The Old Alleynian Shooting Club Club Captain: Peter Leggett (68-76) Hon Secretary: David Nicholson (59-67) Email: davidn3004 @ gmail.com Web: facebook/ OldAlleynianShootingClub After a long period of stability, other established members are now starting to retire from the sport so it’s fair to say that the OASC is undergoing a period of change. The club is Home Office approved. That status allows us to hold a club rifle and train new members into the fine art of full bore target shooting. But we need to maintain sufficient active members to continue to operate in the same way. Since the demise of the small bore range at the College, the CCF is the most likely introduction to shooting for the boys and this limited opportunity has had a big effect on our intake. 2016 has been a sad year for the club in that it has lost two of its longest standing members. Gary Tuckerman (35-39), ex secretary, treasurer and OASC member since 1954, passed away in April. This sad loss was followed in July by a much younger member, Richard Hurnall (70-75), both will be missed by the club. The year began with a recruitment drive and we found six young hopefuls looking to try the sport. Some are OAs and some are friends and family who can join as associate members. The team meets at the National Shooting Centre at Bisley in Surrey and we held some training days in the spring. A full bore rifle can be a bit of a handful but
most of the new recruits had some experience and early signs were promising. This year it was the turn of the OASC to arrange the ‘Q’ Matches - a series of competitions between eight old boys’ teams shooting at ranges between 300 and 1000 yards. This gave some of our fledgling members a chance to refine their skills under competition conditions with the full support of the established crew. The results were understandably mixed and, as expected, we were not amongst the top team scores. But the weather Gods were generally kind and it was a great experience. In other inter-school matches, Wellington retained the Lane Shield and the Quadrangular Cup was won by the Old Marlburians. Congratulations go to Richard Starr (80-89) who achieved the best OASC score of the day at the Public School Vets match in July. He wins the Christmas Cup. As well as shoulder to shoulder school competitions, the club has a valuable array of trophies donated over the years that are contested at internal club shoots. This year we added two new trophies, the Tuckerman Tankard and the Sturges Shield. The Tuckerman Tankard shoot gave us an opportunity to try something new - the latest addition at Bisley, electronic targets. These were an instant hit with the team. (Pun intended.) The traditional method of scoring is by employing local teenagers who manually mark the targets at the Butts. With electronic targets, the system uses a calibrated sensor to plot the point of impact
and show it instantly on a computer screen. The results are immediate and accurate to decimal points. This allows you to maintain a steady rate of fire which is a big advantage for precision target shooting. The end of the year is always marked with the annual shoot against the Old Albanians. This year marked the 80th Anniversary and the OASC entertained the other OAs at the North London Rifle Club. Although Dulwich has a marginal majority of wins over the decades, the Old Albanians have had a good run and retained the cup for another year. As ever we thank the Alleyn Club for their generous support of our activities. Our recruitment drive continues and we welcome enquiries from anyone interested in taking up the sport. We have all the specialist equipment you need to get going so feel free to contact us for more information. Remember, you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start in order to be great.
Peter Leggett
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