20th January 2010

12th January 2010

9th January 2010

8th January 2010

27th December 2009

Kermode, from Laxey, who came fourth at Callander in the last round, scored 667.2 to Law's 665.7 in A class before emerging victorious in the ISSF-style final where she survived Law's fightback of 97.7 to win on aggregate after a 96.2. Kermode is relatively new to airgun events so the win was a positive step in her preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Mark Joyce from Forres was literally in a class of his own to win the B classification with 541 and finished third overall in the Grand Prix after an aggregate of 635.5 following a final string of 94.5.

Fiona Park of Aberdeen University Rifle Club came fourth after the winner of C class finished with 629.5 following the final, but there was a tie shoot for the first time with Kathryn Williamson winning over James Henderson with a nice 10.5 to James'  8.1.

The Fife new town is better known for its plethora of roundabouts so spare a thought for Steve Watterson who may be wishing he too could turn full circle and give it another go after a frustrating dip in form meant the Manx A class winner from Callander had to pull out.

In the pistol event Lawrence Cooper had the shoot of the season for him in the 60-shot match - with a borrowed pistol - to finish with 610.l, just behind Mark Joyce on 611.1.

The overall entries were down on last month, what with the Scottish squad away doing their Christmas shopping in Hanover, and a number of students deciding that they required to do a bit more work than usual for the end of the current semester - for work, read Christmas parties? You decide...

For the hardy souls who did make the journey, their dedication deserves a mention. Edinburgh pistol shooter Monka Foo braved morning temperatures of -5 Celsius and a bank of pea-soup fog that straddled the Forth to get to the range, where that stakhanovite Cyril de Jonckheere had made sure the club and range was suitably warmed and set up. Balerno & Currie's Bill Hamilton almost forgot about his 11am air pistol squadding but soldiered on and got a slot at 1pm instead where he managed to win D class.

"The others just shot worse than I did," he said which is being a bit harsh, after all one un-named shooter arrived to discover he had left his pistol back in the safe at the club.

The SSRA's Jim McIntosh commented: "The next Grand Prix is at Denwood where four years ago the rifle final had just 0.2 splitting the top two places. Let's hope the event on 17 January can be similarly exciting with the squads all being at home and suitably refreshed."

27th December 2009

June 20 will see a "Triple Dewar" competition, with course of fire 60 shots at 50 metres and 60 shots at 100 yards. A further competition, in the "English Match" style, ie 60 shots at 50 metres, will be staged in August 2010 on a date still to be confirmed. Entry forms will be sent out to members and anyone interested in taking part should contact club secretary William McAuley either by e-mail on william445@btinternet.com or by telephone 01259 723598 to obtain a form.

It's an exciting time for the Alloa club, as their indoor range at Kincardine, shared with Sands Rifle Club, is undergoing the final stages of work for Three-Position firing points which, when complete, will make it one of the few complexes in Scotland capable of supporting 3P events.

18th November 2009

Steven Watterson came away with the plaudits in the first Airgun Grand Prix of the season at Callander and proved to himself he had the stomach to do it - in more ways than one.

A dose of food poisoning had left the Isle of Man shooter worried how he might perform but in the end he emerged not only winner of A class but went on to win the final as well. A strong challenge by Robin Law saw the Alloa man score 102.5 but the Watsonians shooter managed to hang on to the Scotland legend's coat-tails and emerge victorious by 686.5 to Law's 681.5.

"I was very pleased with the match," said Watterson. "I've been shooting well in training, but struggling to reproduce it in matches, so it was very satisfying to finally do so. I just focussed on my technique and let the scores take care of themselves. In fact, I surprised myself with how comfortable I felt as I'd had a dose of food poisoning on Friday/Saturday."

"Traditionally, the first airgun GP has a low turnout across the board, but Sunday turned out to be quite a first class turnout," commented SSRA's Jim McIntosh. "The number of Air Rifle competitors was the best we have had for a number of years, not only from Scotland but two from the Isle of Man."

Gemma Kermode came over from the Isle of Man and made it to the final. Her 668.9 left her fourth but she plans to take part in several of the GPs this Winter where she will picking up lots of valuable experience.

Watterson shot 586 to win A class, ahead of Law with 579, Aberdeen's Emma Cole-Hamilton on 576, Falkirk's Jen McIntosh on 572 and Kermode on 569. Watterson, however, knew what he would be up against when competing against a man with more than 100 caps for Scotland.

"Robin shot an excellent final, but then he usually does," he said. "I was trying to go with him shot by shot and match his standard, but I couldn't buy a good ten, whereas he seemed to have good tens to burn. All my tens were 10.2s and 10.3s, but that's not enough if you want to shoot a strong final."

In the end, of course Watterson did just enough to win through. And the conditions on the range at Callander had helped, in his opinion.

"I believe they've upgraded the lighting in the Callander range too and quadrupled the luminosity. In airgun, you often end up fighting and losing to get a head position that facilitates a clean sight picture so the extra luminosity makes a big difference," said Watterson.

In the pistol event the biggest surprise of the day was Allan Anderson’s leading score which he held on to claim the points.

While reputations were being reinforced on Sunday, look out for others coming up on the rails in future, to use the horse-racing term. Andrew Ross of Balerno & Currie and Alloa & District won B class with 557 and Newton Stewart's Kathryn Williamson won C class with 537. An honourable mention must also go to Heriot-Watt University's Jamie Hodgson in D class who was competing in one of his first events in Air with the technical hindrance of a moustache grown for charity...

The next GP is at Glenrothes on Sunday 13 December. The range there has eight firing points . Want to give it a try? Contact the SSRA at competitions@ssra.co.uk for more information and entry forms.

8th November 2009

Congratulations to U25 Squad Coach Sinclair Bruce, who successfully gained his 'C' Coaches Licence from the ISSF at last week's course in Kuortane, Finland.

8th November 2009

Day 5

Bleary-eyed, we made our way to the range for the Men’s Individual Prone event at 8.30am. We had high hopes for this because all of our men are accustomed to the format of the competition (60 scoring shots in 75mins) and they are all good, belly-floppers/prone shooters. The men were keen to get started and I watched James Henderson shoot and kept a record of his shots on a plotting sheet.

James had sweet-talked Sarah into letting him borrow her rifle. James’ ammo had shot well through the barrel when they tested at Eley so he was competing on fair terms this time. His first 30 shots were nothing special other than the fact he ate nearly a 3 course meal during his breaks. The last 30 were incredibly tight and he finished 100, 99, and 100 for a total of 593.  Mike and James P both shot 589 without any real issues.  Andrew Ross had 573 and was disappointed with his ammunition because one shot in the final string was a 2 very low. Martyn Buttery from the England team was given a grilling about the poor quality ammo because he works for the manufacturer.  Martyn rightly pointed out that the ammo was not the highest grade available so you cannot depend on it to the same extent!  That said, it’s common knowledge that even the best grade of ammo can miss the mark at times due to a low powder level or damage to the bullet, for example.

