and all concerned are most grateful for their efforts. Now seven schools compete and the assembled teams (80 kB) looked impressive at 500 yards. As it happens, we have two members with the surname "King", who are totally unrelated, and occasionally we see them (60 kB) together on the firing point. At 600 yards the wind turned very difficult and there was generally much discussion about it within the teams (68 kB). The results are tabulated below.
| Old Cranleighans | 466.37 |
| Old Lawrentians | 465.35 |
| Lancing Old Boys | 460.29 |
| KCS Old Boys | 454.34 |
| Old Framlinghamians | 452.24 |
| Old Alleynians | 418.22 |
| Old Albanians | Short team |
Rob Welford accepted the trophy (75 kB), on behalf of the OCRC, from an Old Framlinghamian under the wistful eye of an Old Lawrentian. A small, dignified celebration (96 kB) was enjoyed by some of the team at the Surrey RA Clubhouse.
17th May - Long Range Practice
Despite a very discouraging weather forecast, eight OCs appeared for this first long range shoot of the season. The conditions were, as it turned out, quite difficult enough. At 900 yards, although it was not actually raining, the sky was very overcast and the light was poor, moreover, a brisk and not entirely steady wind was blowing almost straight across the range. By the time we had retreated to 1000 yards it had started to rain. Despite these very trying conditions, the shooting itself was by no means a disaster and the reminders about working in bad weather at long range should prepare us well for the Long Range "Q" Match in two weeks.
31st May - Long Range "Q" Match
We turned up for the Long Range "Q" Match with seven OCs from which to choose the eventual five, according to "Q" Match rules. It was a very hot afternoon and there was a wind that can only be called hostile. As the results below show we were well beaten into fourth place.
| Lancing Old Boys | 449.21 |
| Old Lawrentians | 440.26 |
| Old Framlinghamians | 439.12 |
| Old Cranleighans | 425.25 |
| KCS Old Boys | 410.19 |
| Old Alleynians | 362.13 |
| Old Albanians | short team |
We were well coached, the team selectors got it right and, until we saw the full results, we were not displeased with our performance. We can only congratulate the top three teams and Lancing in particular on an excellent afternoon's shooting in very difficult conditions.
7th June - Cranleigh Tankard and Match v. School
This was a really splendid afternoon; even the weather was almost perfect. The School arrived promptly with a full VIII and the OCs were equally on time and at a strength of nine, no less. The School squad is enjoying the effect of significant improvement in kit: the new target rifles arrived very recently and all were wearing the new shirt (96 kB) which Nick Howard, the Captain, had organised. The photograph shows the shirt on display for the camera and the rifle being demonstrated to the OCRC President, Roger Bance. The whole experience was, I think, very important for shooting at the School and for the relationship between the School and the OCs in this area; the result, a win for the OCs, is completely unimportant. In fact, the School's performance improved significantly during the afternoon under the watchful eye of RSM Gordon Bryant (78 kB): the 500 yard score was no less than 42 points better than the 300 yard one! A few more outings with the target rifles will undoubtedly extend this. Nick Howard, 62, and Simon Hayton, 63, (highest possible 70) were the high scorers for the School.
The Cranleigh Tankard (2 sighters and 10 to count at 300 and 500 yards) was contested concurrently with the match versus the School. This was won by your Hon. Sec., Ted Eilley, with a score of 97.11, just two V-bulls better than Rob Welford's 97.9 who had made 50.6 at 300 yards.
21st June - Hants County RA Open Meeting
Rob Welford and his son Edward, a VIth former at Wellington College, took part in the Hants Open Meeting with great success. In the Solomons Cup (300 & 600 yards aggregate) the citation goes: 1st E Welford 99.11, 2nd R Welford 98.12. Rob also won the 300 yard shoot, after a tie decider, with 50.8.
22nd June - The Total Oil Challenge
We had to give this a miss last year because we could not raise enough OCs to make it worthwhile. This year we were also rather thin on the ground but three of us did get to take part under somewhat bizarre circumstances. The Surrey Rifle Association was able to assemble five full sub-teams of six from the Old Johnians, the Old Epsomians, Club 25, Wandsworth and Epsom College. John Tapster, the SRA organiser, did not have space for the three OCs on offer. On the other hand he was aware that the RAF Target Rifle Club was seriously short of the 30 bodies needed and, for this friendly match, was prepared to co-opt almost anyone. So the three of us, Stephen King, John Smith (59 kB) and your Hon. Sec. himself found ourselves shooting for the RAFTRC. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and the RAFTRC made us most welcome and were very appreciative of our contribution. Despite this and all similar efforts, the RAFTRC was still around four team members short and the results below reflect this; we should not forget the reason for it: many RAF personnel are currently elsewhere in the world on Her Majesty's business.
| 1st | SRA | 3021.302 |
| 2nd | LMRA | 2986.266 |
| 3rd | RAFTRC | 2572.229 |
Ironically, the Hon. Sec. may well be eligible to represent the RAFTRC entirely legitimately as the husband of a former RAF officer. As usual the event was sponsored by Total Oil and there were strawberries and champagne afterwards at the L&MRA, where Stephen and John's elbow (65 kB) can be seen discussing the afternoon's events with the RAFTRC's equivalent of Rob Welford.
