OC Rifle Club News 2006

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OCRC pull off the "Q" Match double! Report

OCs find success at 137th Imperial Meeting. Report

These are the headlines for 2006.

• 8th April - Short Range Practice
• 22nd April - Short Range "Q" Match
• 6th May - Long Range Practice
• 13th May - Long Range "Q" Match
• 10th June - Cranleigh Tankard and Match v. School
• 13th July - The Schools Veterans
• OCs at The Meeting
• 12th August - Long Range Shoot
• 24th September - The Annual Prize Meeting
• 14th 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.

8th April - Short Range Practice

A very select group of four OCs made it to Bisley for the start of the season. There had been significant attrition of a potentially much larger field, brought about by factors ranging from 'flu (2) to job interview (1). It was a very pleasant afternoon apart from a very difficult wind. This was even a major factor at 300 yards, to the extent that the best score achieved was 45.2. Some of us had mastered the conditions by the time we got to 600 yards; one of us, I can assert, was mortified to discover he hadn't. I can report that beer was available at the SRA and a range of nibbles, shortly to be expanded to include, e.g., sandwiches, is reliably dispensed by a high-tech vending machine.

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22nd April - Short Range "Q" Match

On the best afternoon of the year so far, the full complement of eight OCs went to Bisley for the Short Range "Q" Match. There was a gentle to moderate but quite variable wind; we concentrated, kept our heads and mostly managed to keep track of it. Although present, Lancing Old Boys, the Old Albanians and KCS Old Boys were disappointingly below the necessary final team strength of five. The competitive scores were thus:

This was a very good win for the OCRC, so much so that the Hon. Sec. did a very hasty check on the arithmetic just before the results were announced. Andrew Black (112 kB)accepted the trophy from the captain of the Old Framlighamians. Rob Welford had a very busy, and successful, day: he was also shooting for County of London in a match with four other county level teams and had five shoots all told. County of London also won.

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6th May - Long Range Practice

A predicted gathering of seven was a little disappointingly reduced to four by business and other shooting commitments. Weather-wise the afternoon started off, as predicted by the forecasters, with light but steady rain. There was just enough wind to be troublesome and this was almost impossible to judge because the flags got wet and early mirage disappeared as the cloud cover increased. There were no serious mishaps on this the first long range shoot of the season but the scores were competent rather than exciting. We look forward to the match on 13th May.

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13th May - Long Range "Q" Match

Having won the Short Range Match by a comfortable margin on April 22nd we went to the Long Range Contest with the possibility of the "double" firmly in mind. Thanks to solid shooting and excellent coaching from Rob Welford and Rob Pile, amid quite difficult conditions, we returned a winning score, although, this time, we did not have quite such a generous margin. The conduct was a little different from usual: a significant number of teams had only four representatives and the match was decided among teams of four with three members nominated before the start. The results were:

Rob Welford (102 kB) accepted the trophy from the captain of the Old Framlighamians; the banana skin may be symbolic. About a week before the event the Hon. Sec. had agreed that the OCRC would organise the matches in 2007. In the circumstances, we should be pleased to do so!

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10th June - Cranleigh Tankard and Match v. School

Numbers in matches between The School and the OCs can be a little unpredictable and so it turned out. On a real summer afternoon six OCs met a team of five from the School. After some averaging, the result, on the basis of teams of five, was:

As far as anyone can remember, for the first time ever the School team included a girl (108 kB). Full-bore target rifle shooting is gender indiscriminate. For some years, at the leavers' party, the Hon. Sec. has been forcibly making this point. Maybe soon the OCRC will be able to welcome its first lady member?

The wind was quite difficult and the Cranleigh Tankard scores were a bit lower than usual; it was won by David King with a Score of 95.9. The trophy was presented to him by Rob Welford(117 kB), the 2005 winner. On the right in this picture (but looking away from the camera!) is Simon Hayton, making his first appearance for the Club. He left the School last year and is now at Newcastle University where he is also doing a good bit of shooting. He made a very good start and we look forward to seeing a lot more of him. Including Simon, there will be four OCs taking part in the Imperial Meeting in July.

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13th July - Schools Veterans

This year we were able to field two full teams for "The Vets", in fact, with eleven OCs at Bisley we even had a reserve. It was a beautiful day and a real pleasure to be at the home of rifle shooting. Key results for the 49 "A" Teams are:

and for the 35 "B" Teams:

This was a good result for the OCs: helped by the availability of Gordon Launcelott, over from Canada for the Imperial Meeting again, who scored a splendid 50.9 to win the Simmonds Medal. Our President, Roger Bance, made the presentation to Gordon, in the purple shirt towards the left, (106 kB).

It has to be admitted that the team selectors got things seriously wrong: the best five scores of those available would have given the "A" Team 241.27 to put it in 15th place. Of course, the "B" Team's score would not have been so good! The Imperial Meeting would start in earnest the following day and we expected four OCs to take part.

For all the Imperial Meeting results click here.

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OCs at The Meeting

All the Old Cranleighans who took part in the 137th Imperial Meeting managed to get their names on to at least one prize list. Simon Hayton, shooting under the auspices of Newcastle University in his first ever Bisley Meeting, made his way into the second stage of the Queen's Prize and your old-and-past-it Hon. Sec. even had a bit of a purple patch on the Middle Saturday afternoon. In the following table ESE = Ted Eilley, SMEH = Simon Hayton, GOL = Gordon Launcelott and RAW = Rob Welford. Be aware that Rob is Class "A" and that means that he has to do better than the rest of us to get on the lists.

If anyone has been left out of anything please accept our apologies, but, see above: he is old and past it!

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12th August - Long Range Shoot

It was an overcast day with a tricky looking wind when six of us turned up for the August long range fixture. Once we got going we became very aware just how challenging the conditions were. To prove it all Rob Welford was quite pleased with his 88.5, the best score. Things got desperately much worse the following day, we heard. The Bisley ranges sustained considerable storm damage; a report and some photographs are available at the NRA website.

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24th September - The Annual Prize Meeting

The programme was as follows.

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.

There were nine entries for a very enjoyable meeting. For some the journey to Bisley was very interesting with torrential rain and flooded roads. By the start, however, the sun had come out and perfect weather was to be enjoyed for the rest of the day. The standard of shooting was generally high and the results were tight. The facts are as follows.

It is worth commenting a little further on these results: Andrew Black also made a grand total of 194 but he had fewer "V" bulls and Ted Eilley also scored 48.4 in the Lovesy but finished with a Bull "5" while Tim Bourne finished with a "V" bull. Click here (108 kB) for a picture of Rob Pile presenting the President's Prize to Rob Welford.

A statistic that should offer a little encouragement is that the best five scores at 500 yards added up to 244.25 which would have been 11th in the list of "A" teams at the Schools Veterans.

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14th October - Season Wind-up

At six we were a little thin on the ground for the last scheduled shoot of the 2006 season. Those who couldn't make it missed a very enjoyable afternoon's shooting at 300 and 600 yards. Very sportingly Andrew Black put up a bottle of wine as a prize and declared that it would be awarded to the score nearest to 96, regarding "V"s as having their apparent numerical value. Andrew himself, with a 96.9 finish, looked like he might take it home again with him, but, in the last detail Ted Eilley, going back with 46.2 from 300, turned out to be a very promising outsider with a 96.6 finish. Rob Welford overshot by miles with 99.15 and Tim Bourne fell a bit short with 94.6.

After shooting the Annual General Meeting took place with brisk and effective conduct of business under the Chairmanship of Andrew Black to finish shortly after 6 p.m.

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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.