Our Chichester Away Match

Apologies for the delay in getting this match report out.  It was City's turn to visit Chichester last Thursday for our away match against them.  The last match saw us secure a convincing win against the most eastern of the Portsmouth & District teams (please take a moment to visit and 'like' the association's new Facebook page if you haven't already done so).  However, that was a home match with a full team; this time around, Chichester had the home advantage and, owing to a number of reasons, the City team was far from full strength.

Here's how we did:

Chichester - 479 J. Peart (89) W. Williamson (95) K. Tulloch (96) S. Sadler (96) N. Hayward (93) N. Logan (91) P. Leggett (99) S. Jenkins (90) Reserves C. Wade (83) E. Hawker (81)

Portsmouth City - 492 A. Nevatte (98) S. Hart (95) L. Haskett (100) T. Sommerville (92) G. Scruton (99) I. Cooper (100)

This was quite a score for City (our best this season and equalling our best last season).  Congratulations always go to those, regardless of their team, who score a 100, in this case I. Cooper and L. Haskett, but special congratulations must go to Ms. Haskett for following up her first ever 100 with her first ever match 100!  Well done, Lauren!

Commiserations go to Chichester but, as you can see, they definitely win in terms of attendance.  Our next match is at home and against last year's champions, Sarisbury.

City vs Chichester (Mid Season Report)

Thursday evening saw Portsmouth City's final match before the shoulder-to-shoulder season breaks for Christmas and New Year.  This was actually the home match against Chichester that was supposed to start our season but due to bad traffic conditions had to be rescheduled.  Here's how the shooting went:

Portsmouth City - 486 I. Cooper (96) J. Rowe (96) S. Hart (98) L. Haskett (92) G. Scruton (99) A. Nevatte (95) P. Upchurch (97) T. Sommerville (92)

Chichester - 469 W. Williamson (91) K. Tulloch (90) J. Peart (98) C. Wade (89) S. Jenkins (94) N. Logan (92) G. Hawker (89) N. Hayward (94)

City's score of 486 was sufficient to win the match and although it continues to nudge our season average down, now standing at 487.3, this is an improvement on our mid-season average last year of 486.7.  Both clubs managed to field a complete team of eight and we look forward to facing Chichester again on their own range in 2017.

So we are now at the mid-point of the 2016/17 season.  City has 10 championship points: 5 wins, 2 losses.  In 2017, we'll face every team again and in face of stiff competition from Wickham, Sarisbury and Havant, we'll need to make sure we win every match to be in with a chance of winning the cup this year.

The Duttson and Elizabethan Cup Finals 2016

Last week, the team took part in two finals, a result of some great shooting over the course of the winter season.  The first meeting was for the Duttson Cup.

The 2016 Duttson Cup

On Tuesday, it was the semis and final for a competition that has been running since 1936.  Some of you may remember from last year that City once again reached the final and ultimately lost to Sarisbury (just like the year before).  This time round Sarisbury didn't reach the semis but unfortunately, that didn't end up being to City's benefit.  As there were only three teams in attendance (Chichester, Portsmouth Railway, and Portsmouth City) names were drawn from a hat and Chichester got direct entry to the final and it was left for the two Portsmouth teams to go up against each other in the semi-final.

City seems to face Railway quite a lot at these events - we were up against Railway in the semi-final of the Duttson last year, and this year we shot (and won) against Railway in the local Arthur Lee Cup final.  This is how it went this time.

Portsmouth City - 382 A. Nevatte (96) M. Nevatte (95) I. Cooper (98) G. Scruton (93)

Portsmouth Railway - 385 J. Ring (96) C. Coles (97) K. Hardyman (97) C. Richards (95)

So, this time City had to settle for getting to the semi-finals.  Here was the score for the finals:

Portsmouth Railway - 384 J. Ring (97) C. Coles (95) K. Hardyman (99) C. Richards (93)

Chichester - 385 K. Tulloch (96) C. Smith (98) R. Scholes (92) R. French (99)

So congratulations to Chichester and many thanks to Wayne Dugan and HMS Excellent Rifle Club for the use of their range.

The 2016 Elizabethan Cup

This Hampshire competition was slightly different in that the two teams, Portsmouth City A and Pinewood B shot on their own ranges at different times but both under the watchful eye of Sarisbury's Terry Gleed, who very kindly organises this competition each year.

The Elizabethan is a handicap competition, meaning that it is incumbent on the shooters to achieve a specific score (not 100) that is declared before they shoot.  It was a team of 6, shooting 2 cards each.  As we weren't shoulder-to-shoulder, we don't know Pinewood B's specific scores but here's how we shot:

Card 1 (594) A. Nevatte (h'cap 5) (gunscore 94) (score 99) J. Rowe (h'cap 8) (gunscore 91) (score 99) R. Ashman (h'cap 5) (gunscore 94) (score 99) I. Cooper (h'cap 5) (gunscore 96) (score 99) M. Nevatte (h'cap 5) (gunscore 96) (score 99) G. Scruton (h'cap 5) (gunscore 94) (score 99)

Card 2 (595) A. Nevatte (h'cap 5) (gunscore 93) (score 98) J. Rowe (h'cap 8) (gunscore 91) (score 99) R. Ashman (h'cap 5) (gunscore 94) (score 99) I. Cooper (h'cap 5) (gunscore 96) (score 99) M. Nevatte (h'cap 5) (gunscore 95) (score 100) G. Scruton (h'cap 5) (gunscore 95) (score 100)

So with these scores we were very happy to find out that we had done enough to secure the cup which we will be presented at the Hampshire prizegiving dinner next month.

