City wins during the Summer Season!

Now that all the scores are in from the various competitions that Portsmouth City shooters were taking part in over the summer, here is how we did!

Hampshire Indoor Summer Postal League

A Team

Winners Division 1

(Ian Cooper, Adam Nevatte, Marian Nevatte, Gordon Scruton) 

B Team

Runners Up Div 3

(Mike McCormick, Dave Reeves, Jonny Rowe, Phil Upchurch)

Portsmouth & District Indoor Summer Postal League

A lot of shooters also took part in individual competitions over the summer and for some of them it was their first competition experience.  In the P&D indoor postal league, special congratulations go to Ian for winning his division, and to Gordon, Jonny, and Mike for coming runner up in their respective divisions.

Gordon Scruton

Runner Up Div 1

Ian Cooper

Winner Div 2

Phil Upchurch

3rd Place Div 5

Lou Stafford

10th Place Div 5

Jonny Rowe

Runner Up Div 6

Adrian Fallows

7th Place Div 8

Mike McCormick

Runner Up Div 10

Dave Reeves

5th Place Div 10

Civil Service Indoor Summer Postal League

The Civil Service indoor postal leagues provided the first match experience for George, Mark, Paul, Mike Carpenter, Dave Allen, and Dan.  Well done to all of them for completing their first shooting competition.  Special congratulations go to Phil, Jonny, Mike Hellyer, Paul and David Owen for winning their divisions.

Gordon Scruton

3rd Place Div 1 

Phil Upchurch 

Winner Div 7 

Jonny Rowe 

Winner Div 10 

Stephanie Furness-Barr 

Runner Up Div 11 

4th Place Ladies’ Div 1 

Mike McCormick 

Runner Up Div 16 

Dave Reeves 

Runner Up Div 10 

Mike Hellyer 

Winner Div 19 

George Herron 

Runner Up Div 19 

Mark Lipsham 

4th Place Div 19 

Paul Scrivens 

Winner Div 20 

Adrian Fallows 

Runner Up Div 20 

Mike Carpenter 

3rd Place Div 20 

Dave Allen 

4th Place Div 20 

David Owen 

Winner Div 21 

Dan Carpenter 

Runner Up Div 21

Eastern Region Summer League

Gordon Scruton

Runner Up Div 2

Jonny Rowe

Winner Div 7

Dave Reeves

Runner Up Div 11

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! :-)

City vs Fareham

The season continued this evening in City's second match of the season.  It was another home match, this time against against Fareham and here's how it went.

Portsmouth City - 481 I. Cooper (98) M. Nevatte (96) A. Nevatte (95) G. Scruton (99) P. Upchurch (92) D. Reeves (92) R. Ashman (93)

Fareham - 473 N. Grimstead (96) D. Spendlove (98) D. McCourt (96) M. Capewell (89) D. Blake (94)

It was an enjoyable night but a disappointing match as neither team was at full strength (remembering that match teams should have 8 shooters on the team, with the best five scores getting counted in).  Nonetheless, despite another low team score, PCRC benefited from the home range advantage, and healthier team numbers and achieved a win.  It's another home match against Chichester next week and then we have our first away match against West Meon in mid-November.

City vs Havant (The 2015-16 Shoulder-to-Shoulder Season Kicks Off)

Last night saw City's first match of the 2015-16 Portsmouth & District shoulder-to-shoulder season.  We were runners up last season, narrowly losing out to Sarisbury, so we were keen to start strong this season with a view to having another swing at the championship cup.  It was a home match against Havant and here's how it went.

Portsmouth City - 483 M. Nevatte (97) A. Nevatte (97) I. Cooper (97) G. Scruton (97) S. Hart (95) L. Haskett (92) J. Rowe (95)

Havant - 480 D. Cotton (96) T. Brown (95) S. Lavin (86) J. Allsop (94) A. Perry (96) A. Morley (96) J. Alexander (92) L. Hanna (97)

So while the team scores on both sides were a little lower than we would both like, PCRC managed to capitalise on the home range advantage and achieve a win.

Jonny and Sarah's 95s were both competing for a spot on the scoring team (the rules of the matches are 8 in the team, best 5 scores are counted in).  First the number of bulls were considered (both the same), then the number of shots requiring the gauge (the same), and finally it came down to the number of absolute bulls (where the middle spot was completely taken out).  Based on this, Sarah's card was deemed the superior card.

This gives the team it's first two championship points and we look forward to our next match in a couple of weeks against Fareham.

