Winter 2002 - National Rifle Association

The National Match - a personal viewby Paul CharltonFor me the National Match is the main reason I decidedto elect to be available to shoot for Ireland, the countryof my maternal grandfather, rather than England. TheEnglish XX selection procedure requires that five of theteam be new caps and a further five are not regularmembers of the National team. From this, it is probablefor a good county shot to be selected as a reserve, or toshoot in it once or twice. But to shoot for England morethan five times, one really needs to be one of the greatsof shooting. As I was not, I made myself available toshoot for Ireland. As it is I have now been selected forthe National nine times (including being mistakenlyselected for England in 1991).For those of us who have been shooting for a long timeit is expected that however well the other teams perform,England will pull the rabbit out of the hat, and slam thedoor in the face of the most competitive team whoventures to get close to the English score. In fact Englandhave had the highest range score at 600 yards each yearsince 1992, when they still increased their lead over theScottish team in second place. Normally the Englandteam starts well, continues well and finishes well, so forany of the other teams to beat them needs a near faultlessperformance.Scotland came close in 2000, showing that England werebeatable at 300 and holding on at 500. However, ingeneral, despite the self-handicapping selection process,the English Juggernaut has successfully crushed allbefore it in short range matches since 1965 when Scotlandrecorded their 34th and most recent victory in theNational Match.This report cannot be impartial. I write from memory,which was preserved that night in too much alcohol.For me the 2002 National Match began with seeing thatmy name was on the list, double checking start andassembly place and time; I was scheduled as openingshooter with Martin Townsend as my coach, andthereafter as his plotter. If I recall correctly the weatherwas reasonably good, yet the ground was still dampbetween firing points. As the teams settled in andweighed triggers I became aware that MatthewMcCullough was causing some concern as he wasscheduled to shoot in the Ireland team, but had not toldanyone that he was also part of the UK Cadet team inthe Alexander Graham Bell. Whilst his AG Bell scorecould be counted for the National, Matthew made thedecision that he also wanted to shoot in his first NationalMatch and so shot each distance twice.All the teams, in what looked like a fickle wind, madegood starts. England posting six 35s in a total of 680.86whilst Scotland managed only two 35s for 676.60 butIreland had four 35s for 681.62 and Wales only one 35for 648.45. I certainly felt it was a wasted opportunityand resolved to try harder. As a team we felt happy tobe in the lead, but knew from our experience in theMillennium Match that England would have their tailsup and come back strongly. Sights being wound the46wrong way, according to one shooter, had not helpedthe English score.The Irish start at 500 yards was a farce. Despite havinghad an orderly retreat between ranges and setting upour coaching headsets in good time, when I fired thepilot shot (an inner) we were told to hold on as therewere no register keepers in place for our targets. Thedelay took several minutes and certainly was not helpful.Despite my normally cool demeanour I knew that myfirst to count needed to be exceptionally good to counterthe extended delay.Going back to the scoreboard with a 35.7 was thereforea really good feeling - good for me and probably goodfor the team. The wind twitched more as the shoot wenton. Several halts were called. The loss of communicationwith the end target caused concern, as it seemed likepoints were being dropped when a halt had been called.After Matthew had strolled along for his fourth shoot ofthe afternoon to close the Irish innings with another 34,I wandered down the line to check on my friends.England had struggled a little, but had not wound sightsthe wrong way this time. They posted another 680, butwith fewer Vs whilst the other teams had all improvedon both their 300 yards scores and their V counts.However over half the Irish team had 35s whilst Englandand Scotland had eight each and Wales two.So going back to the final distance England trailedIreland by six points but were ahead on Vs. On theindividual front on 70 points were one Scot (JamesHodge) three English (Tom Rylands, John Pugsley andNick Brasier) and three Irish (Adam McCullough, EricaMcMullan and Ross McQuillan).Back at 600 yards the Captain did not have an Irish teamhuddle. We knew what we needed to do. I was nervy.I even checked that we had a register keeper. Anothergood shoot was followed by a plotting stint. Again itseemed like the Irish points were bleeding away, butinners were appearing on English targets so maybe wewere holding on. We finished a little worse than at 500,a few felt they had dropped far too many but our lowestscore was a 31 with only one total below 100. I spent farmore time than usual checking and double-checking theregister cards and scoreboard as the crowds began togather around until finally “I think we’ve done it . . . “Only Tom Rylands managed to convert his 70 to 105.12for top score of the match whilst Matthew McCullough’ssterling efforts paid off with a 102.9. The result wasIreland 2041.221, England 2036.226, Scotland 2012.198and Wales 1975.161.Not only Irish eyes are smiling . . .Unsurprisingly celebrations stretched into the earlyhours. The singing started at the pub on the common(London & Middlesex) where several champagneconsumption records were set, eventually ending up atthe Surrey where our hosts generously greeted us andfeted us with song and drink. Many friendly opponentscame to the party, and the Surrey bar ran at maximumcapacity until the staff turned to selling breakfast.