Three day competition for Cadets
The School shooting team competed at the Cadet Target Rifle Nationals Competition during half term in October, at the National Rifle Association in Bisley, Woking.
George (Y12) reported on the competition:
It was the morning of 28th October and the team, consisting of myself, Albie (Y11), Oscar (Y10) and Hugh (Y10) mustered at the corp hut to begin the start of the Cadet National Competition. Consisting of teams from the entirety of the UK and stretching all the way to Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, the competition was vast and fierce – as was the weather!
The next morning, on the Friday, we woke up early, had breakfast and proceeded straight to the range. This was the day on which the majority of the matches were taking place, with one practice and three matches in total. It started perfectly, we set up our gazebo, laid our rifles out and began to fill our scorecards out – then came the rain, wind and everything else in-between. It chucked it down, so much so that our gazebo was physically shaking! Nevertheless, we began our first shoot.
Unfortunately for Albie and myself, our sights became loose while we shot, this combined with the elements meant the shoot was flawed, and even with their sights on correctly, Hugh and Oscar’s shoots were muddled by the awful conditions. The weather continued, but we remained determined to shoot to the best of our ability, the next few matches went extremely well, with our grouping size getting closer and closer every time we shot, with multiple V-Bulls scored by everyone in the team.
The next day we were all woken suddenly by the blaring noise of a fire alarm, we assembled half-dressed at the FAP; we then learned the news that someone from another CCF had accidently set off the alarm – we sighed with relief as did everyone in camp. We packed our kit and headed over to the range for our last shoot which was at 600yards, the match went extremely well with most of our team getting their best scores on that one match alone.
Then came the scores of the entire event; whilst we didn’t place at the top of the league, we still placed extremely high for how much we shoot as a team, 15th out of 38 teams present. Out of all 180 cadets present, Albie and I placed in the high 30s while Hugh and Oscar placed in the 90 region which is exceptionally high considering they don’t have much experience with the Cadet Target Rifle as yet.
Overall the weekend was great fun and really rewarding for everyone on the team.
I would like to congratulate all members of the team for performing so very well in such tough conditions, and on behalf of the team would like to thank Mr Stollery and Mr Rogers for taking the time out of their busy schedules to let us participate in this competition. Now, onto the next!
