[Feb 17-19] British Airgun Championships 2006

Sparks

Following on from last year's strong showing of the Wilkinstown team in the NSRA British Airgun Championships (taking home several medals including the silver in the Junior Men's Championships), Wilkinstown is again sending a team (this time with more shooters and more support staff) to the Championships.

From the WTSC website:

British Open 06
Contributed by Geoff Cooney
Monday, 09 January 2006

Plans are well advanced for our club's participation at the British Open in Feb 06. This match has become one of the main events in our club year and this year we are sending a formidable and experienced team to compete.

The match will involve our shooters shooting three air rifle matches over the weekend with the British Open being shot on the Sunday. We are confident of a number of good performances over the weekend.

In addition to our mature and seasoned members who are competeing we are also introducing a number of new stars who are begining on the ladder of International shooting and we wish them all well.

British Open 06
Contributed by Geoff Cooney
Friday, 03 February 2006

The final count down for Bisley has begun. By this time all of our shooters should have recieved notice of their bookings and have their detail times.

Now, with two weeks to go, is the time to start going over the fine details of the trip. Checking the gear and making any final adjustments to kit is important. Also too is making sure you have all the required paperwork in place and close to hand! Taking note of the competition time table and considering how this timetable is going to impose itself on your lifestye. what time is my detail? When should I go to the range, What time is bed time, what time will I get up at, how will I be able to get something to eat and so on.

So wishing all our shooters all the best, here's to a successful trip, Shoot well, no careless shots, keep focused and in control and enjoy it!

I've managed to figure out how to get my laptop to use my phone's 3G stuff so I'll have internet access while there, so hopefully I'll be able to post photos and scores and so forth while we're over there, both here and in my training diary (thanks to boards.ie for that site, btw). Wish us good shooting - we've got serious contenders for podium finishes in at least two and possibly three categories for the overall championships and class medals all over the place, and this is what we want to see on the day: an Irish shooter out in first place in the Finals!

Sparks

From the WTSC website:

British Airgun Open 2006
Contributed by Geoff Cooney
Wednesday, 15 February 2006

The final arrangements for this match are now swinging into place. Our team of 13 shooters is preparing to set out tomorrow for Bisley and for three great days of exciting shooting. Spirits are high in the team camp and a good trip is expected.

Friday is the first day of the competition and will see our shooters on the practice ranges early. while practice is going ahead, each shooter will have to present themselves and their kit for equipment control. Following this, there is a short break to grab something to eat and then commence preparation for the match which commences later that afternoon. All of our shooters are in action on Friday and we are expecting good scores to be recorded by all.

Saturday sees most of our shooters in action again and we are confident too that the successes of day one will be repeated and if possible improved upon.

Day three sees the British Open match proper and all our shooters are back on the line, again in this match we are expecting good performances from all our shooters.

Our guys and girls are well prepared for this match and are up for it. Outcome? like in most sports, hard to call, a little bit of luck is always welcome! If some of our squeaky shots score as squeaky tens! Who knows? So here's to lady luck! May she smile on us this weekend!

Home Sunday - to Party!

Sparks

Okay, I'm moving this one out of the This Weekend's Events as we're heading off tomorrow morning. I'll try to get updates and results and photos posted from there, assuming my jury-rig of 3G phone, laptop and bluetooth dongle all work right!

Clash

Sparks wrote:

Okay, I'm moving this one out of the This Weekend's Events as we're heading off tomorrow morning. I'll try to get updates and results and photos posted from there, assuming my jury-rig of 3G phone, laptop and bluetooth dongle all work right!

Obviously not then

les45

Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sparks

Clash wrote:

Obviously not then

Unfortunately true. Turns out this 3G malarky isn't as widespread in the UK as here - not a peep of a signal from Bisley camp
Still, have some photos and stuff that I'll put up as soon as I can. Not great news though Our lads came in just outside the medals and everyone's performance was down on last year I didn't get anywhere near my goal of 580, and started horribly (553,551) but managed to come back a little in the Championships (562) and won my class in the ACI/Feinwerkbau match (377/400). If the Championships had class prizes, I'd have won my class there as well. Still though, it wasn't a holiday of a trip - it was like a sandblaster to your shooting ego!

An interesting point was that there were only 35 juniors on the line over there and 7 of them were ours!

Rew

Stick to GPRS, 3G is for posers

Sparks

Couldn't even get GPRS Rew
(They're a bit behind the times over there )

Vegeta

congrats sparks

Rew

Sparks wrote:

Couldn't even get GPRS Rew
(They're a bit behind the times over there )

Thats stone age!!

Sparks

Vegeta wrote:

congrats sparks

Meh veg. It was a fairly awful score for me And for a few others. It was a very good stress test and we found a lot of technical things out about how we were shooting that we needed to know, and I think that we're going to improve a lot because of it - but still. From 569 to shooting a 551! Argh!

Vegeta

well i mainly meant congrats for gettin out there and being part of a fairly successful trip but as you said yourself you never get nothing from a competition like that!

Sparks

True. Bloody expensive for a training trip mind!

rrpc

Rew wrote:

Thats stone age!!

Forget about 3G and GPRS when travelling abroad. There are too many variables over which you cannot get enough data, to be sure of making a working connection. The best bet is to look for Wi-Fi hotspots in the area you are going to. Some of these are free, so there is no cost implication. I did a quick search on Wi-FiHotSpotList.com and found 55 hotspots within a 10 mile radius of Bisley Camp!

Sparks

Good luck getting outside Bisley Camp when you've got a party of 27, half of them under 18 RRPC
I had asked around beforehand and there was supposed to be one or two options in the camp, but in the end it was just too much to try to get to them after a full day's shooting. I could have just about managed 20 minutes of net time at the end of the day, but that would have been it.
Oh well. I'll post what I have by day's end here, hopefully.

