Steeple and Arbroath rifle clubs are sad to intimate the death of Bill Long. Bill was taken into hospital in late November and had been making a recovery but after complications he died in the early hours of Sunday 10 December, 3 months short of his 60th birthday.
Bill earned ten "caps" for Scotland between 1984 and 2005, including a rare win in the Home Countries match at Bisley in his last appearance. He also represented Great Britain in the Dewar Match and at the ISSF World Cup in Munich in 1997. He won the "Haig" Scottish Long Range Championship at Tain in 1994, and was a regular at NSRA Scottish & National Meetings and Scottish Grand Prix events.
It is hoped that a fuller account of Bill's shooting career, and his contributions to the sport will appear in the Rifleman in due course.
The third Commonwealth Youth Games will be held in Puna, India, in October 2008. Target Shooting will be included in these Games for the first time, and a full complement of smallbore and air rifle events for both men and women will be included. A maximum of one entry per country is permitted in each event, and to be eligible athletes must have been born no earlier than 1990. The Scottish Target Shooting Federation has notified the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland of it's interest in these Games, and it is hoped that selection criteria will be agreed and published in the New Year.
Individual Membership and Club Affiliation forms are now available from the Executive Officer, along with entry forms for the winter postal competitions, Air Rifle & Pistol Grand Prix meetings and the All Ranges match next April.
2005/6 members should already have a received copies of the Athlete Pathways document, which contains information on selection policies and training squads operated by the SSRA. This document is only available to individual members and affiliated clubs - a summary for non-members is available here.
The 2006/7 Air Rifle & Pistol Grand Prix series kicked off last weekend at Callander. With the remainder of the Commonwealth Games team absent, Robin Law won the Air Rifle, but was chased all the way to the end by Shirley McIntosh, winning a very low scoring match by a margin of 1.5 points. Bruce McIntosh won the Air Pistol with a comfortable margin, Mark Joyce taking second place.
Emma Cole-Hamilton returns to Pilsen in the Czech Republic this week, taking part in Women's Air Rifle at the Grand Prix Kooperativa as part of a GB team.
A new record score by the Scottish team in the annual postal international against North Island was ten points off the pace, as the Kiwi's shattered the record for the match by twenty points, even exceeding their own highest score on the 1966 series targets by two points with a total of 1926. Alasdair Horne was top scorer in the Scottish team with 398 behind New Zealand's Martin Hunt with 400 and Robbie Eastham with 399. The Scottish Juniors performed somewhat better however, winning their match with a comfortable eight point margin. Both junior teams exceeded the previous high-score for the match, top scorer being Robbie Eastham 399, Kay Copland the best Scot with 398. The results are available here.
Sheena Sharp's achievements at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year were recognised last weekend at the annual Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland awards dinner, where she took third place in the Lonsdale Trophy award for the best Scottish Sportsman or Sportswoman of 2005/6. The event was won by swimmer Gregor Tait, who won four medals in Melbourne, with cyclist Craig McLean in second place. All four of Scotland's Commonwealth Games shooting medallists, along with World Junior Champion Matthew Thomson and World Universities medallist Emma Cole-Hamilton were amongst the guests at the black-tie dinner, which was held at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Glasgow.
SSRA has agreed in principle with Scottish Southern Counties Association to hold a prone Grand Prix in addition to the regular series of five on the Saturday after the conclusion of the NSRA Scottish Meeting at Lauder, i.e. 7th July. This event will include the usual programme of open meeting in 4 classes with Under-21 medal, pairs and sweepstakes plus C&D Grand Prix and A&B Grand Prix with ISSF final. Entry forms will be available soon after Christmas.
Revised A and Under 25 squads, along with newly selected B and Under 21 squads, have been announced by the SSRA. Full details are available on the Squads & Athletes page.
Donald McIntosh has successfully completed the second tier of coaching qualifications offered by the ISSF Coaching Academy. He now holds an International 'B' license, having completed the 'C' course last October.
Heather Rudd and Emma Cole-Hamilton have won Bronze Medals as part of the British Universities team in Pilsen. Shooting alongside England's Emma Sigournay, they were third in the Women's Prone event earlier today.
