Winter 2002 - National Rifle Association

THECOMMONWEALOMMONWEALTHGAMESAT BISLEY- SOMEREFLECTIONSby John JackmanGenerally, the Games were considered most successfuland to all the world ran smoothly. As well as manyVIP prize givers from the UK and CommonwealthGames Federation we were visited by a number ofsenior officials from Manchester including theChairman of M2002, Charles Allen, the Lord Mayor ofManchester and Sir Christopher Chataway amongothers. We were also visited by Herr Horst Schreiber,Secretary General of the ISSF and Graeme Hudson,Commonwealth Shooting Federation President. Allexpressed great satisfaction at what they saw.Their Royal Highnesses The Earl and Countess ofWessex made a formal visit and HRH presented themedals in a pistol event, including the gold to MickGault. Prince Edward returned to make a second andunofficial visit to see the final of the fullbore rifle eventwon by David Calvert.The Lord Lieutenant of Surrey and a number of MPsfrom both main parties visited. In particular, KateHoey made a long visit and followed it up with a verysympathetic article in the Daily Telegraph, particularlydrawing attention to the lack of BBC coverage andexpressing views on the flaws in the pistol ban.In view of the success of the Games and the effortsput into spectator appeal, it would have been better tohave had more visitors to Bisley, but M2002 insistedon handling this and overestimated the numbers,thinking that people would come without M2002 publicisingthe events as much as they might have done.The BBC was present in force, but the coverage on UKtelevision was sparse and appeared to be in inverseproportion to the number of cameras on site. However,it was positive coverage and, for example, sympatheticto the plight of home pistol shooters. Coverage wassubcontracted to Visions television and I have exploredthe position with their managing director with whomI have a mutual acquaintance and who, from his youth,is familiar with Bisley. In essence, he reported thatthe coverage was largely paid for by Commonwealthcountries such as Australia who wanted live coverageand as for the BBC and UK coverage, he believes itcame down simply to the BBC’s view of audienceinterest and ratings. There are rumours of ‘politics’,but I think we should look to the bright side andrecognise that this is the first BBC coverage of eventssince the days of radio broadcasting of HM TheQueen’s Prize Final ceased in the 1960s.It should also be remembered that Sky Sports haveput out two programmes on shooting based on recentevents. I hope that some of you will have seen theprogrammes; comments would be welcome.There were a number of press articles which were allpositive, particularly supporting the view that wedeserved greater BBC coverage, and in support of theplight of pistol shooters. I saw no adverse commentsin the letters pages. The Scotsman on Sundayproduced an objective article although, perhaps nosurprise, it was blemished by comments from thosewho suffered at Dunblane. Tony de Launay said thatthe views of those in the Press enclosure were mostpositive.Many shooters believe that we should do more in theway of PR. In fact we support the work of the BritishShooting Sports Council. Barred from spendingmoney on political lobbying ourselves by our Charitystatus, nevertheless we have a duty to encouragemarksmanship. The reality, however, is that muchdepends on the conduct of shooters themselves andwhat they do to present a safe, family, sport to peoplearound them and to their local media. The less we areregarded as a ‘Gun Lobby’ and more of a ‘TargetShooting Lobby’, the better. The more we avoid theword ‘hand-gun’, but rather use ‘target pistol’, thebetter. Words and terms do count as the politicianshave reminded me.The Sportsman’s Association arranged for a dailydemonstration outside Bisley. At the level done, I thinkthey put across a message which was receivedsympathetically by visitors.Co-ordinating our effort with the NSRA and throughthe BSSC we have taken an initiative to exploit theapparent improved image provided by theCommonwealth Games to approach the Home Officeand the Department of Culture Media and Sportthrough Sport England to seek concessions for targetpistol shooting.Mr Caborn, the Minister for Sport, visited Bisley duringthe Games in apparently bizarre circumstances. Hecame in as a guest of M2002 and neither the NRA, northe NSRA were informed and none of our officers methim. Leaving aside rumours about how he came inand left the ranges, nevertheless, I learned from AlanRobertson of M2002, that he was suitably impressedby his visit. I have written to the Minister and I hopethat he can be persuaded to meet with us sometime inthe future.Whilst the Games were managed by Manchester 2002Limited in accordance with a Venue Hire Agreementand under a venue manager (Alan Robertson),nevertheless, much resource in people was providedby the NSRA, CPSA and NRA. Our thanks go to ourvolunteers. Furthermore, the NRA had to come to theassistance of M2002 in running their fullbore and pistolevents as their squadding and statistics process provedinadequate. We have made charges to recover theseresources. We have certainly learned lessons to protectour interests when we run any future internationalevents.57