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Clifton's Shooting Team

The Clifton Shooting Team spent an enjoyable 12 days camping at Bisley with Mr Simon Heard (Master i/c Shooting) and Peter Stanley (assistant coach) in July 2010 and the team continued their run of improved performance. It was also good to see Ron Cross, a former School Marshall, who spent a few days with the team, allegedly managing to keep the rain at bay too!

Clifton were up two places from last year in 16th place in the Cadet Ashburton Shooting Competition. In the 300-, 500-, 600-yard aggregate, the team were unlucky not to have raised their overall ranking even higher with most averaging over 30 points out of 35 per distance. The young team was made up of Murray Lidgitt (Shooting Captain and Atheling), Henry Tancred-Holmes, Daniel Odutola, Tom Waycott, George Irish, John Molesworth, Leopold Kucharczyk, Harry Swindon and Clara Baltesz (Reserve).

Seven pupils also took part in the Imperial Shooting Competition, namely Murray Lidgitt, Daniel Odutola, Tom Waycott, Henry Tancred- Holmes, George Irish, John Molesworth and Harry Swindon. This is the Open Shooting Competition organised by the National Rifle Association at Bisley, the home of shooting in the UK. The competition is open to anyone belonging to a shooting club and it is an individual, not a team event. It is also the pinnacle of long range and middle distance shooting in the UK. The rifles fire the 7.62mm calibre bullet and the competitions comprise the following distances 300-, 500-, 600-, 900-, and a 1000-yards using open metal target sights only. The most prestigious prize is the Queens (originally presented by Queen Elizabeth II). John Molesworth (102 ex 105) and shooting Officer Simon Heard (104 ex 105) made it through to the second round of Queen’s and George Irish (146.15V) got through to the prestigious St Georges stage 2. Very well done to them. Next year’s team looks very strong indeed.

Murray Lidgitt, Clifton’s Atheling, travels to Canada in August on a special tour. It is organised each year by the two countries and combines national shooting competitions with outdoor pursuits in Canada, so we wish him well with his shooting there. The UK Cadet Atheling Team beat the Canadians in the first competition back on home turf.

An Atheling is a Cadet who is chosen to represent the United Kingdom in a shooting match against the National Canadian Cadet Team. The Canadians come over every year and shoot at Bisley, they also compete against the UK Cadets (Athelings).

John Molesworth (45.4V) and Daniel Odutola (40.1V) also managed to win mentions in the McQueen Sniper Competition. This is a special competition shot at 300-yards with a randomly moving target which appears in the target window frames. They use Accuracy International 7.62mm rifles fitted with Telescopic sights and a magazine of ten rounds. The Competition is quite different from the others in that the firer has to keep his sights trained upon the whole target and, like in snap shooting, engage the target only when it appears. Speed and delicate sighting and shot release are the key to this discipline!

18 August 2010

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