Neil Stirton picked up nine points at Gagie, winning the fifth and final Prone Grand Prix of 2006 ahead of Matthew Thomson and David Cummings. Sinclair Bruce's two points were enough to give him victory in the Prone Grand Prix Series however, with Matthew Thomson in second place. Earlier in the day Matthew had equalled the Scottish Junior Record of 596 in winning Class A of the Gagie Open - he started with a perfect 400, but dropped away across the two final strings to equal the record jointly held by Jon Hammond and Neil Stirton. Cyril De Jonckheere was not far behind, with 594 to win Class B, with Rory McAlpine and Finlay Craig winning Classes C & D respectively. Finlay Craig went on to win the C&D Grand Prix with an excellent 395, Rory taking second and Bruce McIntosh third.
There were two more medals for Scotland at the CSF(ED) Championships in Northern Ireland today. Gordon Motion won the Men's Prone match, successfully defending his lead in the final from a stern challenge by Allan Lewis of Northern Ireland. Kay Copland took the bronze in the Women's Prone, beating team mate Nicola Sammels into fourth place. The performances of the two Scottish ladies - both still 16 - are all the more remarkable considering that the Gold and Silver medals went to 2006 Commonwealth Games medallists from Wales and England respectively!
Emma Cole-Hamilton equalled the Scottish Women's 3x20 record of 578 at the final SSRA Grand Prix of 2006. The original record was set by Shirley McIntosh in 1998, and the highest score shot by other Scottish shooters in the intervening years has been 573. Graham Rudd took the 3x40 Grand Prix series for the first time, with Emma topping the 3x20 table.
Graham Love and Andrew Coates took Gold and Silver in the Men's Three Positions event yesterday at the CSF(ED) Smallbore Championships in Northern Ireland, with James Paterson taking fourth.
There was further Gold Medal success today, with Kay Copland & Nicola Sammels winning the Women's Prone Pairs event. Dave Caughey and Gordon Motion picked up Silver in the Men's Prone Pairs, with James Paterson & Charles Allan second & third respectively in the Development section of the Men's Prone.
Matthew Thomson is the sole Scot included in the NSRA's team to compete in the Nordic Junior Championships next week in Copenhagen. Matthew will team up with his fellow World Championship winning team members in the Men's Prone.
Four Scottish shooters have been included in the British Universities team to attend the International Universities Championships next week in Pilsen, CZE. Graham Rudd competes in the Men's Prone, Three Position and Air Rifle matches, and will be joined in the Prone by James Paterson. Heather Rudd also competes in all three events, with Emma Cole-Hamilton shooting in the Three Positions and Prone matches.
Charles Allan won the C&D Grand Prix Series with one event to spare at Denwood yesterday. An excellent score of 396 in the final earned him nine points for the second time this year, and extended his series lead to an unassailable 12 points. The A&B series is considerably tighter, with Sinclair Bruce earning six points yesterday to draw level with his 2002 Commonwealth Games partner Jim Cole-Hamilton on 16 points. Gordon Motion's first ever Grand Prix win means he becomes one of seven people who could theoretically still take the title, so it is all to play for at Gagie next Sunday.
Earlier in the day there had been some steady performances in the Denwood Open, with Alasdair Horne winning Class A with 594, a single point ahead of Sinclair Bruce. Tom Hodgson won Class B ahead of Dumfries team-mate Graham Shedden who has returned to Grand Prix shooting after a very lengthy absence. Charles Allan had started his day well, nipping in ahead of Colin Gall to win Class C, with Pat Gray - very unfortunate to miss promotion at Bisley last week - winning Class D.
The previous day had seen Donald McIntosh win the 3x40 Grand Prix, beating Martin Sinclair's six year old Scottish standing final record by 0.1 in the process. The 3x40 series remains a tussle between Graham Rudd and Andrew Coates, and will be settled next week Saturday at Denwood.
In addition to those results already listed, the following wins were recorded by Scottish shooters and clubs at the recent NSRA National Meeting:
Individuals
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Three Scottish shooters qualified for the final of the Earl Roberts British Championship at Bisley. Graham Rudd was best placed, at 12th, with Mel Mutch and Charles Allan 17th and 18th respectively. Nicola Sammels won the "Bobs" final for competitors in Classes B, C & D, while Mel Mutch was top scorer in the Second Stage.
The Scottish Teams in the Home Countries Prone Internationals all fared poorly. The Main Team, faced with an unprecedented opportunity to take the match for three consecutive years, was in the hunt after the first detail at 100 yards, but fell away badly at the shorter distance to end up in third place behind England and Wales. The Ladies and Junior teams also struggled, the Ladies also third, with the Juniors just managing to get ahead of the Welsh for second place. The results are available here.
The following team from Scotland will take part in the CSF(ED) Championships in Northern Ireland at the beginning of September:
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Those shooters marked (D) are entered in the development matches only. The first named shooters in each case will compete in the pairs match.
