Day 1

Thursday saw the gathering of the team at the Surrey RA clubhouse to try and solve the conundrum of how to pack all the shooting kit, personal kit, rifles and team kit (including some unexpected but delightful union jack branded merchandise) into the modest BA baggage allowance. Fortunately, luggage master Stuart Young had been preparing prior to our arrival and had the dining area of the Surrey set aside for the team. As everyone arrived in the evening, everything magically transformed into neat piles of labelled kit, with a bit of space and weight allowance to spare (more of an achievement than you might imagine)! The process was probably helped by not having to worry about all of Jane Messer’s and Nigel Ball’s – both had flown early to prepare Camp Perry for our arrival.

For those who hadn’t taken the opportunity to eat at the Royal Oak beforehand, this packing process was helped by some late night pizza, several jugs of beer and some decent gins, along with a bit of banter with the BCRC Goodwill Team, who were packing next door in the main bar, in advance of their early flight to Chicago. Fortunately, we were scheduled to leave at 10am on Friday, unlike the Goodwill Team who were to be up before the crack of dawn. This meant that many of us were able to enjoy a more social evening, while waiting for a few late arrivals. All had been logged in (and some logged out again) by midnight, and packing was finalised a while after that.

The morning saw most people arriving back at the Surrey promptly (the last arrival at least had the excuse of having been on the 06:35 flight from Edinburgh and had defied standard night-before packing drill by delivering his bags to Mr. Young a full week earlier) and, after a much appreciated delivery of hot bacon baps, we completed some final checks, loaded up and were ready to go on time at 10am. This was despite some last minute repacking to make sure that bags were light enough and a quick dash by David Armstrong to go and get some padlocks for some of the rifle cases…

An uneventful drive to Heathrow (arriving 4 hours before take-off) gave us plenty of time to check in (completed with 3 hours to go), juggle bags and get the rifles safely through customs. This also gave plenty of time to enjoy the delights of the departure lounge (or the Terminal 5 architecture, for the Richard Rogers fans among us). A lucky few managed to get into the British Airways lounge, whilst the rest occupied themselves successfully elsewhere. The flight itself was standard, apart from the fact that it was delayed for 90 minutes whilst a broken seat was sorted out (nothing to do with the team it should be said, but it was so full that the plane couldn’t leave with just one seat unoccupied), and we found ourselves in Toronto, preparing to face the challenges that North America was waiting to throw at us… The first of which came not very many minutes later as we lost two team members somewhere in customs. Whilst the rest of the team were in the baggage hall, collecting all the cases, kit bags, and rifles, two of the team had picked the wrong immigration queue, and found themselves stuck behind a seemingly endless stream of ill prepared travellers attracting the forceful inquisition of Canadian border officers.

Once through customs, we had anticipated a fairly smooth journey to the hotel. And, to be fair, the journey itself was uneventful. The second of our Canadian challenges came immediately prior to the journey, in the form of a rental car company. Baffled by our request to actually rent the cars we had booked several weeks ago, the rental firm eventually managed to find 5 suitable vehicles for us, (except for the one we have to return in 2 days because it’s due for an oil change). A mere 3 hours later, we finally hit the road, and got to the hotel at around 11pm. Fortunately, that part was smooth sailing, and most of the team managed to get to bed before midnight before an early start tomorrow morning… There’s nothing as relaxing as touring!

Here’s to some successful competition at Camp Borden!