Winter 2002 - National Rifle Association

again be a Gurkha / Royal Irish affair, with theGurkhas topping the Royal Irish by two points.Lunch on Methuen Day is a sumptuous affair;speaking from a totally non-biased point of view, yourreporter felt that the Royal Engineers’ weaponsdisplay, aided by the Lee Enfield Rifle Association,was unbeatable. Lunch at the Royal Irish Marqueewas excellent and with good company to boot. Buoyedby their lunch, the Royal Irish marched towardsanother Methuen victory: Practice 4 saw nine pointsbetween the Royal Irish and the Gurkhas, howeverthey slipped slightly in Practice 5 when the TA Infantrybeat the Royal Irish by one point. However, victoryfor the Royal Irish was assured, while at the bottomof the list the shock of the event was the ParachuteRegiment languishing in last place, also beaten bythree of the four civilian teams shooting alongside.Also shooting alongside, the Omani team beat Canadato win the Overseas match.Civilian shooting alongside the military service rifleevents entered its fourth year; numbers were onlyslightly down this year as some cost watching shootersgave the event a miss. An ill Pete Bloom also missedthe event but managed to visit during the Methuenon Wednesday - our best wishes are with you Pete.There were going to be surprises this year, especiallyin the Methuen, but then, they were the deserved resultof hard work.Monday morning brought the Bisley Bullet, Sitting andStanding: Bill Ellis (Artists), Mike Burns (British AlpineRifles), Alan Whittington (LERA) and Steve Sheldon(South Wales Rifle Club) took first honours in theirclasses with scores of 44, 61, 68 and 96 respectively inthe 200 yards match. A short walk to 100 yards forthe standing match saw Dave Houghton, Ken Vale(LHAC RC), Chalky White (RAFTRC) and Dave Green(Highpower Rifle Association) scoring 35, 25, 30 and42 points respectively.The afternoon brought the Kinnard, Stephens andWantage, grouped together as the Civilian 300 yardsmatch. The eventual winners of the SMLE, No 4 andAny Iron Sight classes began their march to victory.Bill scored 81 in the match, while Richard Seddonscored 90. The RAF’s Chalky White, was having thingspretty much to himself in the Any Iron Sights with ascore of 109, while the Practical Rifle boys were havingtheir usual tight match, Pete Williams won with a 149.The Monday Aggregate was a precursor for the finalresult, Bill Ellis won the SMLE Class with 149 points,Richard Seddon the No 4 Class with 160 points, ChalkyWhite the Any Iron class with 185 points and MarkBradley topped the Any Sights class with 276 points.A good nights rest was needed before people tackledTuesday’s course of fire - for some it is torture, forothers it’s all in a days sport. Bill Ellis scored 89 onthe Queen Mary, while Richard Seddon’s trundledown wasn’t fast enough as he could only manage 86points; a sprightly Chalky scored 130 and Steve Reeskept the HPRA in front with 192 points. TheChampionship had been decided - there were no bigsurprises with the Monday Aggregate winnersoccupying the top places in all four classes with somepretty dominant shooting.36CIVILIANSERERVICERIFLEby Peter CampbellForm books were consulted and results checked asWednesday would hold the finale of the serviceevents. This year there were four teams, the HPRAwere looking to retain the trophy and this year theyhad an extra team, in the shape of the London PracticalShooting Club, to look out for. LERA againdemonstrated retired service rifles of the Enfieldvariety and teamed up with the Royal Engineers towin the bragging rights for the best weapons display.The event started with the HPRA team posting thetop score on the range; the LPSA team were secondand the Omanis were third. In fairness they did havebipods, but then they didn’t have gas bits and had tobreak position for every reload. Fire and movementfollowed and the gap opened up between the militaryand the civilians. HPRA were snapped out of anycomplacency when South Wales won the next twopractices, five points gained in the 100 yards snapsand eleven in the 200 yards rapids. The team captain’swords must have been harsh, complacency could notbe allowed. In Practice 4, HPRA recovered theircomposure and the 16 points lost had been regainedtogether with four more. HPRA had won by acomfortable margin with 1298 points, 94 points morethan their 2001 result. The shock of the match, whenthe scores were scrutinised, was simply how wellpeople had done, HPRA’s score was good enough foreighth overall and South Wales were fourteenth - someunits would be getting a severe talking down!NRA Chairman John Jackman congratulates Alan Canavan andthe Highpower Rifle Association. (Photo: Peter Campbell)