The following teams from Scotland will take part in the Home Countries Prone Matches at Bisley on Friday 18th August:
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Congratulations to Bill Baird for qualifying for the main team for the first time, and to Rory McAlpine & Nicola Sammels for qualifying to for junior team for the first time.
Sheena Sharp was the only Scottish shooter to qualify for the ten-strong GBR Randle Team, which shot their Dewar course on American targets at Bisley early this morning. The scores are still being kept quiet while other teams complete their course of fire.
The Grand Agg at the NSRA National Rifle Meeting commenced today, although only the first of the two scheduled competitions was held due to the flooding on the range (additional pictures have been added to the Picture Gallery). Sheena Sharp was top scorer, winning Class X with 395, while Rory McAlpine and Nicola Sammels won Classes B & C with 393 and 389 respectively.
Donald McIntosh and Heather Rudd have been seeded into the Open and Women's teams for the Home Countries prone matches this coming Friday. Both are present at Bisley, and have recorded scores over the weekend, but are not entered in the Aggregate and have been included under the published selection policy.
The Weekend Aggregate was not completed by Sunday night at Bisley. Torrential rain and thunderstorms for most of Sunday afternoon and evening resulted in the final details being cancelled, and with unprecedented levels of flooding across Century range it is not year clear when shooting will be able to continue. There are pictures of the range in the Picture Gallery.
The Scottish Women's team of Shirley McIntosh, Heather Rudd and Emma Cole-Hamilton won the 3x20 Home Countries Match for the first time this year, putting 20 points past England, with Wales in third place. McIntosh was the top scorer in the team with 565 - good enough for fourth place individually, second amongst the British shooters.
The 3x40 team fared less well, coming in third behind first-time winners Wales, with England in second place. Donald McIntosh was the top placed Scot in the British Championship, with 1129 earning 4th place.
The Individual Matches at the NSRA/Eley Inter-Region Match were all won by members of the Scottish teams. Kay Copland started the ball rolling with a Personal Best of 588 to win the Women's Prone match. Cliff Ogle was top score in the Men's Prone match with 587, while Graham Rudd and Heather Rudd were top scorers in the 3x40 and 3x20 respectively. The 3x40 paid of Andrew Coates and James Paterson won their team match - the only Scottish team to do so.
The following teams from Scotland will take part in the Home Countries 3P Matches at Bisley on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th August:
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The following teams from Scotland will take part in the NSRA/Eley Inter-Region Match at Bisley on Friday 11th August:
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Gordon Buchan and Jennifer McIntosh will be the only two Scots to take part in the NSRA's annual Junior International match at Bisley, logistical difficulties having prevented other members of the SSRA's Junior Squad from attending.
Matthew Thomson became the second Scottish shooter in the space of eight years to become the World Junior Men's Prone Champion. Shooting as part of the British team at the ISSF World Championships in Zagreb, Matthew recorded a score of 593 in very tricky conditions to secure victory.
Matthew also led the British team home to victory in the Junior Men's team title - Britain's first rifle team Gold for 24 years. More details are available on the GBTSF website.
The 50m Championships held last weekend at Denwood were less well attended than in previous years, in part due to the absence of many regular competitors at the ISSF World Championships in Zagreb, but also due to the the lack of a British ranking scheme based on domestic scores being operated by either the NSRA or GBTSF this year.
Sheena Sharp was the first victor of the weekend, winning the Women's Prone title for the fourth time, with Shirley McIntosh taking second place. The Men's 3x40 was also decided on Saturday, with Martin Sinclair producing an excellent 1157 to secure the title for the eighth time, with Graham Rudd in second place.
The Women's 3x20 was particularly badly hit by low numbers, with Emma Cole-Hamilton taking the title ahead of Shirley McIntosh. The Men's Prone was however somewhat more competitive, Sinclair Bruce coming through from third place to take the title, with Martin Sinclair and Cliff Ogle second and third respectively.
The third SSRA 50m Open and Prone Grand Prix were held on the 8th of July on the Scottish Meeting range in Castletown. In very trying conditions, Sinclair Bruce lead the way in A Class, his 593 six points clear of Gordon Motion, with Hugh Simpson in third place a further point behind. Things were tighter in Class B, with David Cummings beating James Henderson on countback, both with 581 - Bill Vaughan third with 580. Colin Gall secured Class C with 582 ahead of Oliver Barron on 580 and Charles Allan on 578, while in Class D the honours went to M Mackay (566), with Findlay Craig (562) and Nick Czemerys (559) in second and third respectively.
