[Sept. 10] NTSA AGM

Sparks

rrpc wrote:

We’re talking about reduction, not elimination. There is a curve, and what you’re trying to do is lengthen it, so it doesn’t tail off so quickly.

Precisely. There's a curve, it tails off (though you can reduce the speed at which it does so), and you want to get your match off as fast as you can before that curve falls too far. Which, in 3P or 10m, can happen rather faster than in 50m prone!

It’s the Nationals as you so aptly pointed out below – once a year, not every weekend.

True, and I know at least one shooter who did what you suggested; I just couldn't afford to do it, and a fair few shooters I knew couldn't do it for other, valid, reasons.

And this is starting to sound like nit-picking.

No, it's not. These were all points brought up over a year ago at the committee table. It was pointed out that doing the Nationals this way would reduce participation and performance, and that's what's just happened; participation is down in air and performance is down on all events bar the first one, where people were freshest. And with the exception of 3 or 4 people who were postgrads or happily working near the college (as opposed to all over the country near their homes, or out of the country), the colleges couldn't go. Certainly the colours teams couldn't be fielded as they were in past years (see below). Yes, it's true, there have been fallow years; that happens with college clubs. Scheduling the Nationals at a time in the year where they cannot come is not going to fix that, nor is it going to encourage them. It's a slap in the face to anyone trying to run those clubs, hence the formal protests.

And you haven’t even paid lip service to our country cousins who for years have had to travel to Dublin to attend the Nationals.

Where are the air rifle ranges outside of DURC, UCDRC and WTSC, other than up North? Rathdrum's, though salivated for, isn't ready yet; and while I've heard of Field Air Target being shot elsewhere, I've not seen anything like ISSF being shot, and starting off in the other colleges is difficult without having both a student or two and a permanent member of staff on board with the idea

And accommodation is not that expensive, probably cheaper when you take in the cost of petrol these days. :mad:

Yup, but some of us don't have even that much. Getting to the Nationals meant tightening the belt a bit; staying overnight would have needed a few new holes cut. And that's from a working stiff, not a student. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that this means that we can't use ranges that are far away, and I've taken DURC teams to Comber and EARC before for matches - but if you're expecting shooters to drive 400 miles and shoot, that's a bit too much, especially when they've no time to rest up before shoots. If you stayed in MRC this time, you'd have had a rest before 50m Prone, yes; but 3P would have been shot after a 100-mile drive unless you took two days off work, and you'd still have had to face into a 100-mile drive and an Air Rifle shoot on the Sunday.
(And I'm getting a tad miffed at air rifle getting the crappy end of the stick all the time y'know! )

Don’t change the subject, we are talking about it being difficult in your opinion to travel around for the Nationals.

I was talking about it being difficult to drive 400 miles in one weekend and shoot three or four matches and still put in the best perfomance you've got in them. Have we diverged?

Not about training schedules. But incidentally, if the Nationals are on one weekend don’t we have more time for training?

Of course not! You've (say) six months before the Nationals. You want to train for 50m prone. You train 50m prone for 6 months.
You want to train for air? You train in air for 6 months.
Before this year, you could do both; now you can't. You have to train for air for 3 months and for 50m for 3 months (you'd actually train for both for six, but splitting your time evenly, so you get 3 months in effect, if you follow me). And penalising multi-disciplinary shooters is not a great idea as it'll lead to some serious divisions in the sport and people wondering whether a committee (be it club or NGB) made up of smallbore shooters is going to look out for air shooters properly.

You keep banging on about the hundreds of college shooters, but it seems to me a case of “We hear the bees but we don’t see the honey” :rolleyes:

Honey, albiet a few years old.
eg, the 2002 air rifle nationals:

Scores
Steven Watterson 574 578
Mark Dennehy 543 538
Ray Reilly 544 519
Peter Byrne 531 528
Nithin Santhosh 526 524
Adrian Costigan 488 522
Kate Fanning 491 500
John Keeney 506 483
Rob McAdoo 457 422
Victoria McDowell 426 419
Doug Woolett 378 427
Deirdre Ninaber 537
Ben Jones 533

Prizes Won
Steven Watterson Bronze, National Open; 3rd, Class A
Peter Byrne 2nd Class C, National Open; 3rd Class C, National Championships
Nithin Santhosh 3rd ClassC, National Open
Kate Fanning 1st Class D, National Open
John Keeney 2nd Class D, National Open; 3rd Class D, National Championships
Rob McAdoo 3rd Class D, National Open
Deirdre Ninaber 1st Class D, National Championships
Ben Jones 2nd Class C, National Championship

It does happen rrpc; but you and I both know the college clubs have been in a (relatively small compared to previous years) slump of late, and DURC's had external admin problems causing all manner of hassles. We also both know that the college clubs have always come back from slumps and outshone many other clubs

Well it’s probably a case of RTFS, as I did say 2005 not 2004/05

Entirely possible

Well, we'll see what happens when we put effort into the club instead of the NGB; given the results that produced in WTSC (and DURC when we were doing it), I'd be relatively hopeful
Of course, that doesn't mean that the NGB committee gets off the hook; more that they'll be more firmly on it since we'll have a lot of shooters depending on them, and a fair few coaches and others who won't accept a poor job...

rrpc

OK, I think we've thrashed that one to death. It seems we agree on one thing, and that's that the clubs need to look to themselves first if they want to see the organisation strengthened. My belief is that if we have a vibrant and well run club scene the benefits flow upwards along with the talent.

I am really pleased about the club coach initiative, as you know it's something that's been dear to my heart for a while. I for one will be going forward to take part, and am hoping to get a second rep from Rathdrum on the scheme. If all of the other clubs did the same, there would be a wealth of talent available at that level to bring shooters forward to the next stage.

Taking it all a step further forward should see clubs organising transport and coaching to competitions, something along the lines of the Rathdrum/DRC trips to Bisley that were extremely successful and introduced a lot of shooters to international shooting.