PCRC is back on form! (2016 Matches, pt 2)

Following on from part 1 of the 2016 match update, here's how our three most recent matches have gone (Spoiler Alert!!! - it's better than part one).

Our away match against Chichester saw another solid yet unremarkable result from the Portsmouth City team (unfortunately pushing our average down every so slightly).

Chichester - 476 W. Williamson (90) K. Tulloch (96) J. Peart (91) C. Wade (94) S. Jenkins (94) N. Logan (97) S. Sadler (95) G. Hawker (81) Reserve N. Hayward (89)

Portsmouth City - 486 I. Cooper (94) S. Hart (97) L. Haskett (97) M. Nevatte (96) G. Scruton (98*) J. Rowe (96) A. Nevatte (98) P. Upchurch (93)

If you are wondering want the start next to G. Scruton's score means, it means that somebody (him) got a penalty point for being a right monkey and shooting twice on one target (see below).

The next match was against West Meon at home:

Portsmouth City - 487 M. Nevatte (99) A. Nevatte (97) I. Cooper (98) P. Upchurch (96) S. Hart (96) J. Rowe (95) R. Ashman (97)

West Meon - 475 G. Stone (92) P. Hannington (96) J. Dalton (99) R. King (92) A. Smith (92) D. Corbett (96) R. Amor (88)

So another convincing solid win and a positive score for our overall average.  From this, we moved on to our penultimate match...

Our most recent match was against Portsmouth Railway Rifle Club.  In this case it was just 7 of us and those that shot well, shot well, those that didn't, didn't.

Portsmouth Railway - 482 M. Carter (95) C. Richards (95) C. Coles (94) N. Perman (93) N. Toms (95) K. Hardyman (98) J. Ring (99) J. Stockham (95)

Portsmouth City - 488 I. Cooper (94) M. Nevatte (94) G. Scruton (98) A. Nevatte (99) S. Hart (98) J. Rowe (89) R. Ashman (99)

So we have one match still to go this season - Wickham at home, who came third last season so it will be important for us to get a convincing win next Thursday.  These are our current stats:

10 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses

Team Average: 486.5
See all the results here.

Portsmouth City vs Chichester (The Home Match)

Thursday evening saw Portsmouth City's third match of the 2015-16 shoulder-to-shoulder season  It was another home match, this time against Chichester, and this time the City team was at full strength and on fine form.

Portsmouth City - 487 I. Cooper (98) A. Nevatte (98) P. Upchurch (97) M. Nevatte (98) S. Hart (95) R. Ashman (96) J. Rowe (95) G. Scruton (94)*

Chichester - 465 S. Sadler (94) C. Wade (88) J. Peart (89) W. Williamson (94) N. Logan (96) S. Jenkins (92)

City now appears to be finding its form with a score of 487, which is on the far more preferable side of the team average last year (485.7) than the 483 or 481 of our other matches this season so far.  It was a pity that Chichester wasn't able to field a complete team of 8 but we look forward to facing them again later in the season on their own range.

So Portsmouth City now has 6 championship points this season.  3 wins, no losses, no draws.  However, we expect more exciting shooting is to come as the first City possible (perfect 100) has yet to be shot and we have a number of matches happening over November.

* P. S.  G. Scruton's poor individual score that led to him being counted out of this particular match is not the reason this match report was late in being posted online... despite the ribbing he received at the match! :-)

Chichester Tile Shoot (Woolgar Challenge Shield)

While most of the time, our club focuses on target shooting using NSRA cards, every now and then we do something a little different...

Last Thursday a number of PCRC shooters participated in a fun evening of tile shooting, very kindly hosted by Chichester Rifle Club.  This was a considerably different form of prone shooting where the aim of the game (pardon the pun) is to destroy your tiles before your opponent destroys theirs.  It's a knock out competition where you need to line up on targets somewhat different to what you might be used to.

The difference in how you shoot these targets is also markedly different!

It was a long evening of shooting that started at 7pm and didn't finish until 10:30pm.  This was due to the four different competitions:

Bolt-Action Individual

All Comers Individual

Pairs

Quartets

There was a separate competition at the beginning of the night for those shooters with bolt-action rifles as it's recognised that these types of rifles have a more complex (and thus slower) unloading/reloading action to the BSA Martinis.

Bolt Action

Martini Action

All 8 of our shooters had a fun time competing in as many competitions as they could enter.

As is so often the case in such competitions, many shooters got knocked out in the first or second rounds, but Gordon Scruton managed get a medal by reaching the semi-final of the All Comers Individual.

