The results of the Individual League (prone) are now available on the IPL page. Congratualtions to the winners of all fourrteen divisions.
Take the Competitions | Individual Postal League link above to see all the details.
The results of the Individual League (prone) are now available on the IPL page. Congratualtions to the winners of all fourrteen divisions.
Take the Competitions | Individual Postal League link above to see all the details.
The Final of the 2023-24 Individual Championship took place last night at Balerno & Currie’s range. There had been six call-offs from the original sixteen qualifiers and reserves filled those places until the morning of the shoot when another two suddenly called off. Unfortunately no further reserves were available and the competition went ahead with only fourteen competitors. The Final consisted of six from Edinburgh University, five from Watsonians, one each from Balerno & Currie, George Watson’s and Hawick plus the two Byes. The winner was Tom Ralph of Edinburgh University, who beat Hawick’s Alan Anderson in the Final. Congratulations to him.
For the first time in this event’s history the competition was held using electronic targets. The shoot proceeded much more quickly without having to wait for targets to be scored and tied matches to be regauged. As re-gauging is impossible with ETS shooting, the tie-beak rule was changed so that ties were resolved first by countback on the two 10-shot strings, then by the number of 10’s then 9’s etc.
The full results can be seen here, but here’s a summary:
I won’t go into all the details of the first round, but the pick of the ties was undoubtedly multiple winner Alasdair Horne versus George Watson’s Junsung Kim. Alasdair put in a very uncharacteristic performance and Junsung scraped through to round two on the second phase of the tie-break rule by virtue of having shot more 10’s.
Dan Gutteridge (the 2015 champion) and Neil Sinclair (both EU) drew the Byes and the other round 1 winners were Amanda Puchalla (EU) over the 2022 Champion Adam Dove (Watsonians), Tom Ralph over Aleyna Kartal (both EU), Rhona Dove over James Gutteridge (both Watsonians), the 2022 champion Alan Anderson (Hawick) over Eilidh Scheuerl (EU), Robin Thomson over Nick Baker the 2004 and 2008 champion (both Watsonians).
In round 2, there were wins for Dan over Amanda, Tom over Rhona, Alan over Neil and once again, Junsung Kim got through on a tie-break, beating Robin on countback.
The first semi-final saw another tie between Dan and Tom, with the latter going through to the final on countback. In the other, young Junsung rather ran out of steam and Alan won the match quite comfortably.
In the final, after an aborted start when his sling disintegrated, Tom Ralph took the trophy for the first time with scores of 98, 97 versus Alan Anderson’s 97, 96.
The trophy will (hopefully) be presented at the prizegiving in May.
I’d like to thank Balerno & Currie for allowing us to use their range, and also Mark Westwood of the home club for running the computer controlling the electronic targets. The event could not have taken place without him.
I would like to apologise to those present for forgetting to bring a vital component for connecting up the big screen in the clubroom in order to display the results, but an old-school piece of paper seemed to suffice.
WFH
Congratulations to Edinburgh University on becoming the British Universities Team Champions for 2024 at the BUCS championships held last weekend at Staveley R&PC. It was a Scottish double as St Andrews were runners-up.
Edinburgh’s top man Tom Ralph won the men’s individual championship too. Well done to all.
For full details see this page in the NSRA’s Results Portal.
Viewers might have noticed that in the post of 21st March it was mentioned that there was a tie for 1st place in the overall averages and that there was no rule in place to split such ties. Earlier this week, the Committee decided that ties in the overall averages would be determined by countback, i.e. the competitor with the highest scores in the most recent rounds starting with the latest one would be the winner.
Thus the tie between Sinclair Bruce (Balerno & Currie) and Peter Richard (Pentland) was broken in favour of Peter, who finished with 99 in round 10, thus beating Sinclair who finished with a 98. The Averages report in the Team Postal League page has been updated to reflect that.
The published regulations for this competition will be updated in due course.
The Individual Benchrest League has finished and resulted in a runaway win in division 1 for Alan Anderson of Hawick. He only dropped 7 points in the 20 cards, with 81 ‘X’ bulls. Pretty good shooting. Congratulations to him. Robin Thomson (Watsonians) was runner-up.
Division 2 was won by Keith Nixon (Hawick), just edging out clubmate Ronnie Chapman in 2nd.
Division 3 was won by O Walker (Prestonpans) with clubmate S Horton in the runner-up spot.
Well done to everyone. It would be good to see more clubs participating in this though.
Our Trophy Convenor is putting out a request that any LBTSA trophies held by individuals or clubs should be returned to him as soon as possible.
Please get in touch with James Young to arrange collection/drop off.
The results are coming in thick and fast now, with the final round of the Pairs league having just finished.
All three divisions were won by pairs from Edinburgh University, so congratulations to them all.
The Final of the CYOH Individual knock-out has taken place and the winner of the Dundas Salver is Greg McMillan of Prestonpans. Congratulations to him. He beat Julian Bradfield (Balerno & Currie).
Take the Competitions/CYOH link above to see full details.
The Team postal League programme has finished. Take the Competitions | Team Postal League link above to see full details, but in summary:
Congratulations to the divisional winners: Pentland, Watsonians B, George Watson’s A and George Watson’s C in divisions 1 to 4 respectively.
The Individual Average award is in abeyance as there is a tie for first place and currently there is no rule to split that. Watch this space.