Oliver overturned the tables on Colin in the C&D Grand Prix final, taking Gold with 387, while a set of identical scores from Charles and Colin meant the tie being broken on the number of tens fires - Charles sneaking the silver. In the main Grand Prix final Michelle Smith was top scorer 594, and remained there after the final, ahead of Matthew Thomson and Keith Ridgway - Matthew taking the nine Grand Prix points as the highest placed eligible competitor.
With two events remaining, Jim Cole-Hamilton remains six points clear of the A&B table, with Sinclair Bruce in second place. In the C&D section, Charles Allan has extended his lead to 9 points, with Bruce McIntosh in second place.
The third Three Positions Grand Prix event of the summer was poorly attended, with only three entries in the 3x40 and no-one in the 3x20 match. Ronnie Sellar overcame a three point deficit to Andrew Coates in the final to take Gold.
SSRA wishes to thank everyone who bought a Commonwealth Team Supporter's Fleece or Polo-shirt. These were being sold to support the Smallbore Rifle team who travelled to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games, and due to your generosity, SSRA was recently able to distribute a cheque to each of the eight athletes who made the trip. It was good to see so many of these items being worn at the 2006 Scottish Meeting
There are still a few poloshirts left - mainly white - if anyone wishes to buy, the money will go into SSRA general funds.
Jim Cole-Hamilton - Development Officer
Bill Copland won the Scottish Long Range Prone Championship for the Haig trophy today in Castletown, ahead of Sheena Sharp and Matthew Thomson. Matthew started well, with a two point lead over Sheena after his first card of 197, however Bill fought back with 197s for both his second and third cards while only Sheena - with 197 for her final card - could break 195.
There was some excellent shooting in the B, C & D section, with Robin Thomson taking the honours with an excellent 586, including cards of 196 in the second and third details, while Mike Low and Kay Copland were close behind in second and third with 584 and 583 respectively - scores that would comfortably have placed them in the top four of the main final! More details of the results are available here.
Scotland won both the Main and Ladies Home Countries matches today in Castletown. This is the first win for the Ladies in Scotland since Irvine in 1987, and also the first double win at the Scottish Meeting since then. The scores are available here.
In a repeat of last year, there was no Junior international match as only Scotland were able to field a team. A match was held instead between a team of five juniors and a veteran's select, with victory going to the more experienced unit by a very small margin. Results are available here.
In addition to the results already mentioned, there were a number of other wins for Scottish shooters and clubs at the Scottish Meeting:
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In addition, a number of individual and team records were equalled or raised - click on the links to see more details.
The following teams have been declared for tomorrow's Home Countries Matches:
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Congratulations to David Cummings to qualifying for the team at his first Scottish Meeting.
Jim Cole-Hamilton won the SSRA's Freuchie competition today, beating Walter Griffin and Colin Gall in the final. Ian McDougall won the Class C&D event for the Sgian Dhu, beating Oliver Barron and Robert Spence en route to the trophy.
Classes X & A completed their Aggregate today in Castletown. Gordon Motion and Jim Cole-Hamilton held on in tricky conditions for second and third place respectively in Class X, however the performance of the day was from Matthew Thomson who won both competitions in Class A to win the Aggregate as well. David Cummings performed very well in his first Scottish Meeting to take third in Class A.
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Classes B, C & D completed their Aggregate today in Castletown. Robin Thomson had an excellent day to sneak in ahead of Emma Cole-Hamilton in Class B as James Henderson and Mike Low fell away in the last match. Oliver Barron continued his domination of Class C, winning both of today's competitions, while Gregor Bremner's 50m score pulled him clear of the field in Class D.
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At the half-way stage in the Aggregate competitions at the Scottish Meeting, there have been a number of Scottish successes, and Scots are well placed in each class.
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Martin MacGill has been seeded into the Scottish Team for the Home Countries International on Friday. Martin is not shooting the Aggregate at the Scottish Meeting, and as such has been selected on the basis of his performances over the first weekend.
The following shooters, including five former champions, have qualified for the final of the NSRA Scottish Long Range Championship, aka "The Haig", which will be held on Friday afternoon:
Cyril De Jonckheere Bill Copland George Mortimer Jim Cole-Hamilton James Paterson |
Jim Mudie Sheena Sharp Peter Dingle Charles Allan Dave Lumsden |
Matthew Thomson Martin MacGill Emma Cole-Hamilton Sinclair Bruce Hugh Simpson |
Gordon Motion David Cummings Robbie Campbell John Sinclair Oliver Barron |
There were a considerable number of Scots in amongst the medals over the weekend competitions at the NSRA Scottish Meeting.
