A bit of an overwinter gap, but with many events cancelled, this seems like as good a time as any to round up the final results before the world stopped.

RESULTS

British Open Airgun Championships

The NSRA’s Airgun Championships snuck in at the end of February.

Winners were as follows:

• Women’s Air Rifle - Amy Lott (Royal Greenwich)
• Men’s Air Rifle - James Paterson (Driffield)
• Women’s Air Pistol - Minerva Singh (Cambridge)
• Men’s Air Pistol - Waldek Mickiewicz (Ham & Petersham)
• Junior Women’s Air Rifle - Bethany Edwards (Crewe)
• Junior Men’s Air Rifle - Tom Warren (Crewe)
• Junior Women’s Air Pistol - Lucy Evans (Forres)
• Junior Men’s Air Pistol - Ayush Chauhan (Sutton Coldfield)
• Mixed Disabled Air Rifle - Joshua Wintersgill
• Mixed Disabled Air Pistol - Issy Bailey

ADMINISTRATION

George Lawson passes

It is with great sadness that the NSRA reported the passing of George Lawson. George was well known as the Chief Range Officer for both the NSRA’s Scottish and Bisley meetings for many years. Competitors will fondly remember his calls of “Twice on the target, once on the backer” when changing targets.

I will remember him as the forgiving fellow who sorted me out at my very first Bisley when I realised at the start of my very first detail that the (club-owned) jacket and sling had been used by a full borer at the Imperial and now carried the wrong sling bit for the rifle. Having acquired the correct bit in the trade tent I joined a (probably quite small) club of people who shot their first detail on Century from a Hospital Lane!

NSRA - The Future

NSRA CEO Iain Root has publicly discussed the NSRA’s membership pains.

In December a slideshow from Shooting Council was circulated, which proposed that NSRA membership be mandatory for members of NSRA-Affiliated Clubs. Unfortunately, it was distributed bare and without context nor the presentation and Q&A that went with it. Consequently it drew broad derision, though I wrote a more moderate piece in its defence.

It is extremely refreshing to see the CEO admit publicly that they have not communicated publicly or openly enough. Whilst I have praised the NSRA for the huge improvements in marketing and communicating their events and competitions over the past two years, communications from the Leadership Team have at times felt opaque and out of touch with the atmosphere in local clubs. On various occasions Mr Root has openly solicited feedback using his column in On Target, but I have never received so much as an acknowledgement of any suggestions I have submitted, much less feedback or considered reply! I may have been talking nonsense, but even a cursory “Thank you for your comments” would have sufficed. If this is about to change, then it is past time - and all the more welcome for it.

Much has been made of the NSRA’s predicament. However, all is not lost - the Association is financially breaking-even despite a significant debt burden and is at no imminent risk of going under, though break-even is insufficient for things like replacing the electronic targets in the Lord Roberts Centre. One can only tread water for so long before either striking out for the bank or sinking.

They managed one meeting on Feb 2nd at Aldersley with representatives from local clubs, but the other proposed consultations and roadshows through 2020 are unlikely to occur (or at least not as imagined). One might hope that with the (loss-making) Scottish and Bisley Meetings cancelled, that they will use this enforced pause to sit back, evaluate their programme and come back in 2021 with revamped events.

COMPETITIONS & EVENTS

GB Palma 2023

Palma Captain Jeremy Langley has extended the call for applications until 31st August.

NSRA Postals

The NSRA has extended the final shoot-by dates for their Winter Postal leagues and delayed the Summer Postals.

• Extend the end shoot-by date for all remaining Winter Postal Competitions to 29 June 2020
• Extend the shoot-by dates for Stage 3 of the Queen Alex Competition and Stage 2 of the Eley Competition to 29 June 2020
• Run the 2020 Summer Postal Competition as usual but from 6 July 2020 through to October 5 2020. Entries will be reopened with a closing date of 31 May 2020 allowing shooters who did not enter originally the opportunity to enter
• Run the 2020-21 Winter Postal Competition from October of this year until the end of April 2021. Entries for this competition will close on 7 September 2020.

When this was published the NSRA’s National Meeting in August had not been cancelled. It now has been, and it is unclear when the Queen Alex and Eley Finals will be contested.

Everything is Cancelled

• British 50m
• NSRA Benchrest Championships
• NSRA Scottish Meeting
• Junior International Meeting
• NSRA National Meeting

The NRA have cancelled all competitions and events until August 31st

Olympic Games Postponed

The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo have been postponed and will now run from July 23rd to August 8th in 2021. This is the first time an Olympic Games has been postponed rather than cancelled outright (as during the first and second World Wars).

This will be devastating news for Seonaid McIntosh who is currently ranked World Number 1 in 3 Positions Rifle and is Britain’s best hope for an Olympic rifle medal since Malcolm Cooper, Alister Allan and Barry Dagger were filling the podiums in the 1980s. She now faces another 12 months of maintaining her peak performance and building to the Games.

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