The conditions on the Sinclair range worsened and the scores in the Women’s Individual Prone were low as a result. Sarah found it tough to find the ten ring and finished 8^th on 576. Sarah had no time to relax before competing in the 3x20 badge match. This was meant to be a pairs event but it was changed to an individual competition because of a low entry.

Sarah put her beloved Bleiker barrel to good use in the 3 Position Badge Match. A solid performance of 540 meant she was not far off the pace. James Henderson may be feeling guilty about changing Sarah’s rifle set up (but I doubt it).

The Men’s 3x40 Pairs got underway with James P and James H both showing signs of fatigue. The scores in the prone section were low and the Scottish lads were feeling a bit down. Both of them considered dropping out of the match to ensure they were rested for the Men’s Individual Prone final. They moped around until shortly before the start of the standing when they decided that they’d really go for it! The standing section went smoothly and kneeling was the final hurdle to clear before getting a brief break. James Patterson looked completely drained of energy before starting his kneeling. He put in a great effort and shot 384 ex 400, the highest score on the range!

The pain of shooting so much in such a short time was forgotten by the tall Scotsmen when they discovered they had shot their way into the bronze medal position! Patterson scored a very respectable 1131 and Henderson shot 1032 (not helped by having to change barrel between the day’s matches).

After a short break, the men were back on to shoot the Prone Individual final. There was a buzz about the range; phones were set to vibrate instead of being turned off- those naughty team managers! Crowds gathered to watch the most anticipated event of the weekend. With prone shooting being so important within the Commonwealth countries (despite it not being half as much fun as shooting standing and kneeling...), the final looked like it could be a tense one. The lowest score to make the final was 587. Our representatives were Mike Ozmond on 589, James Patterson on 589 and James Henderson on 593. Matthew Hall from Northern Ireland had also shot 593 so it was unlikely that the Scottish supporters would have any fingernails left after the final.

After the 5 minute sighting period, the shot-by-shot final began. Henderson’s first shot was a 9.6. Matthew Hall shot a 10.1 and took an early lead. Hall edged away until the 4^th shot when Henderson shot a perfect 10.9! The crowd went wild! Could the big man from the north claw it back to bring Scotland gold? Well, James Henderson showed the crowd that he is an exceptional shooter by finishing the final with a string of tens using a rifle that he had borrowed! He set a great example of how to focus on performance rather than worrying about scores. Not only had James shot 593 (an excellent score given the conditions), he had shot 102.8 in the final and successfully fended of the competition to win the Men’s Prone event!

Mike Ozmond had a good final of 102.4 and came fourth. James Patterson, understandably, was very tired by this stage of the weekend and could only produce 100.8 to come seventh.

The Prize Giving Dinner was all that was left for the Scots to attend. We headed back to the hotel and changed into our smartest clothes then made our way to the Hilton hotel. This was our first chance to meet the Scottish Pistol Team. The usual faces of Alan Ritchie, Kevin Gray and Don Robertson were nowhere to be seen. Their weather-beaten faces had been replaced by some young women and one lucky young man. They looked very smart in their matching uniforms!

The Pistol team had been successful and they collected several medals. Our rifle team had the honour of collecting their medals and then relaxing for the rest of the evening. James Paterson looked weighed down by his medals but perhaps it was the wine.

After the evening’s festivities, we headed back to the hotel for a few hours sleep before the crack of dawn ferry. Oh joy.

Day 6

Another early morning alarm and the end of the trip was in sight. We had no issues getting the guns on to the ferry thanks to everything being well organised by the Isle of Man Target Shooting Federation.

We set sail and most of the team got some sleep. Sadly, Mike had not managed to get his harpoon in time for the journey so the Irish Sea’s wildlife was safe once more.

The minibus trip home passed without event and before long we had all made it home. We parted company in dribs and drabs with people being dropped at various locations. To a passerby it must have looked like we were fly-tipping when you consider we pulled off the motorway to launch a shooter and all their kit out into a country lane.

It had been a great few days for Scottish shooting. There is evidence that we have a strong squad of shooters with the potential to achieve great results on the international stage.

I would like to thank all the organisers, the SSRA and all its staff, Jim McIntosh and most importantly the team of Sarah, Kathryn, Andrew, Mike, James H and James P. Your enthusiasm and dedication made my job easy and it was a great to be part of the team.

12th October 2009

Training took place before the first competition detail. This allowed just enough time for the shooters to make any necessary adjustments to their kit such as fine tuning their iris for the light conditions. The problem with having training so close to the match is that there is a risk that the shooter will either spend too long training and then become fatigued during their match or they will be become disheartened by a poor performance and carry the negativity into the match.

Our three shooters were on the first detail competing in the Pairs events. Kathryn did not have a partner although she was still permitted to shoot. At only 16 years old, she is relatively inexperienced at competing shoulder to shoulder and she was pleased to get the chance to shoot a match before the Individual event. The men put in steady performances (J. Paterson 570, A.Ross 548) and were reward with 3^rd place!  

Meanwhile at the 50m range, Sarah put in a solid shoot of 581 and was the 5^th highest score in the match.

The individual air events took place in the afternoon and they were run over several details to allow shooters competing on the 50m range to compete in the air events. Our shooters were on the first detail for the individual events which meant that we had to wait a few hours to find out where they had placed. This also meant that the first of the finals started at 8.30pm!

Despite a very long day on the range, our shooters performed well. I think their performances were helped by the amount of sleep they managed to squeeze in throughout the day. The benches in the hall were only wide enough for James to sleep on so the others had to find elsewhere to grab 40 winks. Kathryn slept in the corridor outside the sports hall before she was woken by two squash players who were worried that she had collapsed! I think the squash players have the impression that shooting is the most boring sport in the world. To be honest, looking around the sports hall one would have been forgiven for thinking the carbon monoxide levels were dangerously high as there were unconscious bodies strewn everywhere.

We managed to get a light meal before the second detail finished. The scores were published shortly after we returned to the sports centre. James Paterson was in 2^nd on 574, Andrew Ross was 13^th  with 544 and did not qualify for the final. In the Women’s event, Kathryn Williamson put in a steady performance to score 369, only a single point below her personal best! Kathryn finished 9^th, missing out on the final by 1 point.

James had to work hard in the final to stay in the silver medal position because Jersey’s David Turner shot an excellent final of 101.1 and moved up several places. James made some progress in catching Steven Watterson although a pre-final three-point lead allowed the Manx shooter to stay in 1^st. 

James was delighted with his day’s shooting and winning two medals. Silver place in the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships isn’t bad when you consider that it was the first time he had shot an air rifle final!

