The AGM of the Association will be held at Balerno & Currie’s range on Wednesday 18th May, commencing 7.30pm. It will be a ‘hybrid’ meeting so attendance can either be in person or via Zoom. The Zoom credentials have been sent to the Secretaries of all affiliated clubs but are given in the ‘Forms & Minutes’ link in the sidebar, as are the draft minutes of last year’s AGM.
(Apologies for the late notification here. No excuse – I just forgot, but here it is for the record and posterity.)
The County Team programme has finished. Not too much success to report this season unfortunately.
The Main team of 12 finished in 6th and last place in division 1 after winning it last season. Top average was Ollie Barron (WAT) with 98.8.
The B team also came last ,winning only one point. Top average was Niall Georgeson (B&C) with 97.6 (although Bill Vaughan had shot 3×99 before he passed away in December).
The Veterans team came 5th. Top average was Sinclair Bruce (B&C) with 97.9 (pace Bill V as above).
The Junior A team were runners-up, only losing twice to the winners and once to the team in 3rd. Top average was Lilly Brechin (GWC) with 95.9.
The Junior B team were second on points but third on aggregate. If any score over 85 had been returned instead of the NCR in round 7, the team would have come 1st. Top average was Conor Haughney (GWC) with 94.7.
The Junior C team came 4th out of 4. A couple of no-returns and a d/q did not help. Only one team member shot all 10 rounds so a top average mention is not really appropriate.
The Air Pistol team was runner-up. Top average was Morag Liddon (Cumberland News) with 271.5 (but with two others very close behind).
The County Silver Medal was won by Alan Anderson (HAW) and County Awards were given to several team members this season (mostly in the Veterans team, which was only entered this season for the second time, so they only qualify for the award now).
See the County Teams / Indoor teams / NSRA Leagues page for full details.
The S-S league has finished for this season and it results in a clean sweep for Watsonians – Scratch League, Handicap League and Matchplay League. Congratulations to them.
They didn’t get it completely their own way though as the top average award goes to Niall Georgeson of Balerno & Currie and the top handicap average was achieved by J Young (Prestonpans).
Take the link in the Competitions drop-down menu above for full details.
The Individual Benchrest league has completed and the full results are now available in the relevant link under the Competitions dropdown menu above.
Here is a report on this new venture by LBTSA by the competition organiser, Alan Anderson:
Well, our first season has now concluded, and we had a 3-way tie on points for the honours in the main competition. Congratulations go to Bill Hamilton (Watsonians) for winning the inaugural LBTSA Benchrest competition posting the highest gun score at the end of the day. For the handicap part of the competition there were only two shooters who made any real improvement over their average from the first 3 rounds. K. Lang (Prestonpans) was a clear winner in the handicap. There was a marked improvement for the final 3 rounds showing that at least one person was starting to get the hang of things.
I hope all eleven shooters enjoyed the experience and I know I was messing around with position and how firmly or not, to hold the rifle. It looks like some others were doing the same by the way some scores went up and down or was that down and up. Bar the winner we all managed to put in at least one score well below out eventual average.
There were 9 entrants who had not previously shot competition Benchrest and at least we all now have an average from which we can try to improve upon, as well as an average that can be used to enter other leagues, if bitten by the bug!
Next Winter it is intended to spread out the shooting between October and March, so not quite so intense and 10 rounds in total. Therefore, a bit more time to practice for those that shoot other disciplines.
I noted that is clearly some intra-club rivalry at Prestonpans, bar 2 X’s the 2 entrants had identical scores as at the end of rounds 3, 6 & 7.
LBTSA Chairman Robin Thomson and I have discussed the possibility of holding a Benchrest clinic later in the year, to chat about our own experiences, kit etc. and hopefully give some useable advice. I will endeavour to find out from our clubs if there is any interest in such a meeting and look at timings and venue if appropriate.
Alan Anderson – Benchrest co-ordinator.
The Team Postal League has finished and here are all the winners:
Division 1: Watsonians A
Division 2: George Watson’s College A
Division 3: George Watson’s College E
The top average award (The Duncan Cup) goes to R L O Brown of Pentland.
The top Junior average award (The Scott Shield) goes to Miss L Richards of George Watson’s.
The Best Improvement award (The Smith Shield) goes to C Haughney of George Watson’s.
The new award (so far un-named) for the best improved team goes to the George Watson’s College E team.
The last one was introduced this season and is for the team which has the best average at the end of the season converted to its Macrae handicap equivalent based on its declared average.
Take the Team Postal League link from the Competitions dropdown above to see full details.
The final results of the Individual Postal League are now available. Take the link in the ‘Competitions’ drop-down above to see the full details. Congratulations to all the division winners.
Next season it is intended to run two Individual Postal Leagues. One will be the traditional one running from January to March consisting of fixed divisions of six with each competitor shooting a total of ten 10-shot matches against each of the others in their division.
The new league will be run over ten fortnightly rounds from October onwards and will have divisions of variable sizes depending on the size of the entry and the averages declared. In each round of 20 shots for each shooter, the top scorer in each division is awarded N points where N is the number of competitors in the division, the second-top scorer is given N-1 points and so on to the bottom scorer who gets one point. Equal scores are given equal points. The competitor with the most points at the end wins the division.
The Final of the 2021-22 Individual Championship took place last night at Balerno & Currie’s range. There had been several call-offs for various reasons leaving only 9 attendees out of the 16 expected, comprising three from Watsonians, two from Edinburgh University and four from George Watson’s College. The winner was Adam Dove of Watsonians, who beat clubmate Robin Thomson in the Final. Congratulations to him.
The full results can be seen here, but here’s a summary:
This depleted contingent of 9 had to contest an Elimination round to whittle the number down to the 8 needed to take part in the knock-out stage, and the unlucky loser was Freya Game (Edinburgh University).
