The first shoot in the Bisley calendar for the LRR and MLAGB took place over the weekend of Friday 5th April to Sunday 7th April, with competitions for the Asquith Cup and Volunteer Trophy for the LLR and the 200 yard shoots for Enfield, both prone and standing, and free rifle competitions for the MLAGB.
The Asquith Cup is a demanding competition for .577 percussion military muzzle loading rifles, comprising 15 shots at each distance, 600 and 800 yards. Shooting is from the prone position, with just the two point military sling for support. Friday’s weather was challenging with some strong winds and torrential rain showers. However, 21 shooters braved the elements, fifteen of whom took part in the competition including a new member of the LRR Richard Croft, who decided to jump in with both feet and go for the long distances as his first shoot; as a first time shooter at the longer distances his scores were something to be proud of. Jerry Womble was triumphant despite scoring a 4 on next doors target, with a combined score of 64, beating Paul Wolpe on count back, who also scored 64, and Henrie Van Koot third with a respectable 57.1.
The Volunteer Trophy is a rare chance to shoot military match rifles in their original configuration with open sights (the popular Parker-Hale ‘Volunteer’ being a generic version of this class of rifle). Firing the 15 shots at 600 yards again was challenging in the morning with some rain, varying winds and being freezing cold. John Whittaker took 1st place with a fantastic score of 58.2, Gary Evans was 2nd with 51.1 and Paul Wolpe 3rd with 49.2.
Complexities with range booking this year meant that the MLAGB 200 yard National Rifle Championship was held on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. There were three events, prone and standing for the Enfield rifle and prone for match rifle.
The 200 Enfield prone competition was won by Taco van der Vlist with a score of 35.2, Paul Wolpe came 2nd with 33 and Jerry Womble came third with 32.1. The 200 yard Enfield standing is not liked by some shooters and therefore only seven shooters took part in the competition. In 1st place was Fred Brouwer with a score of 22.1, 2nd was Taco van der Vlist with 20.1 and 3rd was Dave Craven with 18.1. Jerry Womble who usually puts in a good score in the standing competition only managed 4th place with a score of 18, partly due to the fact that he put a wonderful shot on someone else’s targe; most of the other shooters will say "been there, done that", but we are like a family and we all try to help each other in any way we can!! In the 200 yard match rifle Alan Beck was triumphant with a score of 43.2, with Taco van der Vlist close on his heels scoring 42.2 and Henrie van Koot not far behind on 42.1. Jerry Womble completed his hat trick by putting a 5 again on next doors target, ever the helpful guy.
I would like to say a big thank you to all the shooters for their participation in the first Bisley shoot of the season, especially due to all the changes I had to make to squadding due to unforeseen circumstances. Everybody volunteering to undertake extra duties in scoring for the targets and Range Officer duties. I would also like to welcome our new member Richard Croft to the family and hope he enjoyed his first shoot with us.
Annie Vause