Members' Fun Shoot on 15th September

To celebrate the end of a very full and fun summer season of shooting (everyone shot all their cards - results will be coming in soon), the rifle club will be having a fun shoot for all members to come along to on Tuesday 15th September!

It will be a tile shoot (click here for more information about what that is) and there will be prizes.  There will be no £2 range fee, just £5 entry for the tile shoot but we'll be including tea, coffee, biscuits... and homemade cake!

The winter competitions are just round the corner so this should be a nice opportunity for people to come back to the club if they've been away for a while.

Look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.  Please contact Gordon if you intend on coming, as he'll need to know teams to organise the competition.

Portsmouth City is well represented at the Bisley National Meeting

This weekend three of our members, Marian Nevatte, Jonathan Rowe and Michael McCormick, took part in the NSRA/ELEY final up at Bisley.  These three had already proven themselves by getting through the 1st and 2nd rounds of this national competition, so now they were able to simply enjoy the experience of shooting outdoors at the annual national competition.

I'm pleased to say that Mike McCormick, in his first experience shooting outdoors, achieved 9th place in Class F.

Jonathan Rowe, taking part in his second ELEY final, bested his 7th position last year in Class F and this year achieved 4th place in Class E.

And our club captain, Marian Nevatte, did us all proud by getting 6th place in Class B!

Here were their scores (they were shooting two sets of cards at 50m outdoors).

M. McCormick - 170 (79, 91), 182 (91, 91)

J. Rowe - 185 (91, 94), 192 (97, 95)

M. Nevatte - 192 (96, 96), 188 (95, 93)

If any of you would like to try this next year, let one of the committee know down at the club so that we can add your name to the list of competitors for the NSRA/ELEY match next season.

Spot takes one for the team...

Click here to see full size.

The Newmarket Results

A couple of months ago several members of PCRC took part in a short 4-card postal competition run by our friends up at Cambridgeshire Target Shooting Association, Fred & Sandra Haskett.

Here's how the Portsmouth City shooters did in the 2015 Newmarket Competition:

Gordon Scruton (2nd place, B Class)

Jonny Rowe (2nd place, C Class)

Lauren Haskett (3rd place, Ladies C/D/E)

Gordon Scruton & Ian Cooper (2nd place, A/B Pairs)

Jonny Rowe & Phil Upchurch (3rd place, C/D/E Pairs)

Well done to everyone who took part.  We'll be back next year.

Come down to the range for a game of Tennis!

The above topic line might have you confused (tennis in a shooting range?).  Those of you who are not new to shooting may well know this game by another name, but I know it as 'Tennis' and it's a great way to keep practice a little more fun and competitive.

Here's how it works:

You need two shooters (A & B), one target, and one umpire.

Both shooters are given time to sight themselves in.  After this, a numbering of the 10 targets is agreed.  For example:

By virtue of a coin toss, A goes first.

The umpire randomly selects a target and calls out its number.

A shoots that target first, then B shoots the same target.

The umpire sees who has gotten closer to the bull and declares the winner of that target.

The umpire selects another target.

B now shoots first, followed by A.

The umpire declares the winner of that target.

This continues until all 10 targets are shot.

Shooters get 2 points per target won, 1 point for a drawn target and 0 points for a lost one.

Here's how it benefits your shooting:

It's easy to get stuck in a downward spiral and stop trying if you know the card is going to be a bad one.  This is a bad thing as what's important to remember is that a lot of this sport and some of its competitions are won or lost based on average - so for the sake of your overall average it's still worth making every shot count (even if it's a bad card overall).

Tennis is a great way to get into the habit of focusing on your current shot, not the one you've just taken or the one that comes next.  It's 10 one-shot games and once you've done one target you move on and focus on the next target.

Umpire-less Tennis

It is possible to play a game of tennis without an umpire.  Providing both shooters have a spotting scope to see where their shots go, A selects the target, B shoots first followed by A.  This alternates from shot to shot until the card is finished.

Range Etiquette

The rules on most ranges are that you must be quiet on the firing point and not do anything that might distract a fellow shooter.  This being the case, Tennis can really only be played if the two competitors have the detail to themselves (or providing any other shooters on the same detail are comfortable with the talking required during a tennis match, but this is quite unlikely).

Havant Outdoor Double Dewar

This Sunday saw Havant host their annual Double Dewar competition.  A double dewar is two cards at 50m and two more at 100 yds - 80 competition shots in all.  I'm pleased to say that Mrs Marian Nevatte achieved 3rd Place in B Class.

Well done, Marian!