Rifle club on target for success

The rifle club from Gresham's School in Holt has made a winning start to the new smallbore (.22 calibre) season, taking victory in the British Schools Long Range Championship at Bisley.

The rifle club from Gresham's School in Holt has made a winning start to the new smallbore (.22 calibre) season, taking victory in the British Schools Long Range Championship at Bisley.

Teams of four from the participating schools competed at 50 metres at the National Smallbore Rifle Association's Lord Roberts House range complex.

Electronic targets were used, negating the need for firers to use telescopes to spot their fall of shot. Each shooter fired two strings of ten shots for a score out of 200.

Gresham's team captain Harriet Bennett led from the front, scoring 196, a total that was not to be beaten. That gave her the individual medal, as well as setting her team on the way to a total of 770 ex 800, seven points clear of Wellington College A.

Third place was taken by Gresham's B team with a total of 752, where Henry Howard's 195 was the third highest score of the day.

Gresham's development team - for most of whom this was their first experience of shooting at 50 metres - performed particularly well. Their aggregate of 712 was enough for sixth place, their top scorer George Anderson's 185 gaining him the medal as the top under 15.

Pictured are participants at the 2009 British Schools Long Range Championship, gathering for prizegiving at Lord Roberts

House, Bisley.