The best average by a Junior award goes to Annabel Aitken of George Watson’s.
The Best Improvement award goes to Tom Ralph of Edinburgh University.
The Best Improved Team award goes to George Watson’s C.
The final match in this season’s S-S league took place last night. The winners of the Scratch league are Watsonians while Balerno & Currie took the Handicap league. Watsonians also secured the Matchplay trophy.
The winner of the Hayhoe Cup for the highest average in the league goes to Nick Baker of Watsonians.
Take the Competitions | Shoulder to Shoulder league link above for full details.
[Eagle-eyed readers might notice that Nick Baker was 2nd in the Averages ranking list behind clubmate Adam Dove. The award goes to Nick because Adam had not shot the required number of ‘away’ matches (3) whereas Nick had done so. Competitors are allowed to miss two matches and still qualify for the award although that rule was implemented many years ago when there were usually a lot more matches in a season.]
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Greg McMillan for running this league once again, and having to deal with some challenging personal difficuclties this season which did not make it easier.
The scores for the first round of the Open Championship and the winners of the Ladies, Veterans, Junior, the Inexpert A & B class and Benchrest Championships have been issued.
The Open Championship Final will be held at Balerno & Currie on Saturday 6th April. The finalists’ clubs have been informed of those qualifiying.
Top scorer in the Open qualifying round: T Ralph, Edinburgh University
Ladies Champion: Mrs S Jackson, Watsonians
Veterans Champion: A R Anderson, Hawick
Junior Champion: Miss A Aitken, George Watson’s
Inexpert A Champion: T L Baladent, George Watson’s
Inexpert B Champion: E Walker, George Watson’s
Benchrest Champion: A R Anderson, Hawick
Congratulations to them all. Take the Competitions/Championships link above to see the runners-up as well.
The first competition to reach its conclusion this season is the CYOH Team competition. It was won by George Heriot’s FP, who beat Prestonpans A in the Final and win the magnificent Burton Cup.
Take the Competitions/CYOH link above to see the details.
The dates for the above meeting have been confirmed as 13/14 January 2024, and entry forms may be downloaded from here.
At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Association held on 15th November, an amendment to the constitution proposed by the Committee that clubs affiliated to Scottish Target Shooting (and not just to the NSRA as previously) would be eligible to affiliate to LBTSA was considered.
The vote overwhelmingly approved the amendment. Accordingly, Para 5.1 (a) of the Constitution (under the heading Membership of the Association shall be open to) now reads as follows:
(a) rifle and pistol clubs, not restricted to those located in the Association’s area of interest, which are affiliated to either the NSRA or STS (Scottish Target Shooting) or both and are interested in furthering the objects of the Association and;
Clubs are reminded that entries for the Championships and the Individual Postal league close on Monday 27th November. Get in touch if you need the forms.
Get them in soon!
Th club has announced that it intends to run its annual Open Meeting over Saturday/Sunday 13th/14th January 2024.
Further details will be available nearer the time.
As intimated earlier (13 Sep) Balerno & Currie’s Annual Open Meeting will take place on 18th & 19th November. It is being dedicated to the memory of Frank Gifford, the club President who passed away recently. There are both prone and air rifle and air pistol components, all shot on the club’s Meyton electronic targets.
The prone part of the meeting consists of two 30-shot competitions in four classes, shot in six 10-minute details (which need not be shot consecutively). There are also Junior, Pairs and Team (of 3) competitions.
The air rifle and pistol parts of the meeting both consist of two 60-shot competitions shot as far as possible to ISSF rules (clothing rules will not be enforced, though). Junior competitions will be run concurrently.
Catering will be provided (bacon rolls a speciality), so there’s no need to bring your own lunch.
Postal entries close on 14th November and all airgun competitors are required to enter in advance by that date due to the restricted number of firing points. Prone entries can be taken on the day if space permits but advance entry is recommended.
The entry form can be downloaded using this link. Please be careful to follow the instructions for paying fees in advance and for sending the form in.
I’m sure many readers will know (or know of) Ian Gray, a stalwart of shooting in Perthshire. I’m sad to have to report that he passed away in hospital yesterday.
Ian was the County Secretary from 1971 up to 2012 and was also heavily involved in running the Perth City & County Rifle Club for most of his shooting career. He latterly shot for Kinross & Milnathort.
For as long as I can remember (and I go way back) he was always ‘Mr Perthshire Shooting’ and will be missed by all who knew him. My condolences go to his family.
Update 28/9/23: Ian’s funeral will be held on 18th October at 12:30pm at Perth Crematorium.
Entries have been received for both the Team and Individual CYOH competitions. There are six teams and nineteen individuals. Please take the Competitions/CYOH link above to see the details.
Stickers will be issued to the clubs involved very soon. The first rounds are to be shot by 23rd October.
This is advance notification that Balerno & Currie RC will be holding its annual Open Shoot on Saturday/Sunday 18th/19th November. It’s all change from previous years as this time there will, firstly, be air rifle and air pistol competitions as well as the usual prone comps, and secondly all shooting including the prone comps will take place on Meyton electronic targets.
The programme and entry form will be available in due course. Watch this space!
The News page for the period September 2022 to August 2023 has been archived. Please take the News Archives link in the sidebar for a link to it and all previous annual News archives.