Good Shooting in 2012

4 January 2012

The Christmas rush is over and as thoughts turn to new year's resolutions, it seems like a good time to highlight a few website updates and to look forward to 2012.

2011 closed with an enjoyable get together and celebration of the year's achievements at the County dinner at the end of November, with John and Sheila Menard as guests of honour (news and pics here). The same weekend saw a sold out Surrey air gun and pistol open, also held at Bisley, at the Lord Roberts Centre, with wins for some Surrey shooters (news here). Last but not least, Surrey prone rifle teams won both the County Cup and Women's long range championship, so congratulations to the teams. Details and scores can be found here.

Looking back, it was a busy and eventful year in the County, including the return of the LSR Open (which we hope to build on this year as we have a new trophy to award), entries were up at the prone open, we won the Queen Alex at Bisley in August, a new website was launched and all the hard work continued behind the scenes by the organisers and scorers in the various leagues and competitions.

The new website continues to be updated with scores for all the winter postal competitions and other news and information, including the latest short range postal championship results (register here for access and news updates). A calendar of shooting related events is here, although at the time of writing we’re not sure what is or isn’t happening about tickets for the ISSF World Cup at Woolwich in April.

Follow us on Twitter

You can now get updates of news and when new scores have been posted from our Twitter account.

Contributions please

On the subjects of the website, news and diaries, if anyone has anything to contribute on club or other small-bore shooting relating news, information or articles (including any interesting web links), please get in touch via the enquiry form. For example, I’ve just spotted a link on the ISSF website to a library of ISSF News magazine general, rifle and pistol coaching articles: http://tinyurl.com/78pkgko

Help needed

We are still looking for helpers to get involved with gathering and preparing information for the website and co-ordinating coaching opportunities for shooters in all disciplines. These roles are not intended to be too onerous; the communication role is about encouraging and sub-editing news and other contributions for publication and the coaching role does not need a qualified coach, but someone who is committed to identifying and encouraging development opportunities at all levels, as an adjunct to the invaluable work that goes on, week in week out, at clubs. If you or anyone you know might be interested in either of these committee roles, please do get in touch to discuss.

Coaching

In addition to the LSR Club Instructor course in January, there is a possibility of another Mike Babb (indoor) coaching weekend, at this stage probably during March, if there is interest, so please do email if you would like to know more. I should stress that this is intended and useful for prone shooters at all levels and sessions can be tailored to meet individual requirements. There is a short article about the October outdoor coaching weekend that explains things a bit more here.

2012

This year sees the pinnacle of achievement in some small-bore shooting disciplines on home soil, at both the ISSF World Cup in April and the Olympic Games in the summer, so fingers crossed for successful events and some decent coverage… and good luck to all involved. In the meantime, if you want to see some shooting on TV, if you get it, you could do worse than having a look at the live coverage on Eurosport of the IBU Biathlon World Cup, which restarts at round 4 in Oberhof 4 – 8 January (http://tinyurl.com/8xuh6xr) and continues until mid March (it’s worth recording the full length live versions).

On behalf of the Committee I wish you all the best for 2012 and good shooting!

Kind regards

Peter Jones
Chairman

Guidance to Scorers

Recent events have shown that there is some misunderstanding of the Guidance on Scoring, as set out in the NSRA Handbook.  The full NSRA Rules can be viewed on their website under Home>Reference>Rules>Rules-and-Regulations but this article does not include the aforementioned Guidance notes.  I have therefore scanned in a copy which can be viewed as a .pdf file by clicking HERE.   Would scorers please note that there are changes in these 2005 amendments to procedures that were commonplace beforehand.   Take particular note of the paragraphs headed "Using Plug Gauges" and "Gauges", in particular the sentence that instructs that the position of the gauge flange must be viewed "at an angle, not directly above, as the latter can lead to distortion and inaccurate scoring".  Furthermore, for short range rifle competitions shot on proportional British Match targets, it is essential to use the correct OVERSIZE plug gauges for the appropriate distance.  If scorers are still using the 5.6mm (.22) plug gauges, please endeavour to obtain an oversize gauge so that we have uniformity of scoring throughout different divisions in the leagues.  I appreciate that this guidance might be at odds to what occurs in other competitions, but remember that we operate our leagues under the auspices of NSRA Rules, so their Handbook must be the law!.

Surrey Club Contacts

I am often receiving enquiries from individuals who wish to learn more about joining our sport and are looking for a Club to visit for more information.  May I ask that all Club Secretaries view the Clublist and check that all of the information displayed about your Club is correct.  When I re-vamped the website I lost my latest version and had to revert to a backup which, in some cases, might not show recent changes.  If you have a new club website, please send me the address and I will add a link.  Similarly, check that the email link is addressing the correct person by sending yourself a test message, (note the procedure shown in red).  If you do not receive your own message, please let me know so that I can amend the mail redirection. If the email address states 'via SCSBRA' please send me an email showing contact details of an individual in your Club who is willing to receive any such enquiries so that I can keep my records up to date and forward as appropriate.
It is in the interest of your own Clubs and our sport to assist enquirers who wish to find out more, or join us, and not be put-off by being unable to contact anyone locally.  It is also frustrating and time-consuming for me if I cannot easily direct these enquiries to the appropriate Club.
Although I have addressed this plea to Club Secretaries please pass this on to them, or the appropriate person in your club,  just in case they do not read it for themselves.

Post Office Reminder

 'Pricing in Proportion (size, thickness and weight) affects the cost of sending cards to scorers.  If you do not attach the correct postage when sending  your league cards, don't expect the scorer to make the trip to the sorting office and pay the penalty charge to retrieve them.  An 'NCR' is the likely result, which would be a waste of your, (or your team's), time effort and ammunition in shooting the cards in the first place!

Visit www.royalmail.com/pip to obtain your free guide.
Royal Mail also suggest that you put senders address on envelopes otherwise they are destroyed if for any reason they are not delivered .