This year we were able to enter only one team in the Schools Veterans and it made a total of 238.19. The Simmonds Medal was won by Stephen Shepherd with 50.5 and he can be seen (79 kB) receiving it from Rob Welford supported by the rest of the gathered OCs. The following table gives the results in context and includes some of the teams that we meet in other matches, together with other respectable teams.
| Position | "A" Teams (55) | Score |
| 1st | Uppingham "A" | 249.30 |
| 2nd | OGRE | 246.26 |
| 3rd | Old Bradfieldians "A" | 244.28 |
| 10th | Old Epsomians | 239.24 |
| 16th | Old Cranleighans | 238.19 |
| 18th | Old Johnians | 237.24 |
| 33rd | Lancing Old Boys | 229.17 |
| 34th | Old Framlinghamians | 229.11 |
| 35th | Old Lawrentians | 228.14 |
| 39th | KCS Old Boys | 224.11 |
| 42nd | Old Alleynians | 219.18 |
Note: the acronym OGRE expands to "Old Greshams Rifle Establishment". This is a very good result for the OCs in tricky conditions, especially so when it is a fact that two of the scores were below expectations.
We can also pass on some related news on the Asburton Shield Competition in which 41 teams took part.
| Position | School | Score |
| 1st | Stamford | 507.31 |
| 2nd | Epsom College | 506.32 |
| 3rd | Malborough College | 504.29 |
| 8th | Wellington College | 491.37 |
Rob Welford's son Edward has just left Wellington College and was a member of this Ashburton team.
This was a very hot day in a very hot spell of weather. Nevertheless, we assembled eight shooters, two of whom were sons of OCRC members and appeared as guests, in the meaning of the current firearm legislation, of the Club. The conditions were almost perfect but there was a very tricky light wind which kept the scores down somewhat. For any passers-by that may be interested, long range means, for the case in point: the NRA Target Rifle discipline, shooting at targets that are either 900 or 1000 yards away, although some shooting is also done at 800 yards. An impression of what this means can be gained from this view of David and Richard King, father and son (53 kB) in which the red arrow points at the target. It's hard to find even with the hint! John Pile made the highest score of 92.5 out of 100.20 but there were several 91s snapping at his heels.
This was the first day of the NSRA Meeting when the smallbore experts come from far and wide to do their stuff. They tie up the whole of the Century Range but have no use for the Stickledown. We were using one of the four operational targets. On the other hand, there was a fair amount of activity at Bisley at large and most of the facilities were available. We even saw a few visitors: the smallbore people hear the noise from the Stickledown and come for a stroll to see what is going on. Rob Welford explains the finer points of NRA TR at long range (99 kB) to a couple of them behind the 1000 yard firing point.
14th September - The Annual Prize Meeting
The programme was as follows.
The weather, including a tail wind that made things quite interesting enough, was just about perfect. Eight OCs turned up in very good time rather early in the morning and we got off to a very good start: our first shot was fired no more than a minute after the ranges opened. The results for the four competitions were:
| Competition | Winner | Score |
| The Jackson | R A Welford | 99.14 |
| The Lovesy | R A Welford | 49.4 |
| The Long Range | E S Eilley | 48.5 |
| The President's Prize | R A Welford | 194.22 |
Rob Welford scored his "50" at 500 yards in the Jackson; Adrian Elliott also scored a possible at 500 yards and was the runner up in the President's Prize and Ted Eilley was third.
Nine OCs turned up for the last planned fixture of the 2003 season and the Annual General Meeting. A full afternoon of shooting at 300 and 600 yards was enjoyed in weather marred by just one shower. Rob Welford used the same handicapping system as in 2002 to make the results less predictable. He very generously provided two bottles of wine as prizes. Andrew Black did some good shooting, especially at 600 yards (49.4), and, after adjustment, comfortably exceeded the par score to win the competition and secure first choice of the wine. The second bottle was won by Rick Bourne. At about 18:00 all present assembled at the Surrey Rifle Association Clubhouse for the AGM under the Chairmanship of the President Mr Roger Bance.
For more information contact the Hon. Secretary, Rob Pile:
R J Pile
rob.pile@btopenworld.com
To e-mail him now click here.
