West of Scotland were the only region from Scotland to be represented in the NRA Inter County competition this year, taking place over the 11-12 June 2022 at Bisley. It is several years since the West could muster a team of 8 firers, as they usually could only shoot in the junior event for teams of 4 firers. However, this year they had a full team of 8 firers and two target coaches and, on paper, a team capable of a good result.

On the Saturday morning there was a warm up shoot for individuals before the team match in the afternoon. By the afternoon the conditions had become quite tricky with winds that would prove to tease the coaches. However, the coaches were trialling the new wireless headsets purchased for use by Scottish Teams which allowed a very easy set-up on the firing point and easy communication between the two coaches. The whole team shot very solidly and despite losing quite a number of points, it seemed that they had haemorrhaged fewer than all but Surrey, the perennial winners, and so finished second out of 22 teams.

On Sunday morning, the match continued at long range (i.e. 900 and 1000 yards). Surrey were taking a 20 point lead with them with the West team only 4 above the third team on Saturday, so there was a lot of work to do to catch Surrey, but also to stay ahead of the other teams. Again, the winds were very fickle, testing the coaches’ nerve and judgement. As at short range, the team shot solidly but could only manage 5th place on the morning out of the 21 teams competing, a result that on any other day would be well received. However, it meant that the West of Scotland finished 3rd on the overall weekend, a pretty satisfactory result for a team that did not normally have the numbers for such a match and a special mention should be given to the captain, Claire Halleran, for getting the team mobilised and, once there, keeping everyone on track. A detailed list of the results can be found in the link below.