all of the clubs could raise a team this year, which is a sign of the times. Those that did attend were treated to (mostly) dry days and some close battles at the top of the leader board. Fun as that is, we tend to see a wider spread of individual scores within our ranks. We raised a full team for the Public School Veterans shoot, part of the Imperial Meeting at Bisley in July. Congratulations to Neil Blaydon (56–62) who
Old Alleynian Shooting Club
Centre. We split the group into two teams for a spot of competitive marksmanship and were pleasantly surprised at the level of experience we found. Many thanks to the Master in Charge, James Rosslyn-Smith, who drove the boys down for the afternoon. We have long lamented the demise of shooting at the College as a curricular activity. The resulting lack of interest from leavers, who were never introduced to the sport, is having a lasting effect on the membership and future viability of our club. We sincerely hope that the success of this event may encourage the College to consider offering some form of target shooting activity on a regular basis. between eight independent schools’ alumni teams. Spread over three days in April, May and June, we shoot against St Albans, Bedford, Cranleigh, Framlingham, Lancing, St Lawrence and King’s College Wimbledon. These matches include the longest ranges of the year, at 900 and 1000 yards. Not Annual competitions in our calendar include the trilogy of Q matches
won the Christmas Cup as top gun in the OASC. We have three other club competition trophies during the year. The summer months gave us bright sunshine for the Sturges Shield, the Tuckerman Tankard and the Club Championship where we compete for the Stringer Cup. Each of these trophies celebrates the legacy of past members and offers keen competition between current members. Conditions stayed bright enough for the Quadrangular Cup shoot in September against past pupils of Wellington, Marlborough and Bradfield. Each of these has a strong school team that also attends the day for inter-college matches. The Lane Shield trophy is shot concurrently as a two way between the OASC and the Old Wellingtonians. Despite a reasonable showing from our best shots, the OAs struggled to compete with the opposition, which includes members of the UK squad. The Lane Shield is an enormous trophy and, to be honest, I am not sure where we would put it if we won it again anyway.
We started the year in an excellent position: our licence as a Home Office approved shooting club was up for renewal, but luckily the anticipated punitive costs for the process were not introduced by the Government. Our application went through very smoothly at the old fee rate. As long as we retain enough members, we are able to offer training and club equipment to new shooters for another six years. We headed off to Bisley in March to dust off the rifles at a well-attended practice session using electronic targets. This year we were encouraged to see regular appearances from junior members Edward Starr and Alex Fordham, both pupils at the College and introduced to the club by their parents who are long-standing OASC members. The next event was to welcome 12 boys from the College CCF at a guest day held at the National Shooting
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