We returned to the hotel elated but worn out from a day that had set the standard high for the Scotland team. But could we get our mitts on more medals in the other events?

Day Four: Wakening at 6am again made us long for the end of British ‘Summer’ Time (Summer is a myth in Scotland and apparently in the Isle of Man). Getting up when it’s dark is not good for team morale!

Our brave team guided me to the range in preparation for the Men’s Prone Pairs which would start at 8.30am. Preparation time starts 10 mins before live firing is permitted so the shooters had to be ready by 8.20am. There were no problems for the men and they set about shooting lots of 10s! Conditions were tricky (aren’t they always?) and some of the shooters came off the range disheartened. Not our boys, though! Chirpy as ever, Mike Ozmond and James ‘I-can-tell-you-my-exact-score-as-soon-as-I-finish’ Paterson were confident that they had done enough for a medal. They were right. Bronze! James had shot 590 and Mike had shot 583, enough to lift them 3 points clear of the Welsh team and the dreaded 4^th place.

Our B team did not fare so well in their match coming 7th. James Henderson was using a barrel he had borrowed because he was not allowed to take his own gun to the Isle of Man due to his temporary firearms permit application being lost by the postal service. The quality of the barrel seemed reasonable, however, James did not have ammunition specially selected for use in it. Also, the balance was different because it was an Ansch�tz and James has been using a Bleiker for over a year. The lack of selected ammo alone is a major setback when shooting prone.

The day continued with Men’s and Women’s 3 Position matches. The two James were competing in the 3x40 and Sarah was competing in the 3x20. Andrew and Mike busied themselves by dissecting their morning’s prone matches and establishing areas in need of improvement. Kathryn found the comfiest sofa in the range and spent most of the day there keeping a watchful eye on the Irish team even when they weren’t shooting.

Paterson and Henderson qualified for the final in 3rd (1118) and 8th (1058) respectively. Sarah shot 525 to qualify for the final in 5th. As far as Scottish team was concerned, the Men’s final was a contest between James Paterson and John Croydon (1119). James shot 95.8, the highest score in the final, but had little chance of catching Duncan Farmer who had started the final with a lead of 23 points over him. Mr Croydon struggled through the final and James was able to bag another silver medal!  Four events and four medals proved Paterson’s versatility. James Henderson remained in 8^th.

Sarah was unable to catch 4^th place in the women’s 3x20 final whilst Jenny Corish from Wales shot a good final of 96.2 to win by nearly 10 points!

By the time the finals were finished, the team was cold and exhausted. We then had to find a restaurant willing to accept 9 people without a booking on a Saturday night in a town so small the OS maps do not need to be scaled down. Looking like the rejects from a Britain’s Got Talent circus act, we were turned down by everywhere we entered. We went to the Tex-Mex again and and easily blended in with the locals.

Another successful day on the island...

7th October 2009

The following team has been selected to compete in the smallbore & air rifle events at the 2010 Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships in Delhi in February:

2nd October 2009

With the completion of the 2008/9 season, the SSRA Squads for the 2009/10 year have now been selected, and the updated versions can be seen on the Squads & Athletes page.

2nd October 2009

The forms for individual membership, club affiliation and the club and team indoor competitions are now available, and should have been received by current members over the last few days.  Members who haven't received them, lapsed members and anyone else interested in joining the Association and/or taking part in our range of prone, air rifle and 3P competitions should contact Ian Henderson on executive@ssra.co.uk to obtain a copy.

Individual membership of the Association runs from 1st October to 30th September every year, regardless of when you actually pay.  Please remember that only Individual Members of the Association are eligible to be selected to represent Scotland in the various international matches in which we take part.

2nd October 2009

The SSRA and selected NSRA, ESC and ISSF events for 2009/10 have now been added to the Calendar page.  Please send an requests for additional entries to webmaster@ssra.co.uk.

29th September 2009

Perth’s James Paterson hit the best score of 95.8 in the Men’s 50m individual 3P rifle final at the 2009 Commonwealth Shooting Federation (European Division) Championships but could not overhaul Duncan Farmer from England for the gold medal position.  James’ overall silver medal position came from a total of 1213.8 while Farmer survived a final-round score of 90.9 to win the competition with his aggregate of  1231.9.

Watten’s James Henderson finished eighth after the final with 1139.2 (81.2).

Competition round-up

Men’s 3P Pairs:  James Paterson and James Henderson notched 2163, good enough for third place behind  the English pairing of Duncan Farmer and Mark Szymankiewicz who had 2231 and  winners John Croydon and Danny Evans from Wales who were clear by nine points  on 2240.

50m Prone Rifle Pairs: Once again the Scots did rather well, James Paterson picking out one possible in his six strings along with Alloa & District’s Mike Ozmond to finish with 1173 and third place.  Matthew Hall and Don Baker from Northern Ireland nicked this event by just one point with their 1177 from Manx shooters Dave Moore and Harry Creevy on 1176. The other Scottish duo, James Henderson and Balerno & Currie’s Andrew Ross, scored 1154.

Women’s 50m individual 3P rifle:  Sarah Bates of Edinburgh University Alumni  finished fifth with 608.9 (83.9 in the final) as Jenny Corish of Wales cleaned up with 659.2 (96.2) from England’s Jacqui Hay who had 649.6 (86.6).

29th September 2009

Between paying tribute to Norman Wisdom and learning to boldly go where a minibus had not gone before, team manager Graham Rudd found time to compile a captain's log of the trip to the Isle of Man.....

Wednesday 23 September 2009

It all got underway at 6.30am when Mike Ozmond arrived at my house to drop off his car before we took a taxi to collect the minibus we were hiring. We met James Henderson and SSRA secretary Jim McIntosh at the hire company’s depot beside Edinburgh airport. Due to some confusion at the DVLA, Jim’s licence doesn’t permit him to drive a D1 category vehicle (our minibus) despite the fact he passed his test in 1957! James and Mike agreed to share the driving so everything was fine.

We set off and met some of the team on the north side of Edinburgh. We then realised we had to get across town during Edinburgh’s rush hour. Sarah Bates came up with the wonderful idea that we should drive in the bus lane until we reached the city bypass. This saved us at least half an hour! Once on the bypass, we were able to test the vehicle’s 60mph speed limiter. A wave of disappointment and anxiety swept over the bus once we finally reached 60. Dipping the clutch on downhill sections couldn’t take us past slow moving lorries. Sooner than expected, we arrived at Lockerbie to pick up Kathryn Williamson and then we continued our gentle cruise to the ferry port at Heysham.

The ferry company were very helpful and they had no issues with our transportation of firearms and ammunition. Some of the English team were on the same ferry as us and it was not long before they started lobbing obscenities in our direction. Jokes aside, it was good to catch up with some old friends.

