The annual Scottish Meeting is held on the Jubilee Range on the Duke of Atholl’s estate in Blair Atholl. It is one of the most scenic ranges in the world, but is famed for its very confusing winds, which often bemuse the firers, particularly at the longer ranges of 900 and 1000 yards. Nonetheless, it always attracts some very strong shooters from England and Northern Ireland, so the meeting was once again fully subscribed.
The 2022 edition of the event took place from 17-19 June. Friday saw the day’s shooting begin at 400 yards. The gazebos were up from the start, never a good sign, as they are only erected whenever it is raining or rain is expected. They are put up principally to protect the electronic monitors, but of course the firers do not complain as they are protected also. Fortunately, there were only light showers and they were not needed for the third and last shoot of the day when the shooting moved back to 600 yards.
The first shoot of the day was for the Association Medals, for which there is a prize of a miniature Silver Scottish Shield or a Gold Shield for previous winners of the Silver Shield. This is shot over two distances, the first and last shoot of the day at 400 and 600 yards respectively. The winner of the Silver was Paul Holmes from England and the Gold was won by Claire Halleran for the second consecutive year. The second shoot of the day was the Stock Exchange, shot at 400 yards. Claire won again with one of only two possible scores of 75 at this distance, beating Tom Rylands (England) by 2 V bulls.
Saturday saw more cloudy weather with very little rain. There were two individual shoots, the first at 500 yards, the Bannockburn, and the second at 600 yards, the Presidents Cup. Both were won with 74 ex 75, with Tom Rylands (Eng) and Jemima Hince (Eng) wining the respective trophies. The fact that there were no 75’s at either range by such a strong field of competitors attested to the fickleness of the wind.
These tricky wind conditions carried on into the late afternoon when the annual Lawrence Trophy match was shot, for teams of 12 firers from Scotland and England. Again, the fact the scores did not really improve, despite the firers being coached, showed the difficulty of reading the wind on this range. England won the match comfortably by 13 points, but were no doubt helped by some poor adherence to basic team drills by some of the Scottish Team. The top scorer in the match was, however, by a Scot, Patrick Costello, and he won the Hossack Quaich.
Sunday was finals day, with the first shoot being held at 900 yards for the Faculty trophy, which is also used as the qualifier for the final 20 in the Scottish Championship and in the second and final stage of the Caledonian Shield trophy, a trophy so large that is displayed in the local Blair Atholl museum rather than being moved and presented to the winner at the prizegiving – it would need a truck and several strong men to move. This latter trophy is only open to Scots and was won by Mike Barlow beating Claire Halleran by one point. Mike made the only score of 75 ex 75 at 900 yards, with the wind continuing to bemuse and baffle most competitors, and so he made up a lot of ground from the first stage in the Caledonian Shield. He also won the Faculty trophy with this score.
The shoot at 1000 yards was for the City of Glasgow trophy and it concurrently made up the final range of the Scottish Championship for the top 20 qualifiers from 900 yards. Claire Halleran made an excellent 74 ex 75 at 1000 yards, beating the only other 74 on number of central bulls. This ensured that she won the City of Glasgow trophy as well as securing the Grand Aggregate over the three day’s shooting. However, in the Scottish Championship, Mike had followed up his fine 75 at 900 yards with a 73 at 1000, so squeezed out Claire and Tim Kidner by 2 points.
It was notable that 4 out of the top 6 places in the Championship final at long range were taken by Scots who shoot regularly on that range and so maybe local knowledge is key. The final positions in the Grand Aggregate showed Claire winning by 3 clear points from Tom Rylands, himself a former winner, and four from Mike Barlow. Full details of scores can be found in the spreadsheet available from the link below.
Claire Halleran with some (but not all!) of the trophies she won at the 2022 Scottish Open after an impressive and consistent display of shooting over the three-day event
Report by Lindsay Peden (Edited by Oliver Barsby)