Dorchester Rifle & Pistol Club
Sandringham Sports Centre, Fordington Fields, Dorchester
Junior members Honor and Lucy go even better at the National Schools Finals.
Junior members of Dorchester R&PC, sisters Honor and Lucy G, once again excelled at the national finals British Shooting’s Schools Air Pistol Championships held at Chase Leisure Centre, Stafford in February. Both girls attend Leweston School, Sherborne, and are coached by Alan Brown and Phil Hobbs. They practice at Dorchester.
The shoot was at 10m with air pistols. The qualifying round was 20 shots and decided the team positions. Shooters of the top 8 scores qualified for the final which was a high pressure ISSF style format. The new British shooting target and scoring system allows scoring to one decimal place and gave a computer graphic that showed the shots of all active shooters. It also meant that spectators could view progress in real time on a shot-by-shot basis remotely.
Honor shot 165 ex 200, enabling her senior team to pip Lockerbie Academy by 3 shots, and claim silver.
Lucy had qualified for both the team competition and the individual finals in the junior age group. She shot 175 over her first two targets, which progressed her through to the eliminator shoot-out final of the individual completion.
Scores were reset to zero for the final shoot out, which tested the competitor’s nerves as well as their shooting ability. Each competitor shot two series of 5 shots, and then pairs of shots on command. All shots were against the backdrop of a count-down timer which allowed 50 seconds per shot. The athlete with the lowest running total was eliminated after each pair of shots. Lucy shot an exceptional 93.7 which had her leading after the first 10 shots. A dodgy period saw her slip to 3rd place, but she then clawed her way back to be leading going into the final two shots. The shooting gods smiled on her and she ended up 0.9 points higher than her competitor. This meant she was crowned National Champion 2022-23.
Congratulations to both girls, and many thanks to all those who enabled the competition to take place.
