The Barry Custance-Baker Cup (900 yards) match was held at Bisley on the morning of Friday 12 June. Blustery conditions made for some testing shooting with .45 cal percussion muzzle loading target rifles. After the LRR Branch competition, members enjoyed a 500 yard practice session in the afternoon. Branch members competed in the MLAGB 600 yard Rifle Championship on Saturday (13 June). There are separate events for percussion target rifle and Enfield rifle.
Sunday 14 June was the Asquith Cup match for any .577 military percussion rifle. The usual course of fire is 15 shots at 600 yards and 15 shots at 800 yards. This year, however, we were unable to secure an 800 yard booking, so the LRR Committee decided to shoot it entirely at 600 yards.
The day stayed warm, dry and sunny, but scores were lower than expected due to the very variable wind. There were few moments during the day when the range flags were pointing in the same direction and on many occasions they were flying in opposite directions.
After the morning session, Taco van der Vlist comfortably led the field on 32 points with Paul Wolpe following on 23 points. In the afternoon session John Whittaker improved to score 41.2 points followed by Taco on 31.1, giving the overall lead to John by just one V-bull.
We were able to merge the afternoon session into one detail by roping in Helen Whittaker as a scorer. Our thanks go to Helen for agreeing to score, her first experience in the job, and no, she did not score John’s card.
