There were some very notable successes by Scots at the Imperial Meeting at Bisley, which concluded on Saturday afternoon.
Match rifle Meeting
In the Match Rifle, Tim Kidner captained the GB team to a convincing victory over the Australians in the Woomera Match, which is held about every 3-4 years alternating hosts between the UK and Australia. In the GB team of 8 there were 3 Scots, 4 English and 1 Irish firer.
Target Rifle Meeting
In the Target Rifle Meeting, Sandy Walker had a fabulous meeting, winning the Grand Aggregate and several other trophies, as well as finishing 6th in the Queen’s prize, 22nd in the St George’s and 2nd in the British Open. However, the manner of winning the Grand Aggregate was most impressive, as he was shooting the final competition in the last detail of the day at midday, the hottest and most difficult detail for wind. As he was last of the leaders to fire, he knew that he had to score a 75 with 12 v’s to win, a score that would be very good at any time. He held his nerve admirably and shot very well to achieve precisely the score needed, winning the Grand Aggregate with the same score as two others but achieving a higher number of central bulls (v’s) thereby running out as the winnner. He also shot for GB in the prestigious Kolapore match and top scored on the range. As the NRA was celebrating its 150th there were several more international teams attending than usual and so the match was shot against USA, Canada, Kenya, New Zealand, Australia, Guernsey, Jersey and Germany.
Alex Hunter won the Donaldson Memorial Trophy with an outstanding shoot in the final at 1000 yards, scoring an unprecedented 75 .15, the maximum score attainable and probably a Bisley range record. The fact that he discarded two ordinary bull sighting shots, which he could have converted into scoring shots, showed his confidence in his shooting. He also finished very strongly in the Grand Aggregate, Queen’s and St George’s, showing that he had also hit peak form at the correct time.
Team Matches
In the team matches, Scotland faltered badly in the National Match (teams of 20 firers) against England, Ireland and Wales, finishing last of the 4 teams. However, the following day in the America Match, the team of 8 shot very well and finished 2nd to England out of the 12 teams, managing to keep the USA at bay by 3 points, and repeated the good performance two days later in the Mackinnon Match for teams of 12 at long range, again finishing 2nd to England and this time holding off the USA by 2 points.
Report by Lindsay Peden, Full bore Coach