A keen advocate of team shooting, Jane has toured widely, including to Australia, Barbados, New Zealand, South Africa, the USA and Zimbabwe. She was a member of Gary Alexander’s successful team to New Zealand in January this year. This will be Jane’s sixth tour to Ottawa: she competed as a new cap on Arthur Clarke’s team in 1989, in 1992 with the Palma team before travelling down to Raton for the Palma match, in 2004 with John Webster’s England team, and in 2006 and 2007 with Martin Townsend’s Palma squad. In 1989, the GB team competed also in the British Columbia Rifle Association meeting on the pretty Heals Range on Vancouver Island. There Jane found herself squadded with such Canadian luminaries as Gunnar Westling, Bob Pitcairn, Sandy Peden and Jim Paton. Sadly Gunnar is no longer with us and Heals Range is no more but Jane is looking forward to seeing her other shooting friends and competing on the beautiful range at Chilliwack before seeing a little more of the Rockies.

Although team shooting is Jane’s favourite, she is also an accomplished individual shot having won a number of important individual competitions, including the President’s Prize at the DCRA Meeting in Ottawa and the Grand Aggregate and St George’s Vase at Bisley. However, she came second in HM the Queens’ Prize two years ago, so she needs to keep trying!

Nigel began his shooting career with a Service Rifle whilst serving in the Royal Navy. He enjoyed many successful years in this environment, winning the Queen’s Medal and representing Great Britain on numerous occasions.

Target rifle shooting took second place until 1984 when, shooting a club competition for the Navy, he was introduced to the Swing rifle by John Saunders and immediately purchased one. Serious exposure to target rifle competition followed and he has been a regular at the Imperial meeting ever since.

His first GB target rifle team was to Canada in 1991 and he has been selected for several other GB teams since. His tours include visits to Canada, Zimbabwe, South Africa, USA and Australia; this will be his 10th visit to Ottawa and his 3rd to British Columbia.

Nigel has a selection of Grand Aggregate crosses, George’s Final badges and Queen’s Final badges but enjoys shooting big team matches most. He has been involved with GB Palma teams for the last 9 years and ranks them as the ultimate team shooting experience but any chance to represent his country is an honour he will readily accept.

David started shooting at Royal Grammar School Guildford in 1983, and this year will see him compete in his 25th Imperial Meeting at Bisley. This trip to Canada will be his 5th including as a member of the successful 2007 Palma team, he is looking forward to renewing friendships especially in British Columbia where he arrived on his first trip to Canada in ’89.

Other achievements have included 12 appearances in the Queens Final, and 6 top 50 finishes in the Grand. Having toured with the England team to the USA in 2008 he is looking forward to hot competition in both the America and the Canada matches.

Away from Bisley David is an accountant for the Civil Aviation Authority, but unfortunately was unable to secure the team a corporate discount./p>

Martin is a well known coach and (he claims) shooter both at Bisley and overseas. During his coaching career, Martin has steered his shooters to success in the Centenary Match (1990), several Kolapores (including as Captain in 2004) and the winning 1992, 1995 and 2003 Palma Matches. He coac hed Ireland into third place in the Millennium Match as well as in their historic victory in the 2002 National Match. He has also coached a winning Australia Match (Perth 1994), Protea Match (2008) and was Captain of the successful Great Britain teams to the West Indies 2002, Canada 2006 and in the Palma Match in Canada 2007. Adding to this a successful tour to New Zealand in January which saw success in the New Zealand Match with a record score!

Martin is also a keen Match Rifleman, having taken part in the first three Woomera Matches, including on the team to Lower Light, North Adelaide, in 2004.

Poppy Lodge at Bisley is where he and his wife Pearl spend most of their summer weekends although, when not on the ranges, Martin works in the philatelic world where he is one of the UK's leading dealers in the stamps and postal history of Great Britain.

Hailing from a small bedouin community in the deserts of the Middle East, where he lives with Victoria and daughter Scarlett and is currently posted as a partner of international law firm Norton Rose, Dominic is our very own answer to Lawrence of Arabia, although none of us can quite remember the question.

A keen sportsman, his love of rugby and golf in particular have taken him all round the world to as many places as his shooting, as a number of broken bodies and lost NR golf balls left behind will testify.