In Round 1 of the KO stage, Robin Thomson comfortably got the better of Daniel Gutteridge (the winner in 2015), Rorie Watt (GWC) beat clubmate David Lee who had a bit of a nightmare shoot, Adam Dove beat this season’s Junior Champion Conor Haughney with a better second card and Xuan Lin (GWC) beat Amanda Puchalla (EU) by only one point after a solid 97 on his second card.
In the semi-final, Robin Thomson beat Rorie Watt by 197 (including the only 100 to be shot all evening) to a lop-sided 190 and Adam Dove beat Xuan Lin 194 to something not like Xuan’s best potential.
The final see-sawed with Robin taking an early lead with 99 to Adam’s 97 but Adam closed it down with a fine 99 to Robin’s 96 to win by a point. Robin put two shots on one diagram and so lost out on the re-gauge situation by the penalty point incurred.
I think the all the competitors and spectators (yes, there were a couple) enjoyed seeing the scores appearing on the big screen in the clubroom, an innovation which we hope can continue.
The shoot started on time at 7.30 but went on far too long. We will have to look at the timing and perhaps the format of this Final for the future.
The scores for the first round of the Open Championship and the winners of the Ladies, Veterans, Junior and the Inexpert A & B class Championships have been issued.
The Open Championship Final will be held at Balerno & Curre on Thursday 31st March. The finalists’ clubs have been informed of those qualifiying.
Top scorer in the qualifying round: A Anderson, Hawick
Ladies Champion: Miss L Richards, George Watson’s
Veterans Champion: A Anderson, Hawick
Junior Champion: C Haughney, George Watson’s
Inexpert A Champion: A Aitken, George Watson’s
Inexpert B Champion: Jamie Brown, George Watson’s
Congratulations to them all. Take the Competitions/Championships link above to see the runners-up as well.
The new Individuaol Postal Benchrest league is under way and the results for the first three rounds are now available. Take the link in the Competitions dropdown above to see the results for the January segment.
Many readers will be aware of the sudden and unexpected death of Bill Vaughan recently after a heart attack.
His funeral will take place on Tuesday 21st December 2021 and the arrangements are as follows:
12 noon @ Borders Crematorium (East of Melrose)
1pm approx @ Eastlands Cemetery (in Galashiels)
Then on to the Kingsknowes Hotel (East of Galashiels)
If you wish to attend at the Kingsknowes, please let Ian Burton know (ian@ian-burton.co.uk) as soon as possible.
Update: the funeral service will be available online as follows:
Website: https://watch.obitus.com
Username: raha8325
Password: 648629
It’s with great sadness that I have to report the passing in hospital on Friday night of Bill Vaughan of Hawick (and formerly Selkirk). He suffered a serious heart attack on Wednesday the previous week and never regained consciousness.
Funeral arrangement will be given in due course.
The Rules for our competitions have been updated. This is mainly to bring them up to date with the change in the name of the Association. There are no substantive changes except to the CYOH Team competition.
CYOH: this one was well out of date and has a lot of changes including changing the award to be the Burton Cup and removing the requirement of a minimum Start of 5 (to make it the same as the Burton used to be in its SSCA days). There is a new section for the new Individual CYOH.
Individual Postal League: Mostly changes to do with local scoring to reflect current practice.
Team Postal League: Headings updates and a new section concerning the highest individual average and best-improved team awards.
S/S League: Headings updates mostly.
The fourth and final round of the postal Final stage of the 2020-21 ‘World Cup’ competition has just finished and the winners and losers are now known. Take the World Cup link above to see the details, but the headline is that the winner for the first time is Alan Anderson of Hawick. Congratulations to him. He beat Alan Gordon of Dulnainbridge in the final on countback, having tied on 196.
A big thank-you to all who took part in this somewhat depleted and Covid-hit competition. We got through it though. The next one is just starting and hopefully we can get through it ‘normally’.
Well, the 2021-2022 season is now with us and we can get back shooting in a proper shoulder to shoulder competition with the first match taking place on Thursday 14th October between Prestonpans and Balerno & Currie at the Prestonpans range.
It is a much depleted league this year with only 4 teams taking part due to Hawick having road closure issues due to flooding and both Prestonpans and Watsonians only fielding one team instead of two due to the pandemic.
I wish everyone good shooting in the coming competition and all to stay safe and free from COVID-19.
GM
The Calendar of Matches PDF file is available to view on the S/S League page.
The LBTSA will be running a short-range Benchrest League this season. It will be run roughly along the same lines as the prone Individual League, with both scratch and handicap competitions being run concurrently. No experience is necessary! The closing date is the end of November so there is plenty of time to get things together for the start in January.
We are particularly keen to encourage newcomers to benchrest shooting to give it a go, hence no need for an initial declaration of averages, but experienced hands are also welcome.
Please see this Benchrest Introduction document for further details. Affiliated clubs will be sent that doc and the entry form and both are also available in the Forms & Minutes link in the sidebar.
Our thanks go to Alan Anderson of Hawick for thinking this up and agreeing to run it. Please contact him if you have any queries.
Entries to the Association’s team competitions (Shoulder-to-Shoulder League, Team Postal League, CYOH) close on Monday 6th September. Get them in now!
The closing date for the Individual Postal League and the Individual Championships is 29th November.
The closing date for the ‘World Cup’ competition is 13th September.
Secretaries of affiliated clubs have already been sent the entry forms, but they can also be downloaded via the ‘Forms & Minutes’ link in the sidebar (use Contact Us if you do not know the password).
The News page for the period October 2020 to August 2021 has been archived. Please take the News Archives link in the sidebar for a link to it and all previous annual News archives.