The journey seemed to drag on far too long and everyone was displaying symptoms of boredom. Some plans were hatched for future ferry trips to be brightened up by harpooning seals and other wildlife from the ferry’s deck.

The organisers greeted us on arrival and we headed to the range to deposit our guns in the armoury. We attempted to take the minibus over the narrow bridge into the range’s car park. It seemed like a challenge we would have to leave for another day because of the planning involved (and we were blocking the organisers from getting to the range).

The Edelweiss Hotel was shocked by the arrival of some of Scotland’s finest shooters. Panic set in between the owner and his wife and there was a sense of confusion when keys were being handed out. We were given a lecture on using the lift and how to avoid getting stuck in it. The rooms were adequate and, thankfully, clean. The decor was more than a bit strange but we were hungry and beyond caring.

We jogged for 20 mins to the nearest pub 250 metres away and turned the heads of every local drinker in the place on entering. Kicking the door open and shouting ‘Give us all your money!’ was probably not the right way of announcing our presence but it got the barman’s attention. In reality, it was a boring stroll to the closest pub to order some food before heading back to the hotel. It had been a long day and we were looking forward to training the following morning.

Thursday 24 September

After having breakfast, we headed to the Sinclair Range to do some training outdoors. The mission for the day was to get the minibus over the bridge an into the range car park. Mike attempted it initially before James Henderson took over, full of enthusiasm. The bus was lined up precisely under the expert supervision of the team captain. The wing mirrors were folded in and we edged the front wheels on to the old wooden bridge. After carefully creeping the entire vehicle on, James floored it and we sped into the car park leaving a cloud of dust and diesel soot behind! A round of applause broke out and James was declared a legend.

The team gathered all their kit together and set up for the day’s training. I patched several sets of targets because our Scottish heritage prevented us from buying new ones. There was a cool breeze on the range and the shooting conditions were tricky. There were no air rifle training facilities available as the range being used for the competition is only temporary and would not be complete until day of the matches. Kathryn had to make do with dry firing her air rifle on the 50m range. Apart from the target height being an issue, the biggest setback was the cold. Air rifle shooters are seldom exposed to temperatures lower than 20�C and they quickly cease to function unless they are ridiculed, ahem, encouraged by their team mates.

Training went well and everyone was happy with their shooting set-up and the range. We returned to the hotel for a speedy change into our smart clothes before going to The Sefton Hotel for the welcoming reception.

The Sefton is a grand hotel on the seafront with an atrium and an entire bar dedicated to Sir Norman Wisdom. The reception gave the opportunity to meet a lot of the other teams and catch up on the latest shooting scuttlebutt. The technical meeting went smoothly and was done within 30 mins.

Tex-Mex was the restaurant of choice for the evening’s meal and then we had a team meeting to round it off.

Official results from the competition will be available at

27th September 2009

In the Women's Air Rifle Individual event, Kathryn Williamson of Dumfries was just one point from reaching the final a score of 369 ex 400, a mere point off equalling her personal best.

Team manager Graham Rudd is compiling an exclusive event diary for ssra.co.uk and full results will be available soon.

27th September 2009

amended 20th September 2009

9th September 2009

7th September 2009

They may have turned up expecting to die with their wellington boots on at Gagie near Dundee yesterday but Scotland A squad and GB coach Donald McIntosh showed that his boots were made for winning as he took Class A in the last Grand Prix of the SSRA season.  His score of 592 + 102.3 was just enough to see off the challenge of Mike Ozmond - by an incredible 0.5 points. Still, Mike, the man who won the Haig at Forres, could console himself with the fact he won the overall Grand Prix series.

"The wind was fairly light most of the time, but could flare up and we had a bit of movement up and down the range, quite hard to read at times. I lost quite a few nines vertically at the end of the GP," said Donald. "I was playing with some new sights (the Centra Spy rearsight and Crystal foresight) which let me see more flags, but I shot my best card of the day (200 to start) with my normal H�mmerli rearsight...

"I really enjoy getting to shoot a couple of the GPs at the end of the summer, when the international season is over, and it's good to remain competitive domestically, in prone at least, despite how little my job allows me to shoot these days."

Mike found that the flood waters which had affected much of north Fife and Tayside in the previous 72 hours had begun to abate.

"When Cyril [de Jonckheere] started putting on his water-proof trousers we thought that rain was imminent, but it never amounted to more than the lightest drizzle," he explained.

The SSRA Grand Prix series is a serious competition, staged all over Scotland but, as ever in target shooting, there is always room for some lighter moments. "Someone was inspired to launch a few paper boats, possibly as an aid to reading the wind, which was tricky all through the day," Mike went on. "Our biggest concern was that the sun would break through and dazzle us with its reflection in the water."

With only 13 shooters in A and B class, they were all destined to reach the next round as there were 15 places in the Grand Prix itself. Even Northern Ireland internationalist Cliff Ogle, who arrived too late to shoot his first card, still made it into the second round, only shooting 40 shots to count.

After the second round and going into the ten-shot ISSF-standard final, Matthew Thomson and Mike were tied on 590 and after the final they still could not be separated, having scored exactly the same as well. And so, the eleventh shot at the end of the final was used to separate them, and Mike was finally ahead by 0.1, the smallest possible margin, pushing Matthew into third overall on the day. 

Meanwhile, Selkirk's Bill Vaughan won Class B with 594 while Balerno & Currie's Andrew Ross took C class and the overall C&D series title with a 592. Andrew's performance may mean he is bound for Class B next season though, as he admitted ruefully, he should have probably been there already...

"For the first match I found the conditions fairly easy to read and chose to shoot on a light wind from 9 o’clock.  My first match went well, it could have been much better however, but I started thinking too much during my last 5 shots and ended up with a 95." said Scotland Under-21 athlete Andrew who competes with Balerno & Currie as well as Alloa & District. "For a win in the Series I needed to gain three points on Ian Malone. I didn’t have a great shoot and only managed to come away with four points. Fortunately for me though, Ian didn’t manage to pick up any, so in a way I guess I was lucky."

"As per usual the Gagie GP ran without fault, congratulations to Peter, Pat and Jennifer for all their hard work, the shoot would not run without them," said Selkirk's Bill Vaughan. "The first comp went fine for me but the wheels came off in the GP and final, I fired too many wild shots to maintain my lead in the championship. Must try harder next year!"

SSRA's Jim McIntosh reflected on a dramatic finale to the Scottish outdoor season: "There was a chill factor with the wind that caught out a number of the competitors. Other than that the figures and results show that once more if we had any doubt, our great leader (Donald) can still put it on having won the 3P GP at Denwood [on Saturday] then going on to win on Sunday.

"With the final second and third place decided on the tiebreaker , that really does show that we in Scottish ISSF shooting do have quality in depth."

