Four decades of rubbish!

The rifle club moved to its current premises in 1975.  Over that time it has seen over 350 members call the current range their shooting home.  And that number of people requires lots of kit and equipment.  Unfortunately, the club has not been particularly good at adhering to that old 'one in, one out' rule when it comes to replacing old furniture or equipment, and thus we've slowly been amassing 40-years-worth of junk.

So it was time for a clear out!  With the kind help of club members volunteering their Sunday morning (and afternoon if we're honest), we got through a lot of stuff and uncovered a little bit more club history in the process.

Tom, David, Shaun and Dave clearing out the second club room.

Some of us were surprised to learn that there is in fact... drum roll please... a second club room!  We've spoken to veteran shooters in other clubs and they remember this room very well - apparently when shoulder-to-shoulder matches took place at Portsmouth City, the guest team were given their own club room and no interaction between teams was allowed!  (How bizarre!)  However, for some time now it has been used as a storeroom for everything whenever we had to tidy up.  No longer!

Many thanks to the clear-out crew!  (Adam, Dave, David, George, Gordon, Shaun and Tom)

CSI Tom stands proudly alongside George and Adam in the now empty second range.

And also a shout out to Rubbish Clearance Portsmouth who, despite being a little surprised (they weren't the only ones) at the volume of rubbish we had to dispose of, dealt with it quickly and with smiles on their faces.  We've got your number for next time! :-)

Is that a grin or a grimace at how much more there is still to clear out?

And more...

And yet more!

Getting it all into the trucks was fun.  Sorry to the neighbours for any noise.

But it all went and the alleyway was left as tidy as we found it.

And parts of the range were left considerably tidier than we found them!

The 2016 Summer Report, pt 1: The ELEY Final

It will not have escaped the notice of some of you that it has been some time since I’ve contributed to this blog – many apologies. Here’s a summary of how the club and its shooters have been doing over the summer:

Portsmouth City was proud to send 5 shooters to the NSRA/ELEY final this year. This was an excellent number to get to the 50m outdoor final from a total of 12 shooters who took part in the competition. For J. Rowe and M. McCormick, this competition was about besting their scores and standing compared to last year, while at the same time being in higher, more competitive divisions. While for the ladies, this was L. Haskett and T. Rowe’s first time shooting in these finals and thus their first experience of the infamous wind on the Century Range.

Here’s how everybody did:

G. Scruton (191, 188 – 379), Class A: 20th place

J. Rowe (192, 186 – 378), Class C: 4th place (achieved 4th place in Class E last year: 185, 192 - 377)

L. Haskett (189, 185 – 374), Class E: 2nd place

M. McCormick (177, 179 – 356), Class E: 7th place (achieved 9th place in Class F last year: 170, 182 - 353)

T. Rowe (179, 177 – 356), Class F: 9th place

So overall it was a great Sunday afternoon of shooting for Portsmouth City.  The next post will stay outdoors and review some of the other 50m and 100yd matches that City shooters have taken part in over the summer.

Five Portsmouth City Shooters Get to the NSRA/ELEY Final!

So after two rounds of four cards each, we now know which of our shooters have now earned a place at the ELEY final at Bisley this year:

A Class: Gordon Scruton (1st Round: 393; 2nd Round: 396)

C Class: Jonathan Rowe (1st Round: 384; 2nd Round: 387)

E Class: Lauren Haskett (1st Round: 371; 2nd Round: 383)

E Class: Mike McCormick (1st Round: 379; 2nd Round: 378)

F Class: Tamsin Rowe (1st Round: 364; 2nd Round: 367)

So, congratulations to Jonny and Mike for repeating their achievement of last year and getting to the final once again.  The match will be 50m outdoors at Bisley on August 14th.

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