The annual Scottish Full-Bore Rifle Championships were held at Blair Atholl on the Jubilee Range from 18th to 20th June. It was a welcome return for this popular meeting, as it had to be cancelled last year, and enthusiasm to attend was higher than ever with entries reaching the range capacity very quickly. There were many familiar faces from England attending as well as teams from the regular army and the GB Under-19’s, with the result that the Scots were outnumbered numerically by the English by a ratio of 3 to 1.
The competitions shot on Friday 18th were the Association Gold and Silver medals and the Stock Exchange. The Gold and Silver medals are contested over 2 ranges, 400 and 600 yards, with those eligible to shoot for the Gold medal having to have won a Silver medal in a previous Scottish competition. Scoring in these matches was very high, as they proved to be on all three days, assisted by light winds and beautiful mild sunny weather, the perfect outdoor shooting conditions. Claire Halleran won the Gold medal with a 149.21 and Toby Cubitt of the GB Under-19 team won the Silver, with the only 150 of the day. In the Stock Exchange, shot at 400 yards, there were 7 scores of 75, 5 of which had 12 V’s or more. Third was James Anderson with a 75.13, which would very often have been an outright winning score in itself, only to be beaten by Ben Danziger (GB U-19) in second place with 75.14 and Lindsay Peden, the winner, with 75.15, a pretty rare score and a new range record. Toby Cubitt had another 75 to go with his two in the Silver medal to win the Friday Aggregate by two points from Rob Kitson.
On Saturday, the gazebos were erected over the firing points to protect the electronic monitors, as rain had been forecast. The day, in complete contrast to the Friday, was grey all day and with odd patches of drizzle, but had similarly light winds, again leading to very high scoring. In the Bannockburn, shot at 500 yards, there were 15 scores of 75. As a result, a high V count seemed necessary to win and Angus McLeod duly obliged with an excellent 75.14, beating Tom Rylands into second with 75.13 and Paul Holmes third with 75.12. The competitors then moved back to the high and exposed firing point at 600 yards for the President’s Match, where Steve East won with 75.13, beating Angus McLeod into second with 75.12 and Toby Cubitt third on 75.11.
The smiling Scottish team after winning the annual Lawrence Trophy match against England at the scenic Blair Atholl range
All the competitors had been trying to impress the respective team captains with their scores in order to be selected for the Lawrence Match on the Saturday afternoon. This match is for teams of 12 firers and usually held over two distances, 500 and 600 yards. However, as the GB Under- 19 team were shooting alongside, the teams were limited to 2 targets each instead of the usual three and so the match was limited to 600 yards only. With only a very limited selection pool, the Scottish Captain Alan Haggerty nonetheless managed to assemble a very solid Scottish team, albeit with 4 of the team having to both coach and shoot, whilst the English with the luxury of far greater numbers, could have 12 firers and two dedicated coaches. However, with the darkening skies and occasional twitches in the wind flags, the Scots managed to see off the auld enemy by 5 points thereby winning the fine Lawrence Trophy rose bowl. Euan Munro won the Hossack Quaich for top score in the match with a 75.9, although he required a 7 V-bull finish to beat the only other 75.9 on the range which could manage only(!) a 5 V finish.
Sunday was long range day with shooting at 900 and 1000 yards. Once again the gazebos were up, never an encouraging sign. With grey skies and very light winds there was a further complication as the midges decided to make their presence felt. The first detail at 900 was limited to the top 12 Scots in the second stage of the Caledonian Shield, probably one of the largest trophies awarded for shooting in the world. Its size is that of a very large piece of wooden furniture and so it is kept in the Blair Atholl museum as it would be totally impractical to move it. Angus McLeod won the trophy by two points, adding an excellent 75.13 to his first stage total, beating Claire Halleran into second place and Euan Munro into third. This match was shot concurrently with the Faculty, the 900 yard match open to all those attending, and despite his fine 75.13, Angus was only in second place to Kevin Hill with 75.14. The final shoot of the meeting was at 1000 yards and was for the City Of Glasgow trophy as well as the Scottish Championship for the top 20 after the shoot at 900 yards. There were 5 scores of 75 at 1000 which indicated the strength of the field. Guy Hart of the Army RC won with 75.11 and Tom Rylands and Michael Cooper were 2nd and 3rd respectively with 75.10.
When all the aggregates had been totalled, a testimony to the fine shooting was noted, with Tom Rylands winning the Championship on 150.20 and Toby Cubitt winning the Grand Aggregate from Tom by 4 points and beating the previous record by 2 points in the process. It was notable that the spread of ages of 1st and 2nd in the Grand was over 40 years, with Toby Cubitt being under 19 and Tom Rylands separately securing his first win in the veterans category for those over 60. Full details of all the scores can be downloaded below, including all the other aggregates for which there are trophies.
Thanks must be expressed to the organisers of the meeting, which ran very smoothly, and to those who set up the targets and firing point electronics (and gazebos when necessary!) first thing in the morning and last thing at the end of shooting.
STS would like to express its thanks to Lindsay Peden for his report, Michael Cooper for the photo and Tim Kidner for organising the weekend’s events.