OLD TONBRIDGIAN RIFLE CLUB
Our membership is from past pupils at the School and we promote the sport of Rifle Shooting with Full-bore and Small-bore rifles. Practise days and matches against the School team are held at Bisley in Surrey and at the School.
A club rifle and all necessary equipment are provided for members on shooting days.
Contact the Secretary David Stevens for more information. Any OT is welcome to come along on one of our shoots. We do however need some notice, so please do let David Stevens know you plan to attend.
David Stevens, Grafton House, Grafton Lane, Hereford HR2 8BL.
Tel: 01432 274232 or Email
The President: Chris Boucher
Vice Presidents: Brian Barfoot & Richard Hoole
Chairman: Will Kemp email
Vice Chairman: Jules Corin
Secretary: David Stevens
Treasurer: Ian Mitchell
Committee: Ben Meredith & Toby Noar
For past years' articles and details of the Club Tie...CLICK HERE.
SHOOTING FIXTURES FOR 2008
| Saturday 2 February | Tonbridge School | 0.22 Match v School pm Lost |
| Saturday 26 April | Bisley | 7.62 practice 300x am |
| Match v School 300x pm Draw | ||
| Sunday 8 June | Bisley | 7.62 practice 500x am |
| 7.62 practice 600x pm | ||
| Thursday 17 July | Bisley | 7.62 Schools Veterans Match 500x 4.30pm |
| Saturday 13 September | Bisley | Clays / Gallery Rifle pm |
| Dinner 7.30pm | ||
| Sunday 14 September | Bisley | 7.62 practice 900x am |
| Match v School 1000x pm Postponed | ||
| Saturday 6 December | Tonbridge School | AGM 12.00 |
| 0.22 Match v School pm |
Practice and Match Saturday 26th April 2008
The weather is always sunny and warm for this event (have I just jinxed it for next year?) and so it was again this year. First shot down the range at 8.30am several OTs managed to get three practice shoots in before lunch, steadily increasing their scores. Toby Noar, Jules Corin, Olli Siddall and Ian Mitchell all in the high 40s (out of 50), which by lunch had given us high hopes for the afternoon's match.
I for one was looking forward to using the automatic marking system in the afternoon, and many of us OTs hadn't used it before. Andrew Penfold had it up and running, more or less, by the time we all congregated at the firing point. It was a little unnerving that our neighbours who were also using the sysem were not having a happy time with it. We soon realised why, and we also began losing faith in the system after it started returning scores which were, shall we say, substantially less good than the morning's practice.
Fortunately it was not just the OTs, the School were also suffering from spurious scores being returned, so we decided to call it a draw, even though the School did in fact lead the OTs by a slight margin by the end of the afternoon.
Despite the technical hitch, everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable day. The OTs managed to successfully use Richard Hoole's rifle which the Club is hoping to buy from him. Olli Siddall was welcomed as he shot for the first time with the OTs. Robert Mitchell was also welcomed back to Bisley by the OTs - although a familiar face in the winter for the .22 shoots, it has been about ten years since he has shot full bore, and he still managed to turn in a very respectable 41.1
The highest score for the OTs in the afternoon's match was from Ian Mitchell with 29 (out of 35) and the morning saw Toby manage an impressive 48.2 closely followed by Ian with 47.2 However, as the match scores were fairly arbitrary I am not going to post them on the web.WK
.22 Match at the School on Saturday 2nd Feb 2008
Sadly, once again the School have beaten us, despite the OTs improving their scores substantially compared to last year, the School have improved more so. For individual results please click here.
The total for the OTs team of six was 571 with Ben Meredith and Richard Sankey both getting a solid 97, and the School managed 589 with Tim Burgess achieving a possible, which as always deserves congratulations. Thanks to Andrew and his team for a good match, and the look forward is 26th April at Bisley for the full bore match at 300 yds. See you there!
For this years' AGM minutesCLICK HERE.
1000yd Match Bisley - Sep 2007
As I suspected, the conditions were very difficult this weekend. As the practise was so perfect with not a cloud in the sky and a steady breeze, it was bound to go wrong for the actual match. Strangely it wasn't the rain that introduced the difficulty, but a worse enemy, the wind. Some firers were overheard saying that it was more a competition between the skills of the two wind coaches rather than the firers, and there may well be some truth in that. David Stevens coached the OTs and Andrew Penfold coached the School, although he sportingly let some of the boys coach eachother to learn from the conditions. The photo of Anton shows him proudly holding the prize for Top Gun for the afternoon, a splendid 46.2 (out of 50 for those of you who don't shoot) which just edged ahead of Jules Corin's 46.1 The full scores can be viewed on the scores page, but only if you really have to! Click here and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. If anyone reading this is wondering, the photo was taken in the IBIS clubhouse of which David is a member. WK
Well done the OTs for another convincing win. Let's make it a hat-trick in February when we fire the .22 competition at Tonbridge! Meanwhile the AGM is in December and the plan is to do some friendly practise shooting afterwards.
Annual Dinner 2007
With the sun beating down on us we congregated at Bisley on Saturday afternoon for an interest shoot, first with a couple of .38 specials and .22 semi-automatics at 25yds, and afterwards we attempted to scare some clays with Brian's four shotguns. Some of us were more successful than others at each discipline, but even those of us who missed more than we hit thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Thanks Brian!
The Dinner was a sumptuous feast as usual, with everyone imbibing perhaps a little too much wine and rich food than is healthy, but it is important to fully prepare for the difficult task ahead of us - which was to shoot accurately at 1000 yards - and it is a universal truth that a full belly and slight hangover produces the best results from the firing point.
The practise shoot on Stickledown Range was very successful, and if the OTs manage similarly high scores next weekend for the match aginst the school, then I am sure we will be in a very strong position. If any OT wishes to join us on Sunday 23rd then please email me or David Stevens, we would be delighted to welcome you.
I have uploaded a few photos of the weekend on a separate page CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS. A big thank you to all who attended the event, and especially to Brian and David for organising the ranges. WK
Veterans Match at Bisley - 19th July 2007
It remained miraculously dry and there was hardly a breath of wind as our team of six (five firers and a wind coach) congregated at Bisley on Thursday afternoon. Traffic congested roads caused some (me) to be a little late, but that did not matter as we had plenty of time. David Stevens, Captain of the team, did his usual masterly job of coaching us, and consequently we produced a very decent score, which can be seen here.
Last year we didn't shoot as well as we like to, and we came 35th out of 49, so this year I am confident we can beat that. Whether we can match our 2005 place of 27th out of 52 teams, our best in recent history, remains to be seen. I will post the results here in the next couple of days. Thanks to all who took part this year. Photo shows (l-r) Toby Noar, Ian Mitchell, David Stevens, Will Kemp, Tom Llanwarne and Anton Luck. WK
Results just in: This year we managed 33rd place out of 50 in the Veterans Match with our score of 232 .17v Apparently all scores were very high, with the winning team dropping only one point from a maximum 250. Well done everyone! WK
Practice Day at Bisley - 10th June 2007
The weather was good to us and the sun shone, but sadly only a handful of OTs managed to turn out for this practice day, so to cut costs we cancelled the afternoon shoot and concentrated on the morning. Brian, David and Will arrived at the point at 8.30am and were quickly joined by Ian, Victor and his daughter, Toby and Richard. The wind was deceptively tricky, but everyone managed some respectable scores although not as good as we'd hoped. The lack of OTs did mean those who were there could shoot several times, so it was a well worthwhile session, and good practice for the Veterans Match on the 19th July.
This page is edited by Will Kemp Email