2nd September 2009

In the Women's 3x20 match, England's Sharon Lee was the winner with 566 + 92.3, ahead of Sheena Sharp (562 + 92.8) and Kay Copland (558 + 95.6).  The 3x20 series now goes to the final match, with Sarah Bates on 33 points leading Sheena Sharp on 30.

In the Prone events, shot in calmer weather the next day, the Scots held their own in the early stages, Donald McIntosh winning Class A on countback from Dave Caughey, both on 596 - a PB for Dave - with Sheena Sharp third with a season's best of 594.  Kenny Parr secured another win, this one Class B with 594, ahead of Bill Vaughan and Cyril De Jonckheere on 590.  Maria Bexley shot very well in Class C for 588 and a good win ahead of Andrew Ross on 585 and Mary Melvin on 584.  Class D went to Bruce McIntosh, on 582, ahead of Brian Atkinson on countback, with Peter Gray third on 577.

Sarah Brown won the C+D Grand Prix with 584 from Maria Bexley and Andrew Ross on  581.  Series leader Iain Malone only picked up two points in seventh place, and faces a stiff challenge from Andrew Ross going into the final event at Gagie next weekend.

It was an English 1, 2, 3 in the A+B Grand Prix - an excellent 598 from James Huckle combined with a steady 104.2 in the final giving the young man from Harlow a clear win.  Neil Day picked up second with 594 + 102.0, with Richard Wilson shooting the best final for 590 + 105.4 to sneak ahead of Sinclair Bruce for third.  The series also comes down to the last GP at Gagie, with Bill Vaughan one point ahead of Mike Ozmond, and Cliff Ogle only three more adrift.  Sinclair Bruce can also take the title, but has to win at Gagie with all three of the other shooters getting very few points.

updated 11th September 2009

Neil Stirton won the Earl Roberts British Championship at Bisley on Saturday, four years after coming second in a tie-shoot.  His total of 783, including an excellent 198 on the first card at 100yds, was enough for a one point win over fellow Bon Accord member Jim Cole-Hamilton - the first Scottish 1-2 since John Oliphant and Robin Law in 1992.  Mel Mutch and Hugh Simpson also qualified for the final, taking 6th and 10th places respectively.

In the 3P Championships, Jen McIntosh was third in the women's 3x20, and won the Junior title, with Shirley McIntosh a remarkable 5th shooting in her first match for a number of years.  In the open 3x40 match, Neil Stirton was placed second equal, losing the silver on countback.

Jim Cole-Hamilton was the lone Scot in the GB team that won the Roberts Match against the USA, his third consecutive appearance in this series of matches having been part of the GB teams that lost eight years ago at Bisley by a single point and at Camp Perry in 2005 on the tie-break.  Jen McIntosh also added a GB appearance to her CV, with one of five scores of 400 in the Randle Match - Sheena Sharp participating as Adjutant.

In the Home Countries matches the Scottish Ladies won on a remarkable tie-break.  With their total score equalling that of the English team, and the same split between 50m and 100yds, the match came down to the aggregate of the bottom diagram at 100yds, the victory going to the Scots.  The Main, Junior & 3x20 teams came second to England, with the 3x40 team third behind England and Wales.

In the Club and County team competitions, Aberdeenshire were third in the County Sextette.  Bon Accord won the Astor county club team championship, and the 3P team championship.  They were also second in the Weekend Agg team event.  Sheena Sharp and Mary Melvin came second in the open Pairs competition.

The following table lists some of the Scottish competitors placed in the main competitions of the week, apologies for the inevitable omissions.

Mel Mutch also won the remarkable Chas R E Bell trophy, and the Life & Annual Member trophy.

On the final Sunday, Donald McIntosh - representing Forth & Clyde - came second in the County Champions match.  Hugh Simpson (Caithness) and Graham Shedden (Scottish Southern Counties) also qualified for the final.

26th August 2009

26th August 2009

First off were Fraser Cheetham and Andrew Ross in the 10m Air Rifle event.  They had steady shoots, finishing 14th and 24th respectively.  In the 3x40 match on Wednesday, Fraser equalled his PB with 1101, good shooting on a tricky range.  He finished fourth, having momentarily been third during the final.  Meanwhile, upstairs in the boiler room of the 10m range, Kathryn Williamson produced a PB of 365 to finish 14th.

Fraser, Andrew and Andrew Ozmond tried hard in the prone match to better Scotland's performance of last year, but had to settle for Bronze having each shot 577.  A good team performance, but slightly disappointing for each individual.  In the Air Rifle Grand Prix, Kathryn worked very hard to reach another PB, this one of 370, finishing in silver medal place.

Cyril De Jonckheere, Team Manager/Coach

26th July 2009

There may have been more disbelief than delight when she heard the news but Falkirk's Jen McIntosh  did  complete a hat-trick of Scottish senior titles, winning both the Women's Prone and 3x20 Open Championships on July 26 at Denwood in Aberdeen, one of the training venues for the 2012 Olympics.   

"I think the prone was a bit of a shock," Jen, 18, admitted. "I thought I'd done average/well and I was satisfied with it as a shoot but I genuinely thought they had made a mistake with the score when I saw it."

in fact a new Scottish Junior record , and was two points ahead of Northern Ireland's Louise Aiken, with Sheena Sharp third on 591.  Susan Jackson took third place in the confined Scottish Championship with 589. Jen then went on to break the Scottish Junior records in the Women's 3x20 Match, and equalled the Senior record of 578 originally set by her mother Shirley, in 1998 and equalled by Emma Cole-Hamilton in 2006. Jen added 93.1 in the final for a comfortable win.  

"The 3P record was at the back of my mind because it's my Mum's record and it's been there for far too long," Jen joked, "but  I wasn't really conscious of how my shoot was going score wise."

Once again her meticulous preparation and discipline paid off.  "I wasn't even thinking about the score or the winning, I was more focused on the performance itself," she said.

"The conditions were pretty straight forward, I thought.  Denwood can be a very tricky range and I was prepared for the worst.  Usually when I'm shooting there I just keep an eye out for change in direction but  that weekend you only had to watch for gusts.  A change in direction was only shifting from one side of the ten to the other."

And, while she had had no problems with her kit, she did reveal that her choice of ammunition played a significant part in the performance. " We'd been batch testing at Eley the week before so I had some brand spanking new Tenex to use but I was really confident in it and knew it was really slow (1051) so should be okay in the wind ," Jen explained.     " I'd say that it gave me that edge, both physically and mentally ." 

Despite that confidence there is no danger of this young Scot, who represented her country in last year's Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India,  getting ahead of herself.

"It was still a fantastic performance for me - miles above anything I'd done before."

There were other stunning performances this event too. Kay Copland  made a  superb  debut, taking second place with 564 and a new Scottish Junior Final record of 100.6, with  double 2006 Commonwealth champion  Sheena Sharp in third place on 565 + 96.1.

