Bisley Smallbore Week - 2025 Report
Junior International
A hot and humid Bisley National Meeting begun with a team of juniors competing at the junior internationals meeting. There were lots of good performances across 50m prone, 3-position and 10m air rifle disciplines with a victory for Scotland in the women’s 50m prone team (Frankie Calder, Kirsty Scott, Charlotte Kim) - Kirsty winning the 10m air rifle, with Frankie and Charlotte taking 1st and 2nd in the 50m individual. Neil Sinclair took second in the 3-position individual and 50m prone events with the team taking second in the air rifle and prone matches.
Inter Region Match
After the junior meeting, two senior teams entered the inter region match for Scotland, against other regions in the UK. The A-team (Tom Ralph, Robin Law, Joe Docherty) finished a creditable 6th, just ahead of the B-team in 7th (Alan Gordon, Sheena Sharp, Bobby Spence). Robin Law was the leading Scottish individual in 9th place.
The Weekend Aggregate
The main national meeting begins formally with the weekend aggregate and the start of the Bisley week competitions. The weather was settled for the week, but with rising temperatures to over 30°C, high humidity and the usual fickle breeze and a big late afternoon thunderstorm storm to keep shooters attention.
This year also hosted approximately 30 shooters from the USA as part of the Roberts Match. This included some very top-level American shooters with Olympic experience and elite squad backgrounds, alongside the usual high quality GBR shooters present.
The Weekend Aggregate was split over 2 days with shooters completing 60shot at both 50m and 100yards. Scores were a little dependent on when people chose to shoot as Saturday was breezy while Sunday was calm. Some notable performances included James Brown who finished 3rd in A-class and was promoted to X-class, and Dave McKenzie who was 2nd in B-class with Robin Thompson 6th. Ian Sellar was 7th in C-class.
Championship Aggregate
The main squadded championship aggregate is shot over 4 days (Mon-Thurs) with each class shooting at the same time to negate any changes in conditions. There were several notable performances in the individual aggregate competitions, including James Paterson winning X-class competition 2 (40shots @100y), and Bobby Spence winning A-class competition 5 (60shot@50m).
In the overall aggregate, based across 14 (20shot) targets, Lenny Thomson was the leading Scottish shooter in 8th place (2715/2800), with Bobby Spence (2698 in A-class) and James Paterson (2695). Bobby was also promoted from A-class to X-class for the next meeting. Bill Baird was also in the top 40, qualifying for the Great Britain dewar team trials in 2026.
Lewis Brown was a creditable 12th in B-class with Sheena Sharp and Robin Thomson 13th and 14th. David Thompson just missed out on promotion with 6th in C-class.
Bill was also part of the winning Hampshire county team, while James was top score in the Yorkshire team.
There were various other Scottish successes in the unsquadded competitions, which can be shot anytime during the week. Lenny Thomson was also 8th in the Roberts British Open Individual Championship.
Home Countries Internationals
Based on performances from the main aggregate, two Scotland teams were selected - for the mixed team of 10 and a men’s team of 5. The main team was made up of Charles Allan, Bobby Spence, Robin Thomson, Lenny Thomson, Robin Law, Bill Baird, Sheena Sharp, James Paterson, Alan Gordon, Lewis Brown and captained by Donald McIntosh with Mark Ferrari as secretary. This was a first full Scottish cap for Lewis and first home countries involvement for Mark - congratulations to both!
On the day England (3846/4000) were too strong despite some good performances in the Scottish team (3800), with Wales coming in 3rd (3706). A big thanks as always to the reserves for helping out and Cliff Ogle for wind coaching the team.
The date bars are a significant cost and signify Scottish cap representation - these were very generously donated by Charles Allan.
The men’s team of 5 consisted of Bobby Spence, Bill Baird, James Paterson, Alan Gordon and Lenny Thomson. With 5 good scores between 385 and 387 Scotland WON the match with 1932/2000 to England 1928 and Wales scoring 1871. To my knowledge this is Scotland first home countries victory at Bisley week since 2005. A truly fantastic effort from the team.
Roberts Match v USA
The Roberts match is held every 8 years at Bisley, with a Great Britain team taking on the USA in a shoulder to shoulder contest. Qualification for the GBR team was 2 years in planning, with the initial open entry whittled down through selection events to a Roberts Squad of 17 ahead of the Bisley meeting. The squad met up and trained in 2025 to ensure best preparation for the match, with 3 Scottish shooters successfully navigating the trials to make the squad. The final team of 10 was selected from the 17 shooter squad based on the championship aggregate scores. It’s great to report all 3 Scottish shooters made it into the team - Lenny Thomson, James Paterson and Bill Baird. The team are very thankful to all the team sponsors, including Eley and Edinkillie for their support.
The match itself was highly competitive, each pair of team shooters supported by a wind coach to aid with mirage, gusting wind and any subtle changes. As with the Home Countries Match, good steady shooting was the difference, with the Great Britain team beating the USA by the huge margin of 3863 to 3821 (out of 4000). James took the honour of being top of the Scottish shooters with 389, with Lenny scoring 388 and Bill 387.
A brilliant effort under huge pressure against a very strong USA team.
Roberts Match Scores
Next year’s Bisley Week is provisionally booked for 22-29 August 2026. It would be fantastic to see more shooters from Scotland take part to increase competition for international places and compete alongside some of the best shooters in the UK.
Report by James Paterson, STS Smallbore and 10m Air Rifle Chair
Photos courtesy of Donald McIntosh, Eleanor Shorey & James Paterson