Summer 2013 - National Rifle Association

Early seasonin the sunDespite having to practise out in the elements of a Blightywinter, an England rifle team with young guns and old headsalike headed to South Africa in good spiritsThe England Rifle Team toSouth Africa April 2013By James Watson, Team CaptainThe South African Championships takeplace each year around Easter. This year,the English Twenty Club sent an Englandteam of 21 people to compete in theirmatches. The ranges are located just outsideBloemfontein, approximately a four-hour drivefrom Johannesburg airport. Often tours toSouth Africa take in some of the impressivelandscape or take the opportunity to spot theanimal kingdom’s ‘Big Five’. On this occasionthe main touring party chose to approachThe team showed what unites themdespite their 54-year age rangeit as more of a business trip – we flew out onEaster Monday, a couple of days before thefirst team match and left 13 days later, thenight after competitions finished.One of the challenges facing teams toSouth Africa is getting practice in so early inthe season, and while in previous years teamshave had the fortune of sunny weekends,our experience was more akin to practisingfor a tour to the Arctic! Snow and heavy raingreeted weekends in February and March, soour tour was a significant contrast.My philosophy as captain was to selecta core of strong shooters but take a largenumber of new caps. The team was madeup of three ladies and 18 men and had anage range of 54 years – the youngest was22, the eldest 76. This highlights how our sportreally is a sport for life.For the first time, the NRA of America hadgranted permission to shoot the AmericaMatch outside of the US & Canada and thiswas scheduled after a local competitionbut before the main championships began.England put in a good performance butwere beaten into third place – the fact that itwas so early in our season showed.The South Africans do not shoot onSundays so, as God intended, it was a dayof rest – much needed after the teamhad let off some steam in Bloemfonteinon Saturday night. Peter Bramley, a localfarmer and shooter extended his regularhospitality to the team who turned upin force to eat even more cow andshoot bows and arrows – one membermanaged to puncture Peter’s irrigationresults: America matchSouth Africa 2362.251USA 2349.217England 2340.218Ireland 2303.164Wales 2189.122RSA International MatchSouth Africa 1741.147England 1708.126USA 1690.98Ireland 1624.65Protea MatchSouth Africa 1769.193England 1767.182USA 1766.172Ireland 1702.110SA ChampionshipParag Patel (Eng) 951.113PA Haasbroek 951.110Johan du Toit 950.9624 www.nra.org.uk