Early Birds | Squadded Non- Aggregate Dewar |
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Three Scottish Smallbore shooters have been included in the British team for the ISSF World Championships, which will be held in Zagreb, Croatia, at the end of July. Sheena Sharp, Neil Stirton and Matthew Thomson will compete in the Senior Women's Prone, Senior Men's Prone and Junior Men's Prone respectively.
Ian Thomson, the Chairman of the SSRA, took the Silver medal in the Men's Prone at the British 50m Championships at Bisley last weekend. A score of 590 took him into the final in equal second place, and despite three identically scoring shots of 9.4 to start, he came through to take second place. Martin MacGill, also with a qualification round of 590, was fourth, with Gordon Motion and Bill Brown seventh and eighth.
There were Bronze medals for Scots in both of the Three Positions events - Martin Sinclair in the 3x40 and Emma Cole-Hamilton in the 3x20, with Graham Rudd fourth in the Men's event. Emma also came close to the medals in the Women's Prone, taking fourth place with Sheena Sharp in fifth.
Graham Rudd continued his rapid improvement in the three positions event, with a superb score, and new personal best, of 1160 at Denwood on the 3rd of June. This performance, including a new Scottish record of 383 in the standing position and a new personal best of 385 in the kneeling position, is the highest score by a Scottish shooter for two years, and secured a comfortable win in the 3x40 match. In the 3x20 match, Emma Cole-Hamilton and Heather Rudd made a return to competition following a post-Commonwealth Games break - Emma the winner with 558.
At Gagie on the 4th of June, as at Denwood the month before, the top score of the day came in Class B - David Cummings winning with an excellent 597. Class A went to Gordon Motion, his 593 beating Sinclair Bruce on countback, while Charles Allan and Pat Gray won Classes C & D respectively. There were some fairly high scores in the Grand Prix also - Jim Cole-Hamilton the eventual winner after the ten-shot final, with Martin MacGill and Tom Hodgson in second and third. In the C&D Grand Prix Charles Allan had a one point advantage over Richard Leather and Ron Nilsen, Richard taking the silver on countback.
The third Grand Prix in the 2006 series will be held in Caithness, on the Saturday immediately following the NSRA Scottish Meeting.
Bill Brown and Ali Aitken were successful at the Army Target Shooting Club's open meeting last Saturday at the Ash Ranges, winning Classes X and B respectively.
Graham Rudd marked his return to competition after the Commonwealth Games with a Personal Best score of 1148, for a comfortable win in the the first SSRA Grand Prix event of 2006. Andrew Coates also recorded a PB, this one of 1132, to take second place, with Ronnie Sellar in third.
The Denwood Open and Prone Grand Prix also saw some high scoring - Neil Stirton winning Class A with 594 while Dave Caughey won Class B with 595! Richard Leather finished strongly to take Class C, with Gavin Walker taking Class D. In the Grand Prix events, Bruce McIntosh won the C&D Grand Prix from Charles Allan and Gordon Cox. The A&B scores were high - eleven shooters on scores of 590 or more. Alasdair Horne entered the final with a single point lead over Sinclair Bruce, and those two remained in Gold and Silver positions after the additional ten shots. There was more drama surrounding third place, with Jim Cole-Hamilton and Neil Stirton overhauling a one point deficit on Martin MacGill and Tom Hodgson - Jim taking the Bronze.
Three Scottish shooters dominated the British Universities Championship last weekend at Appleton. Emma Cole-Hamilton won the overall individual title, with Tom Hunter and Matthew Thomson second and third respectively.
Susan Jackson won the NSRA's British Short Range 3P Championships with a score of 573, with fellow Commonwealth Games team member Martin Sinclair in third place.
Sheena Sharp equalled the Scottish Record for the second time on Saturday. Shooting in the Women's Prone at the Grand Prix of Liberation in Pilsen she recorded a score of 594 for third place in a field of well over 100 athletes. Two days earlier, Gordon Motion had recorded his best international performance, with 593 for a share of 20th place in the Men's Prone.
Neil Stirton returned to competition this weekend, with a solid victory in the English Open at Bisley. Scores of 593 and 595 placed him at the top of his elimination relay yesterday, and in harder conditions today a steady 589 was three points ahead of the field. This margin proved very useful, as an unusually erratic final reduced his lead a little, with 17 year old Ken Parr taking second place.
