National
The National Match took place on Thursday 25th July with each of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland fielding teams of 20 firers with 1 sighter and 7 to count at 300x, 500x and 600x. Scotland had 2 debutants in Alexandra Ross and Emma Sweet. Jamie Scheuerl of Dollar Academy was a reserve.
Scotland had a poor start dropping 29 points at 300x with too many loose shots and an equipment failure which cost us dear. As a result we trailed the field. A good performance at 500x still left Scotland in 4th place but at 600x we were able to overtake Ireland to finish 3rd. The damage had been done at 300x and if we are to be competitive we need to improve our 300x shooting considerably. Nevertheless we had 3 105s from Mike Barlow, James Anderson and Angus McLeod and a further 5 104s.
The team scores were as follows:
| 300x | 500x | 600x | Total | ||||||
| England | 686.91 | 694.99 | 693.85 | 2073.275 | |||||
| Wales | 686.71 | 690.85 | 684.79 | 2060.242 | |||||
| Scotland | 671.71 | 689.78 | 688.81 | 2048.230 | |||||
| Ireland | 677.68 | 687.88 | 681.67 | 2045.223 | |||||
National Team 2024
US Armed Forces
On Friday 26th July, Scotland fielded a team in the UK Armed Forces Match against UK Armed Forces and England. Each team comprised 12 firers with one sighter and 10 to count at each of 300x, 500x and 600x.
The match is seen very much as a development match for Scotland with most of the team made up of firers who have not shot before at international level and we used the opportunity blood 8 new faces. A poor start again at 300x was followed by good performances at 500x and 600x. Scotland finished third but strong performances by Grace McCaig (149.19 with her coach accepting responsibility for the one dropped point) and Niall Duncan (148.19) were very encouraging as well as 146s from Amelia Jallot, Jamie Scheuerl and Richard Grisenthwaite.
MacKinnon
Saturday 27th July saw the Mackinnon match. 8 teams (England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Canada, Australia, Jersey and Guernsey) of 12 firers fired 1 sighter and 10 to count at 900x and 1000x. The wind was light but fishtailing which tested the mettle of the wind coaches.
After a solid start with no points lost by Scotland’s first 3 firers, points started to bleed away with some zero issues and less than perfect wind calls. In the end, Scotland dropped 19 points at 900x and lay 6th of the 8 teams and 10 points behind the leaders, England. In much trickier wind conditions at 1000x, Scotland dropped 33 points to England’s 25 and Ireland’s 27 but performed significantly better than the other teams to finish 3rd behind England and Ireland. Whilst the result was disappointing given the poor performance at 900x, it was a much stronger performance at 1000x.
Particular mention must be made of Rory MacLeod with 99.17 – dropping his last to count at 1000x with responsibility for the dropped point being shared between coach and firer. Lewis Reid scored 98.12 (he went on to win the final stage of HM King’s Prize in the afternoon) and Angus McLeod and Euan Munro each scored 97 with Euan retiring after 8 shots at 1000x with a handstop failure, returning at the end to finish V,5.
The team scores were as follows:
| 900x | 1000x | Total | |||||||
| England | 591.94 | 575.52 | 1166.146 | ||||||
| Ireland | 585.65 | 573.58 | 1158.112 | ||||||
| Scotland | 581.69 | 567.47 | 1148.116 | ||||||
| Wales | 588.81 | 559.38 | 1147.119 | ||||||
| Canada | 589.72 | 554.36 | 1143.108 | ||||||
| Australia | 576.55 | 552.44 | 1128.99 | ||||||
| Jersey | 572.43 | 550.36 | 1122.79 | ||||||
| Guernsey | 583.56 | 538.31 | 1121.87 | ||||||
Scottish MacKinnoon Team 2024
Scottish Universities
The Scottish Universities team has recently been restarted after a few years off. This year saw a promising competition against the English Universities with strong start for the Scottish students at 300yrds, starting with a lead over the English Universities of one point and 14 vs. The final result was close with only 5 points in it.
Support was given from Jonathon Ford and Charlie Cowan in the coaching chairs.
English Universities 788.66
Scottish Universities 783.70
Scottish Universities Team 2024
Report by Claire Halleran, FBR AMG Chair