The WSRA team won the Home Countries 3-Position Rifle Match at the NSRA British 50Metre Championships this weekend, pipping England by just three points – 1655 to 1652. Congratulations to team members Richie Bray, Alun Evans and Aidan Healy.
The team honours were matched with individual success – Alun won Silver and Richie took Bronze in the NSRA British Mixed 3P Championship.
Richard Hemingway retained his title at the Welsh 50M Championships this weekend at Tondu Target Shooting Club.
Saturday dawned overcast but calm for the Open. Richard Hemingway topped qualification and X-Class with a score of 618.9, followed by Chris Hunter (617.1) and Joshua Culshaw (616.4). The wind picked up after lunch and in the Open Championship final, scores tumbled and fortunes were turned. Chris Hunter held on to the top spot with 612.8, followed by Sian Corish (612.4) and Liam Webster (610.9).
Anna Maughan was top Open Junior and Aidan Healy was top Welsh Junior. Fred Brown took top Veteran.
Sunday morning dawned flat and drizzly as the Welsh finalists assembled for the Confined Championship. A deceptively gentle start gave way to some tricky wind changes in the last fifteen minutes. After an early lead Richard Hemingway was overtaken by Sian Corish, with the two trading places into the last string. After 60 shots however, the line up was a repeat of 2023 with Richard retaining his title with a score of 617.5. Sian Corish was runner-up on 615.0 and Liam Webster placed third on 614.1.
The Open 3×20 was well attended and closely fought. Sian Corish took the title on 579, with Alan Bain and Alun Evans having to be split on inner-tens having tied on 567.
Our immense thanks goes to Dave Phelps for organising; Rob Warnes for managing the electronics; the volunteers who helped put the range together and pack away on Sunday; and to Tondu TSC for the generous use of their range. We look forward to welcoming you to the 2025 Championship.
Wales had a great turnout at Bisley this year with a strong performance in the Home Nations. A number of first time shooters braved it onto Century Range and promotions were earned. Dave Phelps won the W H Watkins Trophy (top Welsh competitor in the Aggregate), whilst Sian Corish won the unsquadded Women’s Bisley Championship and placed third in X Class.
For the Home Countries matches, the Tartan Dragon trophy came south. The trophy is a Scottish Quaich which has traditionally been awarded to the highest scoring Welsh competitor in the Aggregate at the NSRA Scottish Meeting. As the Scottish meeting continues to be in abeyance, it has been decided to award the Quaich to the highest scoring athlete in the Welsh team for the Home Countries match. Congratulations to the 2023 top scorer Sian Corish, and to first-time caps David George and Asia Hoile.
Five Welsh athletes qualified for the final of the Earl Roberts Championship (British Prone Championship). Being the Centenary edition of the Roberts Championship, 1923 rules were used, with 40 finalists qualifying rather than the usual 20. Congratulations to all five, who fought through some extremely challenging conditions in what turned out to be a tight final, with a great deal of counting back and just a couple of points separating 6th from 26th.
Wales’ Roberts Finallists were:
All photos credit Eleanor Shorey except where otherwise indicated.
This weekend saw the WSRA 50M Championships take place at Tondu Target Shooting Club. Hosting both Open and Confined matches, the event attracted entries not only amongst local shooters but from across the UK. After a two year hiatus, the 2022 Meeting was a great success, bucking the trend of low-entries that many meetings struggled with post-COVID and almost reaching capacity. This set a bar for the 2023 organising team to maintain.
The meeting is run to ISSF courses. All prone matches are decimal-scored 60-shot matches with no Olympic-style finals. Three prone elimination matches on Saturday morning qualify the top 14 competitors into the Open Championship match in the afternoon. The top 14 Welsh competitors qualify for the Confined Championship on Sunday morning. The Open Three-Position (3×20) Championship is held on Sunday after the prone Confined Championship. Class and Pairs prizes are also awarded, based on elimination scores. Para athletes are included in the main matches with appropriate accommodations, rather than in their own class.
The matches are all run on Megalink electronic targets, managed by Rob Warnes to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude. Just as a match shot on paper requires experienced scorers to run smoothly, running a match on electronics calls for an experienced operator and we’d be hard pressed to ask for better than Rob. A match also needs range officers and we were saddened to receive news of Kevin Hindle’s passing the week prior to the meeting. A silence was held for Kevin at the prize-giving. Our thanks to Nigel Craddock who stepped in to supervise proceedings and did a sterling job of learning the routine for ISSF courses on the job, ably assisted by Rob from the control booth.
Saturday dawned overcast. The rain held off, but a stiff wind kept shooting “interesting”. Visitors to Tondu will know that its location in the river valley can create some very turbulent and tricky conditions when the wind is in the right direction. Saturday was one of those days. Simon Green managed an exceptional 618.8 in his elimination match, with the next highest qualifying score being 615.4 from Sam Harris. From a field who might normally manage some scores above 620, many X-Class shots struggled getting to 610. Special mention should go to Richard Bray who managed a significant new personal best of 606.2 in his elimination match.
Lunchtime saw a minor crisis as an errant gust blew half a dozen targets off the firing point mantel. The 50m butt at Tondu is located some height above the range floor, with the targets suffering a significant fall. Fortunately, no electrical connections were damaged, although several of the target frames had separated from their stands on impact (not a word we like to hear in conjunction with ESTs!). Half an hour of plier and hammer action got the targets remounted (sandbagged this time) ready for the Open Championship, with no electrical or sensor failures. Score one for Megalink build quality!
The Open Championship saw competitors better dialled into conditions, with more of the field passing the 610 mark. Sam Harris became Open Champion with 616.2, followed by Dean Bale on 614.1. Sian Corish placed third with 612.5.
Sunday morning dawned calmer as the Welsh finalists assembled for the Confined Championship. Richard Hemingway had the best of it, becoming the 2023 Welsh Champion with 616.5. Sian Corish was runner-up on 613.8 and Liam Webster placed third on 612.3.
The 3×20 was closely fought, with Dean Bale ultimately winning with 578, followed by Wes Cann on 566, edging out Tom Diggle on 564.
Our immense thanks goes to all the volunteers, and to Tondu TSC for the generous use of their range.
