Tag: Welsh 50M Open

Challenging conditions at Welsh 50M Open

by Web Teamin Competition News1 Comment on Challenging conditions at Welsh 50M Open

This weekend saw competitors sweat it out in 29degree temperatures at the Welsh 50M Championships, held at Tondu Target Shooting Club.

Saturday morning saw uncommonly calm conditions for Tondu, leaving the firing point hot and humid. Competitors contested one of three elimination details with the top qualifers of each squad progressing to the Open Final on Saturday afternoon, and the top 15 WSRA members progressing to the Confined Final on Sunday morning.

Paris Paralympic Games medallist Tim Jeffrey managed the highest qualifying score to win X-Class with 623.7. He was closely followed by Alan Bain on 622.4. Chris Hunter also cracked the 620 mark with 620.3. In the Pairs, Rob Morgan and Alan Ainge of Torfaen took the B/C Pairs, whilst the Open Pairs saw a tie-break – Chris Hunter and Simon Green lost the countback to Tim Jeffrey and Alun Evans. Aidan Healy was top Welsh Junior whilst Chris Brown was top Veteran.

A welcome breeze picked up for the Open Final, where Tim improved on the moning with a score of 624.1 to become the 2025 Welsh Open Champion. Matt Dixon took silver and Chris Hunter bronze.

Sunday morning dawned with welcome drizzle and a fresher breeze. Liam Webster made the best of it to become Welsh Confined Champion with 610.1. Defending champion Richard Hemingway placed second, with Martin Newman in third. Liam became the first recipient of the DWF Phelps Welsh Outdoor Championship Trophy. In previous years prizes have been awarded for the confined championship, but the Association has now acquired a trophy for annual competition, which has been named to honour double Commonwealth Games gold medallist David Phelps.

Sunday also saw the Open Three-Position match, by which time the wind was back to “Tondu Standard”. Olivia Beech of Rugeley RC and Wigan TSC made the best of the difficult conditions with 564/600, closely followed by Alun Evans on 562 and Louis Norman on 558. A special mention to Neil Sinclair who suffered a non-allowable malfunction with his sights (meaning no extra time was granted) but managed to complete the match, finishing his entire Standing phase in the last 10 minutes with a 90 and 91, which got him to fourth place.

Enormous thanks go to organisers Dave Phelps, Rob Warnes and Niall Evans who brought the targetry to the site, ran the range and kept the event running smoothly. Thanks also go to Tondu TSC for the generous use of their range.

Full Results

  • A target shooter aims on a shooting range. They wear a red hat and a special blue and white jacket shooting which has the name "Jeffery" stitched onto the back of it.
  • Two people stand on a shooting range holding a trophy
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Three people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prizes to two athletes.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a medal to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a medal to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a medal to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a medal to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a medal to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man wearing a formal jacket and tie presents a medal to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man in a red, white and green top presents a prize to an athlete.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man in a red, white and green top presents a prize to an athlete.
  • Three people pose in front of a projection screen. The man in a red, white and green top presents a prize to an athlete wearing black who is seated in a wheelchair.
  • Two people stand in front of a projection screen. The man in a red, white and green top presents a prize to an athlete.
  • A male Para athlete aims a target rifle from the "kneeling" position. As he is in a wheelchair, this means he allowed to rest his left elbow but the right elbow must be unsupported in free space. He wears visor bearing the Welsh dragon and a red and green shooting jacket.
  • A female athlete loads a round into a smallbore target rifle The rearsight is mounted on tall sight raising blocks. The silver chassis bears the Walther logo.

Hemingway retains Welsh title at Tondu

by Web Teamin Competition News

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.

Full Results

  • A man in a red and white top presents a trophy to a female athlete in a grey jackets and black tracksuit bottoms. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A man in a red and white top presents a trophy to an athlete in t-shirt and shorts. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A man in a red and white top presents a trophy to an athlete. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A female athlete takes aim in the standing position with a silver target rifle. She wears a red and green shooting jacket, red ear defenders and a blue visor. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A female athlete takes aim in the prone position with a silver target rifle. She wears a black and grey shooting jacket and a red visor. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A wheelchair athlete takes aim with a black target rifle. They wear a red and black shooting jacketand a red visor. A welsh flag is visible on their sleeve. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A female athlete takes aim in the prone position with a silver target rifle. She wears a black and grey shooting jacket and a red visor. Credit: Niall Evans
  • A male athlete takes aim in the prone position with a silver target rifle. He wears a red and green shooting jacket and ablack glove. Credit: Niall Evans
  • Athletes shoot from a covered firing point on an outdoor shooting range. Nearest the camera are two para athletes shooting from wheelchairs. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • A smiling man with a moustache and wearing a high viz jacket stands on a shooting range supervising a competition. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • A female target shooter aims her rifle from the kneeling position on an outdoor shooting range. She wears a heavy black and white jacket to steady her aim. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • A man wearing a black top with red trim is illuminated by the glow from a screen as he administers a target shooting competition. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • Target shooting competitors take aim on the covered firing point of an outdoor range. In the foreground, a shooter fires lying from the floor. They wear a grey jacket and orange visor. Beyond them, a disabled athlete shoots from a wheelchair. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • A monitor for an electronic shooting target sits on the firing point of a grassy range. In the distance a bank of targets are visible in front of an earth berm and concrete walll. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • Competitors fire target rifles from a kneeling position. The range is outdoors but the firing point is covered. They wear stiff, multi-coloured jackets and trousers to help support the rifles. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • A target shooter reloads their rifle during a Championship match. The small .22lr round is visible in their fingers as they place it in the breech of their bolt action rifle. Credit: Richard Hemingway
  • A male target shooter aims his rifle from the kneeling position on an outdoor shooting range. He wears a heavy black and red jacket to steady their aim. Credit: Richard Hemingway

Welsh 50M Open 2023

by Web Teamin Competition News

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.

Full Results

  • A target shooter in a wheelchair takes aim with a black target rifle on an outdoor range. Behind them other competitors shoot from the floor in the prone position. Credit: Steve Gurner
  • A group of athletes aim target rifles in the kneeling position at an outdoor competition. Photo: Niall Evans
  • A target monitor sits on the firing point of an outdoor shooting range. A row of rifle targets is visible in the distance in front of a sandbank and protective wall. Credit: Niall Evans
  • tondu range - credit-Dave Phelps
  • Two people stand in front of a wall bearing a sign that reads "Tondu Target Shooting Club". They are wearing medals and holding silver plates. Credit: Dave Phelps