NSRC24 at 3HH

What a day we’ve just had! A variation on the usual National Scout Rifle Championships (NSRC), arranged as a postal competition this year. So to get all the cards shot, we held a day at 3HH HQ for 13 young people and 5 competing adults.

We proudly displayed other trophies won this year from Kingston District, Richmond District and the NSRC 2023 including 2^nd place U14 team rifle, 1^st place U14 pistol and overall national U14 champions Junior Connaught.

We’ll need to wait for full postal results (some point in November). Meanwhile, making the most of the postal cards, we used them to hold an internal competition, adding on Knock Out and Field Target.

As this was the first time we had run this event, there was some learning along the way as the team of willing adults became a well-oiled machine. A huge thank you to: Jon, Alex and Garan for organising the cards, scoring all 1,120 pellet holes and entering them into the spreadsheet; Bill, Thomas and PaulF for running the field target outdoors; John and Maggie for running the indoor range; David for being on hand and counting out the pellets; and PaulC wherever we needed him! Thanks also to Alex for providing much needed milk for teas and coffees; and sweet treats for after shooting.

Two of our shooters have been members of the GB Scout Target Shooting Team. As such they are otherwise known as Elite, and sure enough today they were performing as expected. Our Elite shooters and all adults, were shooting for ‘honours’ only (hons), with gold medals given out to the highest scoring non-Elite shooters shown below in gold. (Junior means U14, senior is over 14):

• Knock-out Junior: finalists Florence v Lily
• Knock-out Senior: finalists Wend v Evie
• Field Target overall out of 20: Isaac 16 beating George on a tiebreak
  • Field Target Junior: George 16 (2nd Digby 11, ahead of Lily and Horatio on a tiebreak)
  • Field Target Senior: Isaac 16 (2nd Thomas 15, 3rd Saken 14 (both hons))
  • As always we offer a Mars Bar to anyone hitting the target furthest away. This year was: Florence, Thomas, George, Isaac, Liv and Digby.
• 6yd Rifle combined U12: Horatio  (2nd Sophie, 3rd Tommy)
  • 6yd Rifle Springer U12: Horatio (2nd Tommy, 3rd Florence)
  • 6yd Rifle PC U12: Sophie (2nd Horatio, 3rd Florence)
• 6yd Rifle combined 12-13: Matilda (2nd George, 3rd Gabriel)
  • 6yd Rifle Springer 12-13: Matilda (2nd George, 3rd Digby)
  • 6yd Rifle PC 12-13: Matilda (2nd George, 3rd Gabriel)
• 6yd Rifle combined 14-17: Saken (Hons) (2nd Isaac, 3rd Evie)
  • 6yd Rifle Springer 14-17: Saken (Hons) (2nd Evie, 3rd Isaac just 1 point behind Evie)
  • 6yd Rifle PC 14-17: Isaac (2nd Saken (Hons), 3rd Evie just 2 behind Saken)
• 6yd Rifle combined Adult (Hons): Thomas (2nd Wend, 3rd John)
  • 6yd Rifle Springer Adult (Hons): Thomas (2nd John, 3rd Wend)
  • 6yd Rifle PC Adult (Hons): Thomas (2nd Wend, 3rd John)
• 6yd Pistol PC Junior: Digby (2nd Matilda, 3rd Lily, beating George on a tiebreak)
  • 6yd Pistol PC U12: Sophie (2nd Tommy, 3rd Florence)
  • 6yd Pistol PC 12-13: Digby (2nd Matilda, 3rd Lily)
• 6yd Pistol PC Senior: Thomas, Saken, Wend, John (all Hons) Evie
  • 6yd Pistol PC 14-17: Saken (Hons), 2nd Evie, 3rd Liv)
  • 6yd Pistol PC Adult (Hons): Thomas (2nd Wend, 3rd John, Maggie just 3 behind John)
• The 3HH & Peake Top Shot U14 award goes to the Junior scout achieving the highest aggregate score out of 650, adding rifle, pistol and field target: Matilda 456 (2nd George 454 (close!), 3rd Digby)
• The 3HH & Peake Top Shot award goes to any scout achieving the highest aggregate score out of 650: Thomas 536.5 and Saken 518 (both Hons) Matilda 456, George 454, Wend 438 (Hons), Evie 429.5

• What were the highest single target card scores out of 50?
  • Rifle Springer: Saken 44, Wend 42, Thomas 41
  • Rifle PC: Matilda 47, Evie and Isaac 46, Sophie and Thomas 45
  • Pistol PC: Thomas and Wend 44, Tommy and Saken 43, Lily 41
• Who got the most 10’s?
  • Rifle Springer: Thomas and Wend 4, Saken 3, Tommy 2
  • Rifle PC: Isaac 7, Maggie 5, Matilda and John 4
  • Pistol PC: Thomas and Saken 3, Lily and Bill 2
• Who got the most 9’s?
  • Rifle Springer: Horatio, George, Isaac and John 4
  • Rifle PC: Matilda 9, Saken, Thomas and Wend 7, Evie 6
  • Pistol PC: Wend 8, Saken 7, Tommy and Digby 6

By way of demonstration and the belief I have in our scouts, I checked out a couple of last year’s NSRC scores and compared them to today’s unofficial marking:

• We scored more than the U14 Rifle winners (we were 2nd last year).
• We scored higher than the U14 Pistol winners (which was us last year!).

Whatever the results, we all know we did our best. Well done to all.