The inaugural All Ranges Match, held yesterday at Denwood, attracted a reasonable entry, although it was disappointing to see a lack of numbers in the lower classes. Alasdair Horne was the top individual scorer, with 399 at 25 yards and 395 at 100 yards the highest scores at those distances - Donald McIntosh with 397 the top scorer at 50m. Alasdair combined with Richard Leather to win the indoor pairs event, while Donald teamed up with Cliff Ogle to lift the the outdoor and overall pairs titles. Watsonians won the indoor team, with Callander winning the outdoor and overall versions and Lothian winning both of the inter-region matches. Full results will be made available as soon as they are available.
Bill Brown has won Class A of the annual "Salvers" competition with a perfect score of 300, just in front of Hugh Simpson on 299. As top score in any of the four classes, Bill also wins the SSRA Silver Medal, although it was a close-run thing, with Oliver Barron winning Class B with 299. A re-gauge was required to determine the winner of Class C - Robert Spence coming out on top - while G Bremner won Class D. Oliver's 299 also secured the Junior event, with Bill Hamilton winning the Veterans.
The graduated gauges were also required to split a three-way tie in the CanDicap, George Lawson taking the trophy after both the .25 and .30 gauges had been used. Full results are available here.Gordon Motion and Sheena Sharp return to Plzen next month to take part in the annual Grand Prix of Liberation. This event, held as part of the celebrations to commemorate the liberation of Plzen by the US Army at the end of World War II, is a high-standard international match which normally attracts world class shooters from all over Europe and beyond. Gordon competes in the Men's Prone, while Sheena will take part in the Women's Prone and 3x20 matches.
Sinclair Bruce started his outdoor season with a win in the prone at the Isle of Man Easter Open. In a low scoring match his qualification round of 589, combined with a final of 102.6 was just enough for victory - the winning margin being 0.3 points. Sheena Sharp took third place, losing silver on a tie shot, with Matthew Thomson in fourth place.
Entry forms for the SSRA's programme of events are now available - please contact the Executive Officer if you would like a paper copy, or either the Exec or Webmaster if you would like a PDF version by email (235Kb). This package includes entry forms for the Prone Grand Prix events, the Three Positions Grand Prix Series, the Freuchie and the new All Ranges competition. The 2006 list of classifications for the Open Meeting section of the Prone events is available here.
The All Ranges match, which will be held at Denwood on the 23rd of April, will be run in five classes and consists of twenty shots at each of 25yd, 50m and 100yds under NSRA rules and on conventional NSRA targets. The short and long-range inter-region matches will be held concurrently, as will events for club teams of three and handicap pairs. There will be concurrent events for women, juniors (U21 and U18) and veterans (O55). This match has been created in response to a number of requests for the association to do more for club shooters, and we hope that it well attract a considerable entry from those who do not necessarily attend our 50m Grand Prix events, and it would make an ideal introduction to outdoor open meeting shooting to those who have not attended one before.
Watsonian Rifle Club completed a remarkable run in the NSRA's British Short Range Team of Six Championship last weekend at Bedford. Having been top scoring team in each of the three postal rounds, Watsonians defeated Wick Old Stagers (1182 to 1167) in the semi-final. Callander were unfortunately unable to raise a team, giving Bedford a walkover in the other semi-final with 1179. Watsonians slipped a little in the final, but their 1173 was good enough to give them a four point win over the hosts. The team comprised Bill Hamilton, Ronnie Sellar, Matthew Thomson, Ian Thomson, Nick Baker and Martin MacGill - the latter of whom completed the competition having scored a remarkable 996 ex 1000 in the five rounds of the competition.
As has already been recorded on the STSF website, Scotland won three shooting medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, all of them in the smallbore prone events. On the 18th of March Martin Sinclair and Neil Stirton won Silver in the Men's Prone Pairs, followed swiftly by Sheena Sharp and Susan Jackson winning Gold in the Women's Prone pairs. Four days later Sheena became Scotland's fourth ever individual shooting Gold medallist, winning the Women's Prone match. These were Scotland's first shooting Golds for 12 years - the most recent being Shirley McIntosh's Women's Prone Individual in 1994. It was also first time in 24 years that Scotland had won more than one shooting Gold at a single Games - three Golds having been won in Brisbane in 1982.
In addition to these excellent results, the smallbore shooters suffered three fourth places - for Martin Sinclair and Graham Rudd in the 3x40 Pairs, for Martin once more in the Men's Prone Individual and for Susan Jackson in the Women's Prone Individual. Three new Scottish record scores were shot in the Pairs Matches - for the Women's Air Rifle, Men's Prone and Women's 3x20 teams. Emma Cole-Hamilton also equalled her personal best of 572 in the 3x20 Pairs.
Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
India | 7 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
England | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
Scotland | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Wales | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Singapore | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Australia | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Bangladesh | 1 | 1 | ||
South Africa | 1 | 1 | ||
Canada | 1 | 1 | ||
Malaysia | 2 | 2 |
The medal table above details those awarded for the 10m Air Rifle, 50m Prone and 50m Three Positions events, with Scotland an excellent third behind India and England.
The following teams represented Scotland in the annual postal international match against North Island, New Zealand:
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Congratulations to Scott Dixon, Martin MacGill & Nick Baker for shooting in this team for the first time. The results will be published once the New Zealand team has shot, probably in September.
For the second time in three years a new name was added to the NSRA's Scottish Cup. With two senior members absent on Commonwealth Games duty, defending champions Bon Accord were defeated by arch-rivals Wick Old Stagers at the semi-final stage. A win for Halkirk in the other semi-final against St Andrews paved the way for an all-Caithness final, with the title going to the Halkirk team.
Matthew Thomson was a clear winner in the NSRA's Scottish Short Range Championship, an excellent 399 giving him a three point lead over defending champion Gordon Motion, with John Sinclair picking up third place.
News, results and photographs from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne are being made available on the Scottish Target Shooting Federation website. Click here to send a message to the team - these will be displayed in the shooter's house in the athlete's village.
SSRA will be hosting an NSRA Club Instructor's course at Balerno & Currie on the weekend of 8th & 9th April. Please contact the Development Officer if you would like further information.
Jim Cole-Hamilton won the Speedway final last Sunday at Balerno & Currie. An excellent score of 991 earned him a points total of 24, just one point ahead of Tom Hodgson, with Scott Dixon, Martin MacGill, Sinclair Bruce and Rory McAlpine all on 21 points. Jim Hind won the C&D Speedway, beating Ian McAlpine on the tie-break, with Willie McAuley in third place.
A remarkable number of Scottish clubs have progressed to the semi-final stages of the NSRA's British short range team championships, with eight of the available twelve slots going to clubs from north of the border.
Bon Accord, Balerno & Currie and Callander have all reached the penultimate round of the team of four, with Bon facing Welsh side Torfaen while B&C and Callander face off in the other semi. In the team of six, Callander are joined by Watsonians and Wick Old Stagers for the shoulder-shoulder stage, to be held at the home range of the fourth qualifiers Bedford in mid April. Wick are also through to the semi-final of the team of eight, where they are joined by Bon Accord.
The semi-finals & final of the Scottish Cup will be contested at Balerno & Currie in mid March, with Wick Old Stagers meeting Bon Accord and St Andrews meeting Halkirk.
Robin Law's 100th cap for Scotland - achieved last year - was officially marked by the Association recently. Ian Thomson, Chairman of the SSRA, presented Robin with an engraved crystal bowl to mark this achievement.
A new trophy, donated by Council Member Jim McIntosh, was also presented to Susan Jackson for winning the 3x20 Grand Prix series in 2005.
Graham Rudd and Emma Cole-Hamilton won Silver and Bronze in their respective British Championships at Bisley yesterday. Graham entered the Senior Men's final in second place with 581, four points behind England's Chris Hector, with Martyn Blake of Wales just a point behind. A steady final from Graham secured his second Championship medal in three years.
Emma and Heather Rudd were two of three shooters who entered the Senior Women's final tied on 383, nine points behind the English pair of Becky Spicer and Louise Minett. The three shooters changed positions throughout the final, with Emma grabbing the Bronze thanks to a final shot of 10.8.
Both the Scottish teams came second in their Home Countries matches, the main team losing to first-time winners Wales, while the Ladies were defeated by England.
The only Scottish record set over the weekend was by Shirley McIntosh, who equalled the 390 shot by Heather Rudd two weeks previously at Intershoot.
As part of the final preparations for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, the selected smallbore shooters have braved the elements on a small number of occasions at Denwood over the winter months, facing ice and snow on every occasion.
Over the last two days, small matches have been held in each of the four 50m events, with the selected shooters facing opposition from a number of volunteer supporters, including some of those not selected, along with a number of former Commonwealth Games team members, including Gordon Winch, Ronnie Sellar, Sinclair Bruce, Jim Cole-Hamilton, Janis Thomson, Shirley McIntosh and Patricia Littlechild.