Jen  is coached in the Scotland set-up by Sinclair Bruce and he took time out to look back on a successful season for her. 

"The weekend was the culmination of a lot of hard work put in through the year," explained the Linlithgow  shooter who competes for the Balerno & Currie and Alloa & District clubs. "Both the Prone match and the 3p match were big Personal Bests for Jen and indicative of the progression that has been happening in small ways through the year. Everything came together and the result was what we saw at the 50m Championships.

"The challenge now is to keep working hard and to keep pushing those PBs on a bit further, hopefully getting more international experience along the way as the performances required to achieve anything abroad are at a much higher level than domestically. As her coach what the 50m Champs indicates to me is the potential she has, remember she is still only 18," added Bruce, a competitor at the 2002 Commonwealth Games for Scotland.

Another one  of the people quick to congratulate Jen on her achievement was Dave Caughey who won the Men's Prone event.

"The big result of the weekend was definitely Jen’s 595," said the 29-year-old from Gartcosh. "It was great to see Jen take such a huge chunk out of her prone PB and those that train with her were expecting it. I know she works hard at it and she deserved a big result. It’s a shame the women don’t get to shoot a final – I’m sure Jen would have beaten most, if not all of the men."

Caughey secured his win in the last competition of the two-day event, which saw a frequent drizzle with overcast lighting conditions atypical for the time of year but, fortunately, limited wind.

"The Men’s prone eliminators were a bit breezy. The wind never got too high, there were just enough gusts that it might have annoyed some people, but not enough that you couldn’t shoot between them," he explained. "Even some good shooters admitted having an 8 or two. The qualifier had similar weather although a few fast moving clouds made the light go up and down a lot.

"Normally at the end of the final, there’s a rough idea who’s won, but everyone had a couple of 9s and the lead was tight going in, so no-one was quite sure until the scores were in."

Caughey's 595 + 103.0 took him ahead of James Henderson with 594 + 101.4 and Mike Ozmond on 593 + 102.0. Even the annoyance of several of the covered firing points taking water did not prevent some excellent scores.

"I was very happy with my shooting," Caughey went on. " 594, 595 is the most consistent shoot I’ve ever had. It was good to shoot good scores with Neil [Stirton] and Jon [Hammond] there. Although my final score wasn’t that good, it was good for me."

There was some good judgment allied to good fortune required to take that title, though, as he freely admitted.

"The thing I’ll remember about the day was shooting the last shot to count in the final on 43 seconds, in a gust, aiming into the 8 ring and getting the only 10.9 I’ve ever shot in a final."

Scores were high also in the Men's 3x40 match - Olympic shooter Hammond a clear winner with 1164 + 93.8 ahead of Graham Rudd on 1154 + 97.2.  There was more of a tussle for third, James Paterson with 1145 + 98.7 overhauling Stirton on 1147 + 95.1 in the last 10 shots.

Entries for the prone events were slightly up on last year with 57 entries in total across the Men's and Women's competitions up from 52 in 2008.

10th July 2009

Mike Ozmond won the Scottish Long Range Prone Championship, or more simply the Haig, at the NSRA Scottish Meeting in Forres today.  Mike got off to a stunning start, with a 199 for his first card, and while he wasn't happy with his 193 for the second card, an excellent 198 finish brought him home on 590, two points ahead of 2007 and 2008 winner Jim Cole-Hamilton, with 2006 winner Bill Copland in third place.  A summary of the final can be found here.

The Home Countries International Matches at the NSRA Scottish Meeting in Forres produced a clean sweep for the Scottish teams this morning.  This is our second clean sweep at the Scottish in the last three years, the fourth consecutive win for the Main Team and the third win in the last four years for the Ladies.  The details of the team scores can be found here.

10th July 2009

The table below summarises some of the results of Scottish shooters at the Scottish Meeting in Forres.  I'm aware that this is not a complete list, and apologies for the many omissions!

Other results included:

10th July 2009

James Paterson won the Scottish Long Range Matchplay Championship, more commonly known as the Freuchie, yesterday.  James defeated Bruce McIntosh and Ian Henderson to lift the Wilkinson Sword trophy, while Andrew McAulay won the Sgian Dhu for the Class C&D Freuchie.

7th July 2009

7th July 2009

The following shooters have qualified for Friday's final of the Scottish Long Range Prone Championships:

20th June 2009

Five SSRA members qualified for the British team in the Dewar postal international at Appleton.  Jim Cole-Hamilton was the second top scoring shooter, with Mike Ozmond on the same score, and Kay Copland, Bill Copland and John Latimer also qualifying.

16th June 2009

Four Scottish Rifle shooters have been selected as part of the Great Britain team for the forthcoming European Championships, which will be held in Osijek, Croatia, in July.  Jon Hammond and Neil Stirton will compete in the Men's Prone and 3x40 matches, Rory McAlpine in the Junior Men's Prone and Kay Copland in the Junior Women's Prone.  They will also be joined by Scottish Shotgun shooters Shona Marshall and Sian Bruce in the Women's Trap and Junior Women's Skeet respectively.  Full details of the team are available on the British Shooting website.

16th June 2009

Graham Rudd was the sole Scottish medal winner at the British 50m Championships last weekend at Bisley, taking silver in the Men's 3x40 event, with James Paterson 4th and Martin Sinclair 6th.  In the Women's 3x20 Jen McIntosh qualified for the final in 3rd place, ending up 6th after the additional ten shots.  Dave Caughey, Mike Ozmond and Mel Mutch qualified for the final of the Men's Prone, ending up in 4th, 5th and 7th places respectively.

In the Home Countries matches, the Men's Prone team lost out to Wales - their first win since in a Prone match since 1909! - by one point, and trailed England in the 3x40.  Both Women's teams fared less well, coming third behind England and Wales in each of the Prone and 3x20 competitions.

11th June 2009

6th June 2009

Jen McIntosh set a new Personal Best of 590 in the Junior Women's Prone at the Shooting Hopes competition in Pilsen this morning, winning the Bronze medal on the tie-break.  The GBR team of Jen, Kay Copland and Wales' Helen Warnes also took third in the team event.

6th June 2009

The second Prone Grand Prix of 2009 saw more fine shooting.  Martin MacGill led the way in the Angus Open, winning Class A with 596, four points ahead of Hugh Simpson and Dave Caughey.  Things were closer in Class B, Patrick Jess on 589 one point ahead of Cliff Ogle, with Cyril De Jonckheere a further point behind.  In Class C James Ross won with 583 ahead of Andrew Ozmond on 583 and Jon Malone on 576.  Sarah Brown was runaway winner in Class D with 585, ahead of Simon Batchelor on 579 and Brian Atkinson on 578.

