STS Speedway Competition 2025-26

The Final of this year’s Speedway Competition took place on Sunday 1st March.
Following on from a very high standard of shooting in the postal first round, sixteen of Scotland’s finest gathered at the Balerno & Currie ranges to compete in the final of this event.

A major incentive to do well in the finals was that the top eight placed shooters automatically qualified to be in the Scotland team in the forthcoming postal match versus North Island New Zealand.

This year, unfortunately, there were no entries in the C & D category, so that trophy was not awarded.

The final stage consists of twenty separate 20 shot matches, where each competitor shoots against three other finalists in each of five relays spread over ten details.

Chris Stirling set the bar high in his opening three matches, dropping just 2 points from 600, and scoring 17 points from a maximum of 18! At this stage Iain McLaren was just 1 point behind, with Lenny Thomson and Roger Esson in pursuit. Chris pulled further ahead with another 199 in round 4. Slipping a little with his score in round 5 he nevertheless came out on top by a considerable margin: scoring 991 ex 1000, and gaining 26 match points.

Chris was declared Scottish Short Range Matchplay Champion 2026, and winner of the Bill Dick Memorial Trophy. While other competitors found their form fluctuating through the match, Chris maintained a high standard and thoroughly deserved the victory.

This result was all the more impressive, since it followed on from winning the Lothian & Borders prestigious “World Cup” competition on the previous day – a remarkable, and probably unique achievement in Scottish Shooting!

When all of the matches were completed, there was a clear margin between the top eight and the other participants in the final. Qualifiers for the New Zealand Match are:-

Chris Stirling, Iain McLaren, Lenny Thomson, Roger Esson, Bobby Spence, James Paterson, Adam Dove, and Sinclair Bruce.

Thanks go to Balerno and Currie Rifle Club for the use of their facilities, to Chris Reilly (Meyton controller), Tom McGregor (Range Officer) and Janis Thomson (Catering).

Finally, thanks to everyone who entered this year’s competition especially the finalists, who all contributed to a great day on the range,

Robin Thomson