A brief reception was held afterwards to wish the team all the best in Melbourne, and we were treated to a few words and recollections by Ian Robertson - one of the two Scottish shooters to compete at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica. Some appropriately labelled prizes were presented to the pairs and individual winners by Joan Watt, Team Leader for Shooting in Melbourne.
Heather Rudd completed a successful trio of matches at Intershoot by equalling Shirley McIntosh's Scottish Record of 390 - set in 1997 - in the third match of the week. Heather qualified for the final in sixth place, and an excellent addtional ten shots of 102.7 pulled her up two places for fourth, only a few decimal points away from winning a medal. Heather's total of 492.7 was also a new Scottish Final record, 2.6 points better than her own record set last year.
A second score of 386 for Heather Rudd at Intershoot took her in the final of the Women's Air Rifle once more in 8th place, with a steady performance gaining her one place again. The Scottish team of Heather, Emma Cole-Hamilton and Susan Jackson also took Bronze in the team event for the second day running.
Intershoot comes to a conclusion tomorrow, with the third and final matches commencing with the Women's Air Rifle at 9am.
Emma Cole-Hamilton and Heather Rudd both qualified for the final of the Women's Air Rifle at the Intershoot international match in The Hague. Shooting in the match for the first time as seniors, the two Scottish shooters entered the final in 5th and 8th place respectively, with scores of 387 and 386. A steady performance from Emma, finishing with an excellent 10.7 retained 5th place, while Heather recovered from a rather wayward first shot to climb one place to 7th. Emma and Heather also combined with Susan Jackson to take third place in the team event, raising the Scottish team record by 16 points in the process.
In the men's match, Graham Rudd produced his best international performance to date, with 583 earning him 26th place. Intershoot continues tomorrow, with a new set of matches for the five-strong Scottish team. A full results service is available here.
As many visitors to this site will be aware, Glasgow is one of three cities bidding to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. It is important that the people of Scotland are seen to support the bid, and we hope that all Scottish shooters - whether at club, county or international level - as well as their families, friends and colleagues will show their support for the bid. 2002 Silver medallist Sheena Sharp is one of a number of Scottish personalities to have endorsed the bid - click here to see what Sheena had to say. You can show your support for the bid in one of three ways:
A successful 2014 bid will offer Scotland’s sports men and women a chance to shine - results from previous games show that when held on home territory, the number of medals a country wins increases. In Edinburgh in 1986, the Scottish smallbore shooters Alister Allan, Bill MacNeil and John Knowles won four medals in the smallbore & air rifle events - in the days before separate events for women were included.
Glasgow has submitted a strong bid but faces competition from Abuja in Nigeria and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The final decision on who will be awarded the 2014 Games will be made in November 2007.
With the Commonwealth Games team absent at a warm-weather training camp in South Africa, there was a relatively low entry at the Scottish Air Rifle Championships last weekend at Tulliallan. David Rattray was effectively unchallenged on his was to a seventh consecutive Scottish title, collecting the Open title for the fourth time along the way. Rebekka Pidgley, still a junior, produced some excellent performances to sneak ahead of Andy Lawrence for second place in the Open, and also won the Junior Open, Ladies Open and Class A aggregate competitions. Ronnie Sellar was second in the Scottish Championship, with Shirley McIntosh in third. Shirley also won the confined Ladies title for the eighth time, with Tricia Littlechild second. Second and Third in the Junior Open went to Nathan Sutherland and K Rance respectively.
The eight Smallbore and Air Rifle shooters selected for the Commonwealth Games have just completed a warm-weather training camp at the excellent Eagle-Eye Training Centre near Magaliesburg in South Africa.
Operated by 2004 Olympian Martin Senore, the facility provides both 10m and 50m ranges kitted out with Meyton electronic targets, along with excellent accomodation options in close proximity, and has been an excellent base for the last week. The team were supported by a team of Coach Donald McIntosh, Physiotherapist Sue Warwick and Performance Psychologist Stewart Ollis.
We are now out of stock of Large fleeces, however there are a few Medium and Extra Large, along with a few polo-shirts, remaining. Please contact Jim Cole-Hamilton - development@ssra.co.uk - in order to purchase any of these items. All proceeds will go towards the preparations of our 2006 Commonwealth Games representatives. Thanks to those who have so far contributed to the cause.
A Scottish team of Graham Rudd, Emma Cole-Hamilton, Heather Rudd, Susan Jackson and Sheena Sharp has been entered in the annual Intershoot Airgun international, held in the Netherlands at the beginning of February.