Once again, the combined armed forces teams of the Royal Navy, Army, and Royal Air Force gathered to compete in their inter services championships, with the ESSU invited to compete against the combined UK Armed Forces (UKAF) team. The UKAF team is made up of the strongest members of the Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force teams, and represents stiff opposition. The venue for the match was Worplesdon, in Surrey, for the 3rd year running.
Worplesdon is an interesting range for the uninitiated - targets are sited low to the ground, meaning adjustment to the prone shooting position, and the 50 yard (yes, not 50 metres!) butts requires the targets to be orientated sideways - a quirk rarely seen on prone ranges.
The wind, whilst light, flitted and puffed across the range; keeping a weather eye on your neighbour's gun smoke, and feeling changes in wind direction on your face helped the wary to stay in the 10-ring, although not one athlete perfected this completely throughout the match, though a few ESSU team athletes had a good try...!
There is a split level firing point for 50 yards and 100 yards; with the sun shining into your eyes, the targets on the 100 yards side were very difficult to make out, adding further pressure to the situation.
The match got under way at 9:30am; the team of 8 plus 2 reserves was split into 2 squads, with 6 shooting the first set, and 4 the second. We started with either an English Match (60 shots at 50) or a Scottish Match (60 shots at 100), and then swapped over to complete the marathon 120 shots to count.
Chris Brown made his debut for this ESSU team, and did a sterling job!
Vivien Minett also had her first go in this team, and similarly performed very well under pressure.
A few "regulars" also made an appearance... (Chris Hunter and Duncan Farmer here).
Simon Green, Shelbie Marsland, and Alan Bain all travelled down from Appleton Rifle Club, and their valuable contribution really helped the team's performance.
The UKAF team put up a brave fight; we learned at the lunch break that there were only 2 points in it...!
We knuckled down and some solid performances in the afternoon (combined with the odd slip-up from the UKAF team) meant that come time for tea and medals, the ESSU team could begin to hope for the much-needed win! And we were all reminded of the lesson to wind your sights up between 50s and 100s...!
Left to right - Alan Bain, David Lemon, Chris Brown, Mike Lemon, Simon Green, Chris Hunter, Duncan Farmer, Shelbie Marsland, Viv Minett, Duncan Farmer.
The ESSU team achieved a valiant score of 9320 overall; the UKAF team could only manage 9291. A close match, and a chance for the athletes to perform under team match conditions - a mindset important to practice in shoulder-to-shoulder matches.
Finally, there was a moment for each team member to shine; the match was ours - we had done enough!
A special mention must go to Shelbie Marsland, who not only achieved the top score for the ESSU team, but also managed a 199 at 100 yards in truly challenging conditions - well done Shelbie!
The match ran very smoothly and the ESSU team all felt privileged to have had the opportunity to compete for the Union.
The ESSU is extremely grateful to the UKAF team, in particular Lt Neil Umpleby, of the Royal Navy, who organised and co-ordinated the match.
Rumour has it that perhaps next year the match will take place back at 50s on electronic targets... watch this space!