In the Grand Prix events James Ross secured his second win in the C&D event, ahead of Jon Malone and Bruce McIntosh.  Jon moves into first place in the Series.  In the A&B event there was another fine 596, this time from Mike Ozmond, giving him a four point lead ahead of Bill Vaughan going into the final.  Those two remained first and second after the final, with Hugh Simpson moving up to take third place.  This moves Bill into first place in the A&B series, with the next event in Wick next weekend.

28th May 2009

Kay Copland, Jen McIntosh, Ollie Barron and Rory McAlpine will be returning to Pilsen for the Shooting Hopes competition as part of a combined GBR team with juniors form Wales and Northern Ireland.  Kay, Ollie and Rory will shoot in the Prone events, with Jen taking part in the Prone, 3x20 and Air Rifle matches.  Sinclair Bruce will attend as one of two coaches.  The competition runs from 4th to 7th June.

28th May 2009

Sheena Sharp, Matt Thomson & Dave Caughey will be attending the Danish Masters in Aarhus from 4th to 7th June.

20th May 2009

Neil Stirton came very close to the final in the Men's Prone at the World Cup in Munich, ending up as one of ten athletes in a Shoot-Off for one place in the final on a score of 596.  The Shoot-Off, a new introduction from the beginning of this year, consisted of five shots, scored decimally.  Neil didn't make it through to the final, ending up in 14th place.

11th May 2009

The first Prone Grand Prix of 2009 produced an equal Scottish Record for Hugh Simpson, with a superb score of 599 in the Open section of the competition, winning Class A by a margin of five points ahead of Dave Caughey, with Martin MacGill third one further point behind.  Class B was also won by a substantial margin, James Brown four points clear with 594 ahead of Fraser Cheetham on 590 and John Sinclair on 589.  Things were a little tigher in Class C, Gary Rose winning with 583, one in front of Andrew Ozmond and Mary Melvin.  Ian Henderson takes the award for bandit of the day, winning Class D ten points clear of Simon Batchelor, 586 to 576, with Brian Atkinson third on 574.

Ian went on to win the C+D Grand Prix also, but his 584 was only one point ahead of Andrew Ross on 583, with Simon Batchelor third on 581.

In the A+C Grand Prix, a resurgent Bill Vaughan with 593 led Cliff Ogle and Kay Copland on 592 into the final, with four more shooters on 591 and Mike Ozmond last man in on 589.  Bill shot a very steady 103.8 to extend his lead, with Dave Caughey moving up to second ahead of Cliff in third.

updated 12th May 2009

Thanks to James Paterson who spotted an error and led me to find some others as well!

8th May 2009

The Scottish team of Jon Hammond, Graham Rudd and Neil Stirton broke the Scottish team record for the Men's Three Positions match today in Pilsen, with scores of 1152, 1147 and 1140 respectively.  This adds 12 points to the mark set by Jon, Donald McIntosh and Martin Sinclair in 2003.

The Grand Prix runs for two more days, with Men's Air Rifle and Women's Prone tomorrow and Women's 3x20 on Sunday.

7th May 2009

Neil Stirton qualified for his second international final of the year, with a score of 597 in Pilsen today.  This took him into the final in 6th place, but he was unable to make any progress and finished in 7th.

Neil combined with Jon Hammond on 594 and Martin MacGill on 592 to set a new Scottish Record of 1783 for the Men's Team of Three, adding three points to the score shot by the Scottish team who won at this competition two years ago, and two points ahead of the existing British Record.  Today however the team were less fortunate, ending up just off the podium in 4th, with England's score of 1786 well ahead, denying the Scots a British team record.

4th May 2009

Kay Copland has returned from the ISCH competition in Hannover with a Bronze medal in the Junior Women's Prone event.  An equal Personal Best score of 594, shot with a new rifle she has been using for a month, tied for second place, one point off the lead, unfortunately losing out on the Silver on the tie-break.  This is the first Scottish medal at this competition.

Elsewhere there was some positive results: James Paterson setting a new Personal Best of 1134 in the Men's 3P; fifth place for the Men's Prone team of Sinclair Bruce, Dave Caughey and Martin MacGill; 15th place with 593 for Dave Caughey in the Individual event in only his second International match, along with a solid performance of 591 from Robin Honhold in his first year as a Senior and Ollie Barron just one point away from the Junior Men's Prone final.

With some of the team now home, the remainder have a day of training in Hannover and then make their way to Pilsen in the Czech Republic for the Grand Prix of Liberation, where they will be joined by Neil Stirton and Jon Hammond.

4th May 2009

West Atholl Rifle Club are once again hosting the Scottish Multi-Discipline Shooting Championships 2009 to be held at Blair Atholl on 17th May.  An entry form is available here.  Please note the principal organiser this year, to whom entries should be returned, is Tony Langford.  Mike Baillie-Hamilton will also be assisting.  As usual they would be very grateful if you could circulate this entry form amongst other target shooting clubs of which you are a member.  Please also consider cajoling two others to join you in a concurrent team of three and enjoy a day doing something a little different to your normal shooting.  There is no need to be proficient in all four disciplines - most entrants have only one or two stronger cards.  Coaching and equipment is available in all disciplines.

updated 7th May 2009

Aberdeen University came close to a clean sweep of the team and individual events at the recent British Universities Championships held at Appleton in late May.  Teams from the University won the main event for a team of eight, along with the quarter and pairs, missing out only on the ladies triad.  Kay Copland (Aberdeen) won the Individual Championship, with Emma Cole-Hamilton (Robert Gordons) and Robin Honhold (St Andrews) taking second and third respectively.

4th May 2009

Jen McIntosh won the British Schools Smallbore Rifle Association's short range championship, with a perfect score of 300 in the final round.

15th April 2009

Jim Cole-Hamilton has repeated his feat of winning both the Scottish and British Short Range Prone Championships in the same year.  Jim won both events in 2002, and has achieved the same success again in 2009, with a combined total of 799 ex 800 points across the two finals - 399 successfully defending the "Daily Record" Scottish event, with 400 required to take the British "News of the World" version. 

Andrew Ozmond won the U18 title Scottish title for the Sir Harry Lauder trophy.

15th April 2009

Jon Hammond, Graham Rudd and Neil Stirton have all been selected as part of the small GBR teams which will be competing at the ISSF World Cups in Munich and Milan in the second half of May.  All three men will be taking part in all three events - for more details see the British Shooting website.

15th April 2009

Somewhat belatedly comes news from Dortmund last month, where Neil Stirton produced the best performance in the Scottish team, reaching the final of the Men's Prone with a score of 597.  In a tight final, with four Olympic finalist alongside him, Neil took fifth place.

Elsewhere, there were personal bests for Jen McIntosh in the Junior Women's 3x20 and Fraser Cheetham in the Junior Men's Air.