His shooting career started at Epsom College, leading to the Athelings captaincy, and has seen him achieve a number of representative honours and successes, including the British Columbia Grand Aggregate on his first GB tour to Canada, which is too many years ago to mention. From those early halcyon days he has now "matured" into a more regular role in the coaching chair, with an excellent record for GB, England, GB Under 25, NRA and Surrey, including some captaincy duties for the latter two. Never needing much encouragement to stand up after a meal and an avid collector and sampler of fine wine, it is no surprise that Dominic has shed his shy streak, to be appointed as the team's Entertainment Officer.

Gary Alexander is an optometrist and company director of Specsavers in Newbury. Having started his shooting career at the Royal School Dungannon ( Northern Ireland) his first visit to England was at the age of 12 to shoot the Imperial at Bisley and his attendance has been uninterrupted since. With 3 children involved as shooters or stats officer it's a family affair and Gary will be doing his best to keep up with his son Jack who is touring with the Athelings.

Having covered 5 continents in the last 18 months with Ireland and GB, Gary is really looking to forward to this tour and to being accompanied by his full time carer. This will be Zoe's first overseas tour, it will be interesting to see if there is a second !!!

Gary also enjoys match rifle, 300m, scuba diving and game shooting. He runs a local detachment of army cadets in Wiltshire and is very much looking forward to the scenery and beauty of Canada and the warmth and hospitality of its' people. Renewing old acquaintances and making new friends to embellish the stories to be told for years to come.

Alex began shooting 5 years ago at Wellington College, where He ended up being vice captain in his final year under Bruce Roth. This will be Alex’s first ever shooting tour, after being rejected from the Athelings after the 2008 imperial, where he finished 821nd. Since then Alex improved to 76th in the 2009 imperial reaching both the Queens and George’s final, finishing 17th in the Queens final, earning the highest position by any cadet in both the Queens and the Grand agg. Alex got onto the short list for the U25 match, and shot the AG bell and inter-services match. In light of this Alex is on the current training team for the GB under 25 tour to Australia for the world championships in 2011.

Alex is the youngest person to go on a full GB tour and hopes that it will be his first of many.

This will be Henry’s 3rd trip to Canada having previously spent 7 weeks at Connaught with the ACF in 2005 and then touring as a member of the 2007 Athelings. He is looking forward to seeing parts of Canada beyond Ontario.

Henry grew up in a shooting family and got his first touring experience at the age of 3 when his parents toured New Zealand with the LMRA. He started shooting with the Army Cadet Force and now shoots regularly for Suffolk and CURA. Henry enjoys individual shooting, having 3 Queens’ badges in 3 years. However it is team shooting that he particularly enjoys and has previously toured to Canada, South Africa and the Channel Islands but at the great age of 21 this is his first senior GB cap.

Outside of Shooting Henry is about to start his final year studying Chemistry at Cambridge University.

John started his shooting career at Cambridge University, and having been “bitten by the bug” hasn’t missed a NRA Annual Prize Meeting for the last 38 years! He spent the same amount of time working as an engineer and manager in the Defence and Aerospace industry, taking early retirement in 2008 from a multinational joint venture subsidiary of BAeSystems. Now he is a Research Fellow in the Systems Engineering and Human Factors Department at the wholly postgraduate Cranfield University which fortunately has enough flexibility for him to pursue his shooting and other interests.

John has twice been a member of the England National team as well as having been part of the NRA team to the Channel Islands and in a match against the Continental Palma Council. His first Great Britain team appearance was in 2006 on a visit to South Africa. He revisited that country as a member of a Royal Air Force Target Rifle Club team in 2010 with whom he had also competed at Trentham in New Zealand in 2009. This, however, will be his first visit to Canada and thus he is very much looking forward to it. John will be accompanied on the first part of the tour by his wife, Deborah Sabalot Deane.

Charles first experienced fullbore at Cambridge University in 1973 and was immediately hooked. He broke his Tyro status in style with 3rd place in his first TR competition in his first Imperial Meeting, but then took 33 years to better it, with a 2nd in the Daily Mail in 2007. He’s still seeking that elusive Imperial Meeting win . . . although he has a number of county championships to his name, both with Dorset and now Berkshire.

