An East Runton teenager is setting his sights on Africa after earning a place in a British rifle team.For Gareth Davies, his selection for the Great Britain U19 fullbore (7.

An East Runton teenager is setting his sights on Africa after earning a place in a British rifle team.

For Gareth Davies, his selection for the Great Britain U19 fullbore (7.62mm) rifle team is the culmination of a highly successful year.

In his fourth year of shooting with the rifle club at Gresham's School in Holt where he is studying AS Levels in Mathematics, Physics, Electronics and Geography, 16-year-old Davies is already a rifleman of national and international standing.

In the course of the last two years, he has been selected to shoot for both Norfolk's smallbore (.22 inch) and fullbore rifle teams. With the smaller .22 firearm, he has already shot for the English schools in the annual home internationals, but his real strength is with the larger 7.62.

Having won all the cadet prizes along with club colleagues in the last two Army Open and English XX meetings, the imperial meeting at Bisley last July proved particularly happy hunting grounds. A volley of very high scores saw him rise at one point to 21st out of the near 1300 competitors in the grand aggregate and claim second place in the 500 yard aggregate.

Davies' success was noticed by the UK cadets selectors, who chose him for their teams in both the short and long-range inter services matches as well as the cadet national.

More was to come when the captain of England's team in the senior national match made Davies, at 16½, the youngest person ever to participate in the country's senior team.

Nor did Davies disappoint, attaining the sixth highest score in the 20-strong side.

Davies' three-week adventure takes place at Easter 2009, and takes in the South Africa National Rifle Association's 80th annual meeting and the South Africa Bisley Union matches, competing in both individual and team events.

Away from the ranges, the eight-strong side will undertake a safari, sightseeing and other outdoor pursuits.

Davies' immediate aim is to get selected for the 12-strong British schools smallbore team that is soon to take part in a postal match against their New Zealand counterparts.