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OC Rifle Club News 2005 |
Rob Welford successful at the Meeting Report
These are the headlines for 2005.
Disclaimer: all the following material was written by the previous Hon. Sec. of the OCRC, Ted Eilley, and represents his views alone.
16th April - Short Range Practice
We had an excellent turn-out of 9 OCs for the first shoot of the 2005 season! It was a nice fine afternoon and the wind was in our faces with just enough wiggle to keep us on our toes. We shot in three details of three and worked our NRA marker quite hard. He was an interesting chap: he seemed to have some sort of dyslexia about "bull-5s" and "inners" and at 300 yards we challenged him quite a few times. It is not entirely clear that he ever really got it sorted out. The shooting was distinctly middling, with one exception: Tim Bourne was "baptising" his new rifle: he started off quite well at 300 yards with a 47.1; this was clearly all the learning curve he needed, for, at 600 yards he scored 49.5. Towards the end of the afternoon the light had started to fail, and, for the last detail it was getting very gloomy. Well, that's my excuse anyway.
23rd April - Short Range "Q" Match
The weather forecast had threatened some showers in the Bisley area but, apart from one of these around mid afternoon, the conditions were quite favourable and the scores tend to support this opinion. There are normally seven teams in this event but Lancing Old Boys had been unable to get to the match. The results are:
| Old Framlinghamians | 473.44 |
| Old Cranleighans | 466.39 |
| KCS Old Boys | 459.35 |
| Old Alleynians | 448.26 |
| Old Lawrentians | 446.30 |
| Old Albanians | 426.18 |
The highlight of the OC performance was a 50.9 by Rob Welford at 600 yards.
14th May - Long Range Practice
A couple of days before this outing the weather forecast had been unpromising with rain and very high winds likely; despite this, eight OCs were brave enough to turn out. In fact the afternoon was rather pleasant although the wind was fresh and difficult at times. Notable scores were Rob Welford, 93.8 for both ranges, Andrew Black 49.4 at 900 yards and Ted Eilley 46.4 at 1000 yards, i.e. promising but not excellent. Nevertheless, with the benefit of this educational experience, we look forward to the Long Range "Q" Match next week determinedly.
21st May - Long Range "Q" Match
Turnout for this event was a little disappointing and we were able to field just enough for the team of five, so, every shot mattered. At 13.30 we were enjoying a very heavy shower and a strong westerly wind. The rain stopped quite soon but the wind prevailed for the rest of the afternoon and without Rob Welford's excellent coaching the scores would have been considerably lower. We went back from 900 yards with a score of 226.15, an average of a bit over 45, but, that extra hundred yards makes a tremendous difference and the wind, if anything, was even stronger: our 1000 yard score was 194.5. The team scores were as follows.
| Old Framlinghamians | 436.30 |
| Old Cranleighans | 420.20 |
| Old Albanians | 406.23 |
| KCS Old Boys | 404.17 |
| Old Lawrentians | 400.19 |
| Old Alleynians | 365.8 |
Framlingham triumphed yet again and this is now definitely the team to beat. It has been noticeable that they have been working at it: we have encountered them on the range on several occasions this year and they have lately been in the habit of using the morning of the match day to put in some practice. It's true: the harder you work at it the luckier you get!
12th June - Cranleigh Tankard and Match v. School
It was very disappointing that only five OCs could get to this important fixture. The School Team was also one short of the ideal "VIII" so, after the action, some adjustment of the scores was applied. It was a rather dull afternoon with a rather unreliable wind and we just managed to finish before a light drizzle established itself. The RSM coached his team (100 kB) ably and unstintingly for the whole afternoon. The result of the match was:
| The School | 286.3 |
| The OCs | 318.29 |
The Cranleigh Tankard was won by Rob Welford with a Score of 99.17 which included a 50.9 at 300 yards. The trophy was presented to him by Andrew Black (108 kB) who was a very worthy runner-up in the competition with a score of 98.8 (50.4 at 300 yards).
Again, because so many members could not be available, we were only able to enter one team for this most important fixture, thereby limiting the opportunity for some stalwarts to take part. On the other hand, Gordon Launcelott, an OC from the Simon Pattinson era, had come over from Canada for the Imperial Meeting and joined the team. We scored 229.18, to come 31st out of 48, and Rob Welford won the Simmonds Medal with 49.6; the presentation (95 kB) was made by Andrew Black with Roger Bance, Gordon Launcelott and Ted Eilley standing by. Other "A" Team results are below.
| 1st | Old Guildfordians | 248.32 |
| 2nd | Old Epsomians | 247.34 |
| 3rd | Uppingham Vets | 246.26 |
| 18th | Old Framlinghamians | 237.17 |
| 27th | Lancing Old Boys | 232.23 |
| 31st | Old Cranleighans | 229.18 |
| 37th | Old Lawrentians | 225.18 |
| 38th | KCS Old Boys | 218.10 |
| 42nd | Old Alleynians | 214.12 |
For all the Imperial Meeting results click here.
Rob Welford successful at the Meeting
Rob could not quite equal his 2nd place in the Donegall in 2004, but, he did score 75.9 to come 13th out of 1177 in the Daily Mail. He also made 74.9 to come 91st out of 1146 in the first stage of the St Georges. In the Families, shot concurrently with the first stage of the Queens, Rob and his son Edward came 11th out of 31 with a score of 199.18 out of 210.42.
13th August - Long Range Shoot
Seven of us came for a relaxed long range shoot on the first Saturday afternoon of the NSRA Meeting for which the weather was forecast to be quite bad. At first it seemed we might escape injury, but, the meteorologists clearly know what they are doing these days and, in the end, we all got soaked.
The shooting could have been worse considering the wind and the rain: Rob Welford scored 96.9, Adrian Elliott got 94.4 and rest of us hovered around the 90 mark.
Hope the smallbore enthusiasts weren't too dismayed!
25th September - The Annual Prize Meeting
The programme was as follows.
The entry for the Prize Meeting this year was eight. There was some consternation that the NRA was unable to give us a marker for the morning and we had to mark ourselves. In fact this was not really a disadvantage and we moved things along very well to finish in good time. The morning's weather had been fine with enough wind to make things interesting and some of us tended to forget the weather forecasters' promise of isolated heavy showers. So, the Hon. Sec. found himself on the 600x firing point totally unprepared for a downpour. Wet bullets do go high. The results of the competitions are:
| Competition | Winner | Score |
| The Jackson | R A Welford | 97.9 |
| The Lovesy | T J Bourne | 49.8 |
| The Long Range | A S Elliott | 47.3 |
| The President's Prize | R A Welford | 190.15 |
Eight of us came to see the 2005 season out on a glorious afternoon. The shooting, at 300 yards and 600 yards, was, in general, not quite as good as it should have been but everyone enjoyed himself. Our NRA marker performed very well but, strangely, seemed to get lost while taking the short walk along the butts from his 300 yard target to his 600 yard one.
After shooting and rifle cleaning we opened the AGM in the completely deserted Surrey RA Clubhouse. Fortunately, before we closed the meeting, someone appeared who was willing to serve some drinks and we finished more cheerfully than we started.
For more information contact the Hon. Secretary, Rob Pile:
R J Pile
rob.pile@btopenworld.com
To e-mail him now click here.
