Shooting Shooting is a long-established and popular sporting activity at the Royal School Dungannon. The Rifle Club has its own four-lane indoor range on the school premises, and through the generous support of Dungannon Rifle and Pistol Club, has use of an excellently equipped outdoor range, which offers shooting at 50 and 100 metres. Additionally, the Club has use of Dungannon’s Projectile range. Both facilities are close to the school. The Dungannon Club provides additional coaching and assistance to school shooters who also benefit from the coaching expertise of Dennis Hardman, a former Olympic shooter. The Club’s focus is on small-bore shooting, and there has been a resurgence over the last three years. The School has been generous with support in terms of providing equipment, and currently the Club fields two teams of eight. The Club competes in provincial small-bore leagues and in shoulder to shoulder competitions throughout Northern Ireland. For the past two years the Club has enjoyed tours to Scotland to compete with Banff and Macbeth Rifle Club and George Watson’s College. The Club wants to extend its contacts and would welcome visiting school teams. At present the Club holds the Northern Ireland inter-schools trophies for teams of eight and of four. Seven members are now competing for Northern Ireland in a Poster Schools international. Some years ago the Club had many successes in cadet small-bore competitions including a series of victories in the News of the World (a national A.C.F. competition) and a victory in the Punch Trophy (a national competition for A.C.F., A.T.C. and Sea Cadets). During that period the focus was mainly on full-bore shooting, in which context the Club provided most members of the County Tyrone team and a considerable number of shooters for Ireland’s National and Mackinnon teams. Its members also formed the bulk of two Northern Ireland touring teams to Zimbabwe and Canada. In the same period the Club produced a string of Athelings (members of the British schools’ full-bore team). One former member also shot for Great Britain. Currently the “eight” has just returned from a tour in Scotland, is preparing for the Northern Ireland indoor championship and planning a first venture in competitive outdoor small-bore shooting at the Scottish Open. As already stated the Club would welcome matches with other school teams. Please contact the Master in Charge of Shooting at the Royal School, Dungannon. SCOTTISH TOUR – BANFF AND WATSONIANS Success in the schools’ event had been hard worked for. It was founded on Wednesday “games” shooting, on Saturday morning practices and “the tour” which took place on the weekend of 3rd to 5th November. Mr. Dickson, who had done so much to organise the Schools’ event (even to the point of cleaning the Projectile Range) did the meticulous planning which made this such a success. Leaving very early on Friday morning we drove to Banff in Scotland in the school mini-bus, an epic journey indeed which brought us in glorious sunshine through Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. Miss Heather Montgomery stood in for Mrs. Alison Straghan, and we were accompanied by Mrs. Dickson. More or less on arrival we completed with Banff Rifle Club Juniors shooting on a schools and cadets target and an adult target and won the match. While we shot very well indeed considering the circumstances we owed something to our strength in depth. The touring party was Patrick Burnett, Richard Burns, Arnold Cheung, Ellen Douglas, Liz Hegan, Stefan Hill, Stacey Irwin and Claudia McClung. David Chan was unfortunate to miss the tour on account of a rugby injury. Without our contact with Stephen Cuddy (another former R.S.D. shooter) the tour would not have been possible. Stephen and his wife Winnie gave us a wonderful reception. They opened up their home to us, provided accommodation for the girls (the boys were accommodated in guest houses in the town) and feasted us all at a local hotel (and that included the Banff team and those who organised the shoot)! The warmth of their welcome and generosity was quite remarkable. There was little time for ceremony the next morning as we had to get to Edinburgh to compete with George Watson’s at 2.00 pm. (I must thank Mrs Dickson for her timely warnings of speed cameras). Another beautiful day, we arrived in good order and in good time having enjoyed the Scottish landscape, the Forth bridges and a McDonalds. It was only when we arrived that we realised that Watsonians were U.K. Schools’ champions. The match had been arranged at very short notice, and it says much for this excellent club that Anne and Bill Hamilton, their coaches, could turn out such a fine young team in the circumstances. The warm up at Banff and Mr. Dickson’s team talk on the bus brought out the best in our shooters. The course of fire was two school targets. Having taken an early lead we were pegged back, but still had a chance as the last shooters went down. We scored 1556 to Watsonians winning 1573. Out top score was Claudia McClung with a double possible (200 ex 200 – you can’t do any better) closely followed by Arnold Cheung on 198 and Stacey Irwin and Stefan Hill who each scored 197. Though losing, morale was high as we left for our accommodation at Heriot Watt’s University and for an evening of food and bowling in Edinburgh. The tour was a huge learning experience not least for the coaches. Our need to share rifles and kit prolonged the shoot unnecessarily, and it was clear that only with more and better equipment could we improve our scores and compete successfully with the best. It also became clear that we needed to cross the boundaries between school and adult shooting to secure more competition at a higher level. All in all this was touring at its best providing knowledge, team building and, by no means least, new contacts and friendships. DOWNSHIRE OPEN In that respect at least competing in January in the Downshire Open with seven shooters was a success. We were pleased to meet John Spooner who has been most helpful. Arnold Cheung was pick of the bunch with 281, a very good score which won him second place in Class D and promotion to Class C. David Chan with 277, which included a good 97, was placed third. In the same class Stacey Irwin on 276 and Claudia McClung 275 each included one