Early success in both the Grand Agg and Queen’s Final in ’80 & ‘81 resulted in his first and only previous GB tour, also to Canada, with the 1982 GB Palma team. He’s been lured back by his memory of the biggest Baked Alaska he’d ever seen.

Shooting subsequently took a lower profile as a growing family and work, first with the Royal Navy then BAE Systems, took priority. Now the children have left home, he claims his shooting and coaching are in resurgence. NRA team tours to the Channel Islands in 2005 & 2008, England caps in National Matches and the European Long Range Championships, and 4 Queen’s Finals in the past 8 years suggest he may be right.

When not shooting smallbore or fullbore, most of his time seems to be spent keeping a rampant garden under some sort of control, walking the dogs and avoiding the ever-growing list of DIY jobs that need doing round the house.

Maths challenge: on his last GB tour Charles was exactly half the age he will be on this tour. How old will he be at the end of the tour?

Peter Griggs (senior in years) started rifle shooting in 1966 at his hometown indoor .22 range in Ashford (Kent) and soon made his mark in both junior and senior county teams before progressing to Full-bore in the late .303 / early 7.62 days. This will be Peter’s fourth tour with a Great Britain team the others were Canada 2000, New Zealand 2003, and South Africa 2006. He is looking forward to returning to Canada 10 years after his first tour and showing that at 56 (oops!), he is still capable at a few things. He has just taken up another frustrating sport – golf and finds that poor shooting excuses work just as well for poor golf shots.

He currently shoots full-bore for the Kent County Rifle Assn and the IBIS Rifle Club. He keeps his eye-in during the winter months with small-bore shooting at the East Bristol Rifle and Pistol Club and with Gloucestershire County.

Peter, an Aircraft Structures Designer at Airbus at Filton, Bristol heads a team of engineers working in Research and Technology looking at wing structure design.

Married to Naomi with two children and living in Chipping Sodbury, (Soding Chipbury to the locals) Peter admits that since taking up golf and with commitments to shooting he now needs to have 5 day weekends and 2 day working weeks – he’s working on that one but he’s lucky that Naomi’s a golfer as well

Chris started shooting at an early age with air rifles on his parents' farm in Surrey. However, it was not until Cambridge University that he began shooting properly, taking up fullbore in 1996 before gaining a full blue and captaining the Cambridge University team. Since then, Chris has represented Great Britain, England, the Territorial Army and county teams.

Although mainly a target rifle shooter, Chris has also picked up a match rifle, service rifle, service pistol and shotgun with varying degrees of success. He is currently the honorary secretary of the Oxford & Cambridge Rifle Association.

Away from Bisley, Chris lives in Hertfordshire with his wife, Claire. He works in innovation and technology transfer, commercializing emerging technologies at Imperial College London. His other interests include the History and Philosophy of Science, hill-walking, scuba-diving and horse-racing, all of which have recently taken second place to the rearing of a small daughter.

This will be Chris's third tour to Canada, having previously visited with the Great Britain under 25 team in 1998 and with the GB senior team in 2002.

Simon started shooting at Sevenoaks School, Kent, aged 14 and having realised that smallbore was far too pedantic for his liking quickly moved on to fullbore, gaining his first taste of touring on a school trip to South Africa in 1996 before being a member of the 1997 Athelings team. Since then Simon has toured both the Channel Islands (01 & 03) and Canada again (02) and represented England in the 2008 National Match but this will be his first full GB team. Simon should however be well at home on this trip with three other members of his Kent county team also on the team.

Away from Bisley Simon is currently enjoying being “between jobs” but less looking forward to starting his new role when he gets back after three months off! When not on a range or at work Simon can normally be found on a rugby pitch were he generally spends his Saturdays baby sitting 30 full grown men as a referee – hopefully such diplomacy skills will not be required during this trip.

Kitty started shooting, aged 11, at Sevenoaks School. Not having shown any skill or achieved anything remotely useful on the range for most of her time at school, her then Shooting Master comments to this day on his surprise that she never gave up the sport! Quite a few years on, Kitty has a number of overseas tours under her belt, including two previous tours to Canada, once as an Atheling and, more recently, as part of the GB team in 2006.

Kitty is one of the four regular Kent County shooters on this team and has represented Scotland in the National and Mackinnon matches. She is currently Secretary of the British Commonwealth Rifle Club, which is a role she enjoys very much and wishes she could dedicate more time to.

