Friday 18th May
Approximately half of the team met up on the Friday morning at the LMRA clubhouse for breakfast and briefing. We shot at 800 and 900 yards in the morning and 900 and 1000 yards in the afternoon and enjoyed beautiful weather throughout. We were then treated to a “Champagne Curry” at the Menagerie courtesy of Bruce and Anton, whilst rifles were inspected and ammunition prepared for the following day.
Saturday 19th May
The entire team, apart from Nigel Ball (we all wish him a speedy recovery) met at the Macdonald Stewart Canadian Pavilion on the Saturday morning. We shot at long range all day and the major training objectives were met – indeed the speed at which the team adapted to new methods was impressive. We were wonderfully catered for at Canada House at lunchtime and the weather continued to shine all day. We tried out a couple of new training methods this afternoon including volley fire after a prolonged wait; the team were also pleased with the results of their shooting after 3, 5 and 10 mile runs (depending on age) in their shooting jackets.
Parag and Lucky were kind enough to share some of their recent Commonwealth Games experiences with the team and we appreciated the insight into their very different methods of preparation. Well done to all the medalists for a fantastic performance down under. The team met on Stickledown in the evening for team photos in No.1’s. Watty tested the limits of golf buggy handling in the vicinity of the 1100yard firing point without the armourer falling out of the passenger seat. We met up at Canada House for dinner and were catered for fantastically, even if both diarists were denied their first choice of beef on the bone despite pre-ordering. Team Vultures, we know who you are! As long as it’s good for the team! Trem made team presentation to top scorer and top coach on the day’s results. The day could not pass without a mention for Mr Shouler, who felt it necessary to travel 510 miles on Saturday morning to Bisley, via Nottingham and back to Bisley to retrieve his shooting kit.
Sunday 20th May
The team met for a warm up at 900 yards and Zoe, our team Physiotherapist was on hand to alleviate any overnight stresses and strains. We tried another new training method which was successful and we were treated to some “Trentham like” conditions at points of the day as well as a restart after an emergency stop on Century Range, during a team shoot. Again we were treated to a light lunch at Canada House and we resumed shooting at Long Range in the afternoon with a contingency exercise. The team bonded really well over the weekend and we were able to simulate warm weather shooting conditions throughout.