indifferent score in their challenge. EAST ANTRIM RIFLE CLUB For shooting the post-Christmas period is one of disruption with the inconvenience of examinations and the increasing demands of coursework. In addition the activities of several other clubs and societies come to a climax. Our multi-talented shooters, who comprise the bulk of the public speaking teams, a substantial portion of the brass and tenor sections of the Senior and Chamber Choirs, and who are musicians and keen rugby players could not help but be distracted. In consequence we competed in the Ulster Counties in March less focussed than we were in December. Nevertheless, though Saturday practices were less well attended, we had done a good deal of preparation. For this we must thank East Antrim Rifle Club (in particular Ivor Fletcher and Jim Dace) which laid on a shoot for us in Ballyclare. This gave our relatively inexperienced shooters a testing experience (three adult targets on a “strange” range). We brought ten shooters; those already mentioned plus the much less experienced Suzanne Magowan, Alex Li and third-former Andrew Nesbitt. All three coped very successfully. Nesbitt’s 95 in a total of 266 deserves special mention. Out top scorer was Liz Hegan with an excellent 283 (which included a 96) which won her a medal, closely followed by Patrick Burnett’s 282 (including a 97). Arnold Cheung was third on 279 (including a 96) and David Chan scored a fine 277. ULSTER COUNTIES CHAMPIONSHIP At this point in the season “new” shooters were emerging|: Hana Younes - lower sixth and fifth formers Sam Cuddy, Joshua Cuddy and Adam Trotter, who shot in the Schools’ event. To provide a shooting nursery facility and simultaneously develop the more experienced with limited resources of coaching time is something that has to be overcome. That we succeeded to some extent was evident in our large entry of thirteen shooters in the culminating event of the year, the Ulster Counties (East) Short Range Championship. The less experienced shooters, unburdened by expectations, performed well. Alex Li was in the top ten in Class D with a fine 277 while Andrew Nesbitt 271 and Suzanne Magowan 270 showed considerable improvement. Claudia was our top scorer with 283 placing her second in her class. Stacey Irwin, who had scored an outstanding 99 in practice, on 279 was unlucky not to have matched Claudia’s score. Stefan Hill showed how naturally talented he is with a very good 278, the same score as the very competitive Liz Hegan. Patrick Burnett was a further two points adrift with 276. These fine young shooters set themselves very high standards and while all improved significantly on their scores in the previous years’ competition not all were satisfied that they had performed at their best and done themselves justice. R.S.A. As a postscript Royal School Armagh entertained us to a match. Charles Cooper (ex R.S.D.) organised this. Leaving out our Upper Sixth members, we had two teams of four and enjoyed a most relaxing and sociable shoot. Our ‘A’ team won, with Claudia top scorer on 188. Suzanne Magowan’s 95 is also worth a mention. The final event of the indoor season was the house match. As closely contested at last year’s Mountjoy/Ranfurly was first. David Chan and Claudia McClung dropped only two points. Bullingbrook/Tyrone represented by Liz Hegan and Arnold Cheung with three off was second, and Beresford/Charlemont with four off was third. Both Liz Hegan and Patrick Burnett had highest possible scores. INTERNATIONAL COACH Easter now and the indoor season has come to a close. It is now time to pick up the threads of outdoor 50 metre shooting. Last September/October we had an initial experience of this thanks to Sam Kelly, Eric Conn, Neil Anderson, Martin Mace and the help of Dungannon Rifle and Pistol Club. The club also invited four of our shooters for a two day coaching session conducted by Herbert Zimmermann. Herr Zimmermann is Belgian team coach and himself a German international biathlete. Andrew Nesbitt, Suzanne Magowan, Stacey Irwin and Liz Hegan all participated and they and the coaches benefited greatly. One of the highlights of my year was watching Andrew Nesbitt compete in a “car race” with some of Dungannon’s best shooters. (He came a close third). CLAUDIA McCLUNG AND NORTHERN IRELAND JUNIOR SQUAD Claudia McClung earlier in the week had already benefited from Herbert Zimmermann’s coaching as a member of the Northern Ireland Junior 10 man squad for which she was selected at Easter. She was also invited to join the Northern Ireland Four Man Three Positional Squad and is the first shooter from our club to shoot in this very testing discipline. We have to thank Derek Mackiey of Comber Rifle Club who is organising these groups. Squad members are obliged to practise regularly and compete frequently. Claudia will be competing in the Scottish Open and at Bisley in August. We are all delighted with her selection and wish her every success this summer. The end of the summer term is a sad time as we say goodbye to our upper-sixth shooters – this year a most remarkable group: Stefan Hill, Richard Burns (two great entrepreneurs) David Chan and Arnold Cheung, whose attention to detail and professional attitude set standards which others emulated. Saturday mornings will not be the same without the cheerful companionship of David and Arnold. We hope that they will find opportunities to practice their skills in this great sport and are sure that, just as they were with us, they will be excellent companions wherever they go. Throughout this report I have thanked the very many people who have helped us this season but I must also thank the Headmaster, David Wheeler who keeps an eye on our finances, Clifford Thompson who made our targets, John Brown who doesn’t lock us in, Bill Dobson who keeps us on the road and Pam Williamson who provides secretarial help. We were particularly pleased to get help from the Abbey Fund (part of the money raised from the Funfair and Sponsored Walk), which has provided us with resources to buy new rifles, shooting jackets and slings. In consequence we can work much more efficiently next season, provide more shooting and higher quality coaching. Finally much thanks to Mrs. Alison Straghan; without her there would be no shooting.
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