Sparks

From the WTSC website:

British Open 06
Contributed by Geoff Cooney
Tuesday, 21 February 2006
What a weekend! 13 shooters, three matches, loads of emotion, lots learned, new PB's and a few prizes also. Not bad for a wee club in Meath! To write the full account now would take days so here is the very brief notes. Three of our members qualified for the finals, two in mens's junior air rifle and one in ladies junior air rifle in the British open 2006. Damien qualified in fifth place for the final and shot an excellent final after a bit of a shaky start, to hold fifth place. Liam qualified for the men's junior final in seventh place but was placed eight at the end. Susan, in the junior ladies match qualified in sixth place, and in an excellent final where she scored 100.1 /109, she gained two places to finish in forth place overall. Well done you all.

That is the first bit of news. The competition was organised about a three match program. In the first two matches the scores were combined to create an aggregrate match scored out of 1200 points. All of our shooters shot this aggregrate match as individuals. On day three was the British Open proper and again all of our shooters took part here also. These matches were subdivided into class matches and some of our shooters fared well in their respective classes.

New match PB's were recorded by Jim, Shane, Damien, Elizabeth, and of course how could we leave out Paula!

I think Damien and Paula won class prizes, which ones I'm not sure! Mark, I think, won his class in the ASI match. Wilkinstown team A of Liam, Damien and Susan came second in the club competition. More details later when we get the official results back.

For the most part an excellent trip where the logistics worked very well. A trip with it's share of emotinal ups and downs, delight at new PB's and despair at low scores.

Special thanks are extended to all who worked so hard to make this trip work, to Leslie for all the paperwork and running around organising the details, To Leslie and Marie for driving the buses everywhere people wanted to go. To Paddy and Dick for going the land sea route to make it possible to get the gear to Bisley and also to allow the team to get through air ports easily. To Matt, for his wisdom, concern, clear vision and steadying hand at difficult times. To all the shooters who trained so hard for this event, Well done. To Clare and Pat for coffee just when you needed it most. To Paul, Marina and Laura for spotting, to Anne Gerard and Mary for coming all the way over to support. I'm sure I've left someone out and if so I'm sorry. Please let me know and I will correct it. A fuller account will be given when we get the official results back from Bisley.

Well done all take a few days off. But remember training for the British Open 2007, started yesterday!

Comments
Well done.
Written by blackadder on 2006-02-22 14:45:57
To the shooters who trained hard, Well Done. To the support personnel, it's great to see such commitment and dedication to your club. Now it's time to learn the lessons and apply them for the future.
Much learnt!
Written by admin on 2006-02-22 14:55:07
And to all of us who got a big dose of sandblasting to our confidence in our shooting, remember that we learnt more in six hours of shooting under pressure like that, than we learnt in six months of training in comfortable conditions!

Sparks

And here are some photos from the weekend. They're not all polished yet, and many are 1.4Mb in size so be careful if you click on the thumbnails!

les45

So the dust has settled, now its time to dig out the ear muffs ,polish up the eye protection and get in practice for the honour of the" Best Pistol Shooting Club In IRELAND", seriously ,well done on sending and funding a team to a High Profile Event, without the efforts of a dedicated few such trips would not take place. I look forward to our weekend of fun and banter next June when of course the old ,overweight ,short sighted old farts will beat all comers !!!!!!!!!!!!.

Sparks

Got the prize lists today, the score sheets are on the way. I've highlighted the WTSC shooters. Not a bad haul; 4 gold medals, 2 silver medals, 3 bronze medals, 3 certificates (for those who made it to the finals but not the podium) and 4 cash prizes. There are also the proficiency badges and medals to be applied for yet, no idea as to how many we got there, but it'll be a fair number.

I still say we can do better, mind

Les, I'm taking a good solid week off, and maybe next week too! But after that, we'll start down the road to stomping all over the old, overweight, shortsighted old farts

Sparks

From the Wilkinstown website:

British Open 06
Contributed by Geoff Cooney
Thursday, 23 February 2006
The Prize winners in the British Open airgun match have been recieved today. Full results have been posted and are expected to arrive in the next day of so. When they come I will put up a full listing of how all our team performed.

Club Team Event:
Wilkinstown A team:
Fagan, Spillane and Cunningham S - Bronze medal

British Open Junior Men Air Rifle:
Fagan 5th place: Certificate.
Spillane 8th place: Certificate.

British Open Junor Women's Air Rifle:
Cunningham S 4th place - Certificate.

Aggregate Comp 6:
Class C Cunningham P Gold medal

Aggregate Comp 8:
Class A
Fagan Silver medal
Class C
Cunningham P Silver medal

RNLI Competition:
Class A
Fagan Second place
Class B
Smith Second place
Class C
Cunningham P First place
Flynn Second place

NSRA Life and Annual Members:
Class C
Cunningham P Gold medal

ASI / FWB competition:
Class B
Dennehy Gold medal
Class C
Cunningham P Gold medal

Congratulations to all our winners. Three Cheers for all Hip! Hip!..........

Comments
Progress...
Written by admin on 2006-02-23 19:22:54
Last year, three medals, one finals place and two PBs set on the range. This year, four gold medals, two silver, three bronze, four cash prizes, three finals places and five PBs set.

Onwards and upwards...

Sparks

Some photos from the Championships:













Brother and sister shooting together.


That's how you do it!




Sisters shooting together!


Geoff watching his shooters

Sparks

The full WTSC team with support staff and coaches.


The WTSC shooters.