Silver Medal for Qualifying Cadets
Team Captain George takes up the story…
Last Friday our rifle team travelled to Beckingham ranges to compete in the qualifying Regional Cadet match in order to qualify for the final which will be held towards the end of October in Bisley.
It was an exciting day, particularly as the world of shooting has been impacted greatly over the last year in line with Covid restrictions, which has seen a number of national and international competitions being cancelled, especially the schools’ meet and target rifle imperial, which is one of the largest international shooting competitions in the world.
The team included myself, George (Y12), Albie (Y11), Abdullah (Y11), Oscar (Y10) and Hugh (Y10).
We left early Saturday morning and headed straight to the range at Beckingham ranges. The first shoot was a zeroing shoot at 100 yards, and after some assistance from Mr Stollery, our School Staff Instructor (SSI) to zero our sights, we moved on to our practice shoot at 300 yards. Although the shoot included a great deal of regulations and practicalities, Mr Stollery’s superior coaching and morale boosting helped enable the us to all achieve an extremely good first shot.
Despite never having fully utilised the CTR (Cadet Target Rifle), Hugh and Oscar achieved high 20s with multiple V-Bulls, while Albie, Abdullah and I managed to shoot high 30s with multiple V-Bulls.
During the competition the team shot 300 matches, shooting consistently well throughout!
The following day we headed down to the 500 yard range point to set up and adjust our sights for the 200 yard increase; all shoots throughout the 500 match were consistent and on target, with multiple V-Bulls being hit by all team members I’m proud to report.
With spirits (and egos) still high, we then moved back to 600 yards – but then came the rain, which quite literally fell from the sky! As you can imagine shooting in the rain is great fun but does present a number of challenges – and when the wind joins in too, it becomes almost impossible as visibility is compromised. The adverse weather affected the team so much so that Albie and I unfortunately ended up hitting the wrong target! However, during the 600 yard match which included a two and ten, I managed to shoot my best in terms of score, despite the awful conditions.
Sunday afternoon saw the team deliver our final match shoot, after which we lined up in formation to receive our well-deserved awards. Having expected to be beaten by the more experienced ACF teams in the competition, we were delighted (as was Mr Stollery) to achieve second place out of all the teams that competed, and I was really proud to win second place out of all the cadets taking part in the competition as well as first place as the best CCF cadet overall.
Having sacrificed their weekend, the rifle team wish to extend our thanks and gratitude to Mr and Mrs Stollery and acknowledge that without them we wouldn’t have been able to attend. Congratulations to all members of the rifle team for the amazing scores over the weekend. Onwards now to the final!