In her non-shooting life, Kitty is busy! As well as preparing for the tour, Kitty is buying a house, getting married and works 6+ days a week running the Geography Department at Wellington College. She is very much looking forward to escaping from the madness and spending the summer shooting with her Canadian friends again.

David is currently the Individual World Champion and is relishing returning to competing in Canada for the seventh time and is hoping to go one better in the Governor Generals this year.

His successes in the UK are numerous and include fifteen consecutive Grand Aggregate crosses (including one gold and two silver ones), fourteen St George's badges and thirteen Queen's badges (including coming 2nd or 3rd on numerous occasions).

David started shooting with Sedgemoor Target Shooting Club and has captained the Somerset county team for the last nine years. He was an Atheling in 1994 and has since toured with the GB team to Canada , the USA , South Africa , Zimbabwe , Australia , New Zealand and Malaysia.

David works for Clerical Medical in Bristol as an Actuary. In his spare time he is an avid sports player and qualified tennis coach. David competes in triathlons and half marathons as well as enjoying mountain biking, surfing, swimming and other sports.

David started shooting at Epsom College at the age of 13. Photo’s in the Surrey RA show a slightly more svelte Captain of the winning 1998 & 99 Ashburton winning teams. Moving onto Southampton University where he led the team to success in fullbore and smallbore competition.

Now shooting with Northant’s Leicestershire and Rutland he is to be seen at Bisley most weekends with either his county or club “The Old Epsomians”. A keen tourist as well he has been rather bitten by the bug, recent trips have included the Channel Islands, South Africa and New Zealand! Canada however has not been seen since a 1999 trip with the Athelings, he is looking forward to a return to Connaught and a first visit to BC.

Outside Bisley he is a Recruiter in London specialising in Qualified accountancy positions.

Paul, 29, started shooting with his father having spent many a year at Bisley 'on holiday'. He captained The Perse School, University of London and was Adjutant for the Great Britain Under 25 tour to South Africa in 2004. It has been over ten years since Paul last visited Canada, as part of an Athelings team that was undefeated.

His career highlights include a top 50 Grand finish, several H.M. The Queen's finals and winning the Welsh Open in 2007 as an Englishman. Away from shooting, Paul is a qualified doctor, currently undertaking his surgical training in the Manchester area with the intention of following a career in General Surgery. He is also enjoys skiing, running and cycling.

Paul is very much looking forward to returning to the ranges of Ottawa and he intends to repeat, if not better, his previous successes.

Steven’s international career began with the 1969 Athelings team to Canada and has included some short NRA team tours. He has shot on various occasions for England and GB at Bisley and has represented GB on tour in Canada, Malaysia, Australia and the West Indies. In 2008 he was captain of the successful GB Team to South Africa, in which team Jane Messer was an accomplished target coach.

Steven lives in South Glamorgan and his business career has included stints in manufacturing, trading, real estate and securities investment, all with his family company. He enjoys various outdoor pursuits notably hill walking, social golf (i.e. looking for his ball in the long grass) and game shooting (described by friends as pheasant preservation). He is a regular supporter of the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, as well as other less lofty forms of live music.

Steven looks forward to returning to Canada after a 28 year gap, checking out his Canadian shooting friends in their natural habitat, and to visiting British Columbia and Alberta for the first time.

Steph started shooting at the age 14 with the Army Cadets and was hooked instantly, much to the delight of her shooting coach. She has progressed from shooting as a mere cadet to representing Wales in the National and Mackinnon numerous times, and now she has the opportunity to represent Great Britain (a major achievement in her book!).

Steph goes to Portsmouth University and studies Product Design and Modern Materials (a load of physics and chemistry with some drawing thrown in for good measure).

This will be Steph’s first GB tour and she looks forward to many more to come.

Martin (more commonly known as Archie) started shooting at Royal Grammar School Guildford where he taught Dave Armstrong all he knew! He toured Canada with the Athelings and continued shooting through Univeristy at London but then career and far flung postings curtailed activity until 200 when he resumed with the Old Guildfordians Rifle Club who he now captains.

Archie regularlly shoots for the Royal County of Berkshire and has toured with the NRA to Channel Islands Team in 2008. This is his first senior GB cap and he is greatly looking forward to the tour and learning as much as he can from Dave Armstrong this time round!