The Rifle Club have recently returned from a wonderful Easter training week at Bisley. The team performed fantastically, and the weather was the best the team had seen in many years for the event.
In total, sixteen members of the team headed to Bisley for the week. Four pupils had arrived earlier to take part in ‘Maple Taste’, a training/selection weekend for forthcoming GB cadet rifle team tours. Margie G was training with the British Cadet Rifle Team ahead of their August tour to the Channel Islands, and Ilana B, Grace S and Alastair S were all hoping for selection to the UK Cadet Rifle Team for their tour. By the end of the Rifle Clubs week at Bisley, the UKCRT team selection had been announced. Grace was selected for the team and Alastair was announced as a reserve – a big well done to both. After their weekend with the GB cadet training, three of the four pupils joined the rest of the Gresham’s team for the remainder of the week.
The team had an excellent week of shooting, with glorious weather. Although the sun shined every day, they also had exceptionally high winds throughout the week, which made the shooting conditions challenging. The first weekend was spent shooting at short range (300 and 600 yards) and involved classroom work in the evenings for the newer members of the team. There is no shooting on Mondays, so this was used as an opportunity to set up on the military CTR rifles, in preparation for Wednesday and Thursday.
The team enjoyed a hugely competitive Easter egg hunt in the afternoon, followed by an equally competitive game of bowling in the evening. On the Tuesday, the team spent the day at long range (900 and 1000 yards) still in very tricky wind conditions. Shooting is not just about firing the perfect shot, there is also a lot of personal admin and record keeping that needs to be done. Some evenings were spent continuing to learn the skills of plotting and coaching, which are both necessary skills, as the wind can have a massive effect on a bullet, even at short range.
For the final two days of shooting, the team switched to the Cadet Target Rifle and trained alongside several other schools. There was an informal match on the Thursday, in which the Gresham’s team managed to finish third in the Clayton Challenge, out of 17 teams taking part.
The new members of the Rifle Team did particularly well during the week, despite the challenging wind. The team were also pleased to have a couple of parents in attendance, who came along to support and to learn about the sport their child is competing in.