Bisley Imperial Meeting News 2020
The annual Imperial Meeting has been run continuously since that first held at Wimbledon in 1860 with the exception of the world war years 1914-18 and 1939-45. This year's meeting, the 151st to be held, had to be restructured to meet the restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic. The normal twelve sections running from mid-June to late-July were much reduced. The Match Rifle and Target Rifle programmes were made up of individual competitions and aggregates. All the international and some other team shoots were excluded and arrangements made to maintain social distancing to prevent spreading the virus between competitors.
Concerns over infection and travel restrictions particularly effected the target rifle entries with the Queen's Prize having only 318 entries against last year's 884, and 2018's approximate 750. Participation in the competitions in the Grand Aggregate was similarly reduced.
The Match Rifle entries were also effected with the Hopton attracting 75 entries as against 132 and 107 in the two prior years.
Match Rifle results
Six Nottinghamshire shooters competed in the Match Rifle programme held at the end of August. Four were from Old Nottinghamians RC and two from the Hopton Supper Club.There are seven individual competitions all included in the Hopton Grand Aggregate and several other aggregates made up of various combinations of scores.
The leading scorer was Mrs F K Day who was 21st in the Hopton for which there were 132 entries. Mrs Day's best ranking was 10th in the Cottesloe with a maximum possible score of 100 with 12v from 20 shots. Mrs Day was highest placed in six of the seven individual competitions; the exception being the Wimbledon MR where she was second to Mr R P Rosling, in 23rd place, by one point and one V-bull.
Not everyone entered the aggregates in addition to the Hopton, and no-one made an aggregate placing higher than 30th.
Full details of the individual, aggregate and team scores.
One of the regular team matches was held this year: The FW Jones for club teams of four. For the last five years this has been held by the Hopton Supper Club team. On this occasion Mrs F K Day was the only Nottinghamshire shooter to be selected for the team, which had the pleasure of retaining the trophy for yet another year.
Target Rifle Results
The TR programme started on Friday 11th September and ran through to Saturday 19th. Conditions throughout were near perfect but with challenging wind changes to catch the unaware. There were programme changes from the traditional order of things. There were still 12 competitions in the Grand Aggregate; but the first stages of the St. George's and Queen's were not included, their places being taken by the Donegall and P.W. Richardson. Daily reports and numerous photographs were posted to the NRA Facebook page.
The Grand started on the Saturday and ran through to Tuesday. Wednesday was for team matches only. Thursday was for the three stages of the St. George's. The Queen's I started at a becalmed 0800h on the Friday but quickly gained a stronger and variable wind through the middle of the day and finished before the usual early evening calm arrived. Queen's II started early on Saturday and was completed by lunchtime, during which tie shoots were settled, and then it was the Queen's Final for the best fifty shots.
National Rifle Association Facebook page. Follow link and scroll down a long way to the September posts to see the pictures and commentary.
Ten Notts. shooters went to the meeting and competed in the Grand Aggregate, St George's and Queen's shoots. All the scores are in our report. Some personal successes were:–
- Mr RSF Shouler won the W.T. Norton Challenge Cup for the Century with 100.17v
- Mr JPS Bloomfield collected a Bronze Bar for 4th in the Conan Doyle with 50.8v
- Miss AJ Clarke won the Sandeman Challenge Cup for the Duke of Cambridge with 50.10v and in the tie shoot she equalled her competitor with 25.4v. The sudden death shoot off went to 4 shots before she secured the title with VVV5 to her opponents VVV4
- Mr TJ Bullock made 11th place in the Duke of Cambridge with 50.7v and also 6th in the Prince of Wales with 75.12v
- Mr JRJ Kennedy came 7th in the Times with 50.9v
- Mr JPS Bloomfield, Miss AJ Clarke and Mr RSF Shouler made the final 50 of the Queen's Prize, Bloomfield being placed 5th with 296.22v
- Mr Shouler also made the final 50 of the St. George's
- Mrs LE Haley was in the top nine places of seven aggregates, including second place in the Lord Tedder Aggregate of five shoots
- Mr JA Bullock collected the Class O NRA Silver Medal and Bronze Bar in the Tucker Aggregate
Sheffield RC entered the concurrent Belgian team match and were awarded bronze medal for 3rd place. The team consisted of Mr AC Haley, Mrs LE Haley, Mr JT Kennedy and Mr JRJ Kennedy. Mr and Mrs Haley entered the Families competition and won silver medals for second place. They also made 5th place in the Fulton Pairs shot concurrently with George's I, Queen's I and the Prince of Wales.
Nottinghamshire TR shooters' scores extracted from the NRA prize lists.
The full prize listings on the National Rifle Association website.