Imperial Meeting 2016

Following the wettest and coldest June in years, the 2016 Imperial Meeting was set to provide some surprises. The Match Rifle events were subject to biblical downpours, storms and strong winds giving way to the TR Meeting, which experienced scorching heat and consequential strange and unpredictable wind patterns. An impressive squad of eight WPRC members represented the club this year.

MATCH RIFLE

Following equipment failure last year, Dick Hayden had a much better MR meeting in 2016. He was as usual shooting against world class long range opposition in all competitions, but was rewarded for his efforts with a nice 95.7 in the Wimbledon MR for a very satisfying mid-table finish.

TARGET RIFLE

The WPRC TR squad of Alistair Bullen, Nick Verduyn, Colin Skellett, John Cade, Ashley Coleman-Cooke, Phil Taylor and Bob Jackson, joined in the fray on First Friday for the eight days of competition to follow.

Team shooting

As in previous years, the club entered teams in the Steward, Belgian and Rifle Clubs competitions.

Despite bettering our Steward 2nd place 2015 score of 680.68, this year’s score of 680.81 only got us into a 12th position. Summary results were:

Steward         12th ex 32 with a score of 680.81  – Team of: Verduyn, Bullen, Coleman-Cooke, Skellett

Belgian          18th ex 37 with a score of 671.65  – Team of: Verduyn, Bullen, Jackson, Skellett

Rifle Clubs    25th ex 42 with a score of 404.37  – Team of: Verduyn, Bullen, Jackson, Skellett

Individual shooting

With the exception of Ashley Coleman-Cooke who had departed after the extended Middle Weekend, the squad all shot through to Second Thursday.

There were notable successes for Nick Verduyn, with five prizelist finishes, achieving a 3rd place in the Telegraph, a 10th in the Duke of Cambridge and securing his ‘X’ class with a 49th place in the Grand Aggregate. Coupled with a total of SIXTEEN aggregate prizelist finishes, Nick had his most consistently successful Imperial Meeting that we have recorded.

Both Alistair (5) and Colin (3) also featured on prize lists and along with Nick, all three made the qualifying score in St Georges I, to reach the second stage, only to be cruelly denied a Finals place by the cut which was made at an astonishing 149.18

In the Queens Prize, Nick, and Alistair made Queens II, but again were denied a Queens Final position by a cut also set at 149. What a standard we have to achieve these days.

The best however was yet to come, with the selection of Nick Verduyn to represent England in the National Match on Second Thursday. It wasn’t the first time for Nick, although much water has flowed under the bridge since his inaugural appearance in an England shirt around 1989at the tender age of 20-something. Going clean at 300 and 500 yards was a great start and holding it together for a 103.16 finish was a very rewarding experience. The attached photograph can now replace the 1989 version on our club website.

Summarising, we all had a happy week in the sunshine – no rain, good food and a great suntan to take home.

Hopefully we can all look forward to the 148th Imperial Meeting in 2017.

Click here to download << Full results table spreadsheet>>