8th April 2009

8th April 2009

Jon Hammond returns to Beijing later this month, in the company of Neil Stirton, as the two British shooters competing in the second ISSF World Cup of 2009.  Both men will shoot in the Men's Prone and Men's Three Positions events.

23rd March 2009

The following teams represented Scotland in the annual postal international match against North Island, New Zealand:

16th March 2009

The Scottish Air Rifle Championships were held over the last two days at the Scottish Police College in Tulliallan.  The Open title in the Senior Men's event went to Ken Parr, with a steady 590 in the qualification round giving him a three point lead going into the final.  Graham Rudd took second place, winning the confined Scottish title in the process, with Robin Law second in the Confined and third in the Open.  Fraser Cheetham won the Junior Men's title ahead of Andrew Ross.

In the Women's event Jen McIntosh was unchallenged, winning both the Junior and Senior titles with a qualification round of 390, seven points ahead of her Mum, Shirley McIntosh.  Emma Cole-Hamilton took third place in the Senior event with Kathryn Williamson second in the Junior.

Full results will be posted once they become available.

16th March 2009

Aberdeen University won the British University & College Sport indoor team title on Saturday, one of a number of sports combined into a large BUCS finals event in Sheffield.  The team of Ollie Barron, Gordon Cox, Nikki Sammels, Andrew Laurie, Kay Copland and Harry Ball defeated Southampton in the final, helped by a perfect 200 from Ollie Barron.

James Paterson, representing Southampton University, won the Individual Short Range title with a steady 395 three points clear.

16th March 2009

Scotland's Jon Hammond led his West Virginia University team to the NCAA National Championships in the USA.  Jon has been coach at West Virginia now for three years, and had set a target of winning these championships in five years after the reinstatement of the Rifle programme at WVU.  For more details, visit the WVU Mountaineers homepage.

13th March 2009

Cyril De Jonckheere reports from the Speedway final, held last Sunday at Balerno & Currie:

We had a good day with up to 4 possible winners up to the last two details.  Mike Ozmond had a good lead but allowed it to slip in the last two squads, which meant that Richard Simpson, Hugh Simpson and John Sinclair could catch him.  Richard was scuppered by Eddie Jones getting 198 in the last round and John faded as he was worried about the weather getting home with rumours the A9 was closed!  Hugh duly won his match so we had a tie shoot to determine the winner and Hugh's experience won the day 99 to 98.

13th March 2009

13th March 2009

Callander Target Sports Club is celebrating it's Centenary this year with a special Prize Shoot.  In order to be fair to all classes A, B, C & D, we have allocated the same prize money to each:

1st �100

2nd �50

3rd �25

Following the return of your entry form - which can be downloaded here - the relevant number of stickers will be issued for shooting on any day up-to-and-including Sunday 29th March 2009.  The cards will then be returned to an independent marker (Ian Gray from the Perthshire Association) for marking.  We would like to wish you and your shooters - good luck and good shooting.

John W Russell
Perthshire Match Secretary
Callander Target Sports Club

3rd March 2009

The Scottish team will return to Dortmund this month, attending the annual ISAS match held on the excellent indoor facilities operated by the Westphalian Shooting Federation.  The following team is attending:

23rd February 2009

There were medals in the Senior Men's Air Rifle and Junior Women's Air Rifle events yesterday at the British Air Rifle Championships at Bisley.  Graham Rudd took the Bronze in the Men's event, his fourth podium finish in this event in the last six years.  Jen took the Silver in the Junior Women's event, which she had won last year, after a very close final that saw the lead change hands three times.  Jen also won Class A in the Aggregate competitions, her third successive Aggregate win.

The Scottish team of Graham, Jen and debutant Neil Stirton were second in the Home Countries International Match, and unfortunately we were unable to field a Ladies team.

23rd February 2009

Click here for more information.

Shooters McAlpine and McIntosh win medals at Australian Youth Olympics

21st January 2009

Lasswade’s Rory McAlpine, bronze medallist in India, won the gold in the Men's 50m prone rifle event this time around in Sydney.

Falkirk's Jennifer McIntosh, silver medallist in India and daughter of former Commonwealth Games medallist Shirley McIntosh, took the bronze in the Women's 3 Position Rifle, just behind Sheree Cox, the English girl she finished second to in in Pune.

Their medals contributed to an outstanding Team GB haul of 68 - 26 gold, 16 silver and 26 bronze medals.

“I trained incredibly hard for this, I managed to stay relaxed and I’m relieved more than anything that all the work has paid off,” said Rory, after stepping of the plane at Edinburgh Airport today.

McAlpine, who turned 18 last week, showed steely nerves when two of his targets jammed in the final. As a consequence he finished his match 45 minutes after the field but still he produced an impressive 591 points from a possible 600. He was followed into second by Northern Ireland’s Mathew Hall.

“On my first target, the rubber on the target stopped which meant the scoring wasn’t accurate so I had to move to another one,” said McAlpine. “The same thing started happening to that one as well so I had to move to another one to finish. It took a lot longer but the main thing I had to do was keep focussed and keep going.

“I’ve only ever had 591 points in one previous competition and I’m very happy with the score.”

Finishing third in the Women’s 3 Positions was especially pleasing for McIntosh, following on from her fifth place in the air rifle event.

“It feels pretty good and it was a good confidence boost after my air rifle which didn’t go as well as I’d hoped,” she said.

“It gives you that extra push you need now and again to remind you “yes you can do this,” and it makes you want it more. Now I feel I really want to go back to the range and train harder than I did before.

“Yes I got bronze but I want gold. It helps a lot with that drive to train and do better.”

“It was a great experience to be part of a British team that did really well and all the shooters came away with a medal.”

Supporting both athletes in their endeavours is the Scottish Area Institute of Sport network - its expert teams work together to deliver essential support services locally in sports medicine, sports science and strength and conditioning.

“I’m getting physiotherapy support as well as Strength & Conditioning training and I shoot a lot better as a result of going to the gym on a regular basis,” said McIntosh, a member of the Central Scotland Institute of Sport.

McAlpine, supported by the East of Scotland Institute of Sport, said, “Shooting is mostly in your head so it’s good to have the psychology support. I’ve had a meeting to discuss Strength & Conditioning training, which I’ll start pretty soon.”

The AYOF provided the perfect opportunity for McAlpine and McIntosh to prepare for a major Games and test themselves against the best in the world. The experience was highly beneficial to both shooters.

“London 2012 would be incredible but there are a lot of good male prone shooters in Britain, so 2016 could be a more realistic ambition,” said McAlpine.

“It was an amazing experience, to be part of such a successful team and be around athletes from so many different sports, get a taste of an Olympic experience.”

6th January 2009

Graham Rudd will represent Scotland at the 10m Grand Prix in Pilsen between 15th and 17th January, and again at Intershoot in The Hague between 5th and 8th February, where he will be joined by James Paterson.