Similarly, our pairs worked well together but Jonathan Rowe and Gordon Scruton were just shy of reaching medal positions.

In the Quartets, we had the unlucky situation of the first round being the A Team (Ian Cooper, Marian Nevatte, Gordon Scruton & Jonny Rowe) shooting against the B Team (Mike McCormick, George Barr, Steph Furness-Barr & Dave Reeves).  The A Team went through (sorry B Team) but failed to progress any further.

Congratulations to all the winners, commiserations to all the losers and a big thank you to Chichester, West Meon, Fareham and HMS Excellent for putting together teams to make the night as fun and competitive as it was.

Same time next year!  And next time we'll practise beforehand!

PCRC stays in contention of the championship with another win

As of our match against Fareham B, Portsmouth City is now in joint first position in the Portsmouth & District shoulder-to-shoulder league.  However, if the championship were to be decided based on that, we'd come second based on aggregate score.  Thankfully, there are more matches to be considered.

Since that match we managed to chalk up another 3 wins and I'm happy to say that, despite some ropey shooting from some of the team, tonight we managed to make that 4 wins.

It was a home match this Thursday against Chichester.  Once again, PCRC fielded a full team of 8 and we're very proud to say that we've managed to have full teams at every match this season with one exception - our earlier away match at Chichester.  However, while that previous match saw a respectably high score of 489, tonight Portsmouth didn't quite manage to put its best foot forward.

Here were the scores:

Portsmouth City - 484 D. Reeves (86) A. Nevatte (99) M. Nevatte (93) P. Upchurch (93) J. Rowe (94) I. Cooper (98) S. Hart (100) G. Scruton (93)

Chichester - 479 D. Bishop (96) N. Hayward (94) R. Ellams (96) W. Williamson (93) N. Logan (97) S. Jenkins (96) J. Peart (92) C. Wade (90)

So special congratulations go to Sarah Hart for getting a possible.  Some others on the team need to pull their finger out (including yours truly) to keep the aggregate score competitive.  We will also need to pull things together to challenge Havant next week.

Worthing & West Sussex narrowly edge ahead of Portsmouth & District

On Saturday evening, the first leg of the Potter Bailey shoot was held at Chichester Rifle Club.  The competition sees the combined talents of the shooters of Portsmouth & District lock horns with our neighbour's, the Worthing & West Sussex Smallbore Rifle Association.  Each district team has 12 shooters and the best 10 scores are counted (known as '12 to shoot, 10 to count').  Each shooter has two cards so (doing the maths here... 12 shooters x 2 cards x 2 teams + 1 reserve) there were 50 cards shot.

This was the away match for the P&D shooters and the bitter cold of the Chichester range added an extra challenge!  Portsmouth City's own Marian Nevatte captained the P&D side while Ian Cooper, Adam Nevatte and Gordon Scruton were selected for the P&D team.

The best possible team score is 2000 and the competition is based on aggregate so these scores will be added to the home match which will be shot at Havant Rifle Club on March 14th.  Here's how the teams did:

Worthing & West Sussex - 1953 C. Flaxbeard (94, 95) (Capt.) R. French (98, 100) J. Holdsworth (97, 100) H. Matheson (99, 97) N. Mullins (99, 97) T. Payne (98, 93) G. Ramsey (99, 97) C. Smith (98, 96) G. Smith (96, 100) N. Smith (99, 94) T. Wells (98, 96) J. Whittle (95, 98)

Portsmouth & District - 1945 A. Nevatte (97, 97) G. Scruton (98, 96) I. Cooper (97, 98) S. Dismore (99, 95) T. Gleed (96, 99) F. Horn (99, 99) G. Barber (95, 96) J. Barber (95, 98) M. Frost (97, 96) P. Pearce (99, 98) A. Perry (95, 95) D. Cotton (95, 97) Reserve (Capt.) M. Nevatte (95, 95)

So an 8 point difference over 2000 possible points is really quite close and eminently recoverable.  Well done to W&WSx for pressing their home advantage.  We're all hoping the Havant range will be warmer next month!

Portsmouth City away at Chichester

The Portsmouth City Rifle Club team is going from strength to strength in the shoulder-to-shoulder league, as was shown shooting away at the Chichester range last night - we achieved our highest team score of the season so far!

The scores were as follows:

Chichester - 480 N. Hayward (95) W. Williamson (95) K. Tulloch (96) J. Peart (91) R. Ellams (96) N. Logan (98) S. Jenkins (94) D. Bishop (94) Reserve C. Wade (86)

Portsmouth City - 489 I. Cooper (99) A. Nevatte (97) P. Upchurch (96) S. Hart (97) M. Nevatte (100) J. Rowe (89) D. Reeves (89)

Special congratulations go to Marian Nevatte for a fine return to form by achieving a possible.

Next Tuesday sees PCRC shooting away again, facing the current league champions, Havant.  Bring it on!

Please remember this means that the club will not be open next Tuesday (25th November) but will be open on Wednesday 26th November instead.