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Epilogue: Reflections on a wonderful tour
Day 17 – Packing and Departure
Day 16 – The Final Day
Featured Team Members
Gary Alexander
When asked to join the management team for this tour i didn’t know the world was about to be knocked sideways by a pandemic that would postpone us a couple of years and put us on course for “plan G”!
I am delighted to be returning to Borden after a very long time and very much looking forward to a first visit to Montreal.
Our team has a wide range of experiences and it has been enormous fun working with them all including my son Jack who will put a keen edge on my own competitive nature.
Off the range I enjoy scuba diving in beautiful places around the world with Zoe and getting out in the countryside with a shotgun in the crook of the arm with Fergus our springer spaniel.
Christopher Heales
Christopher shoots with the West Suffolk Rifle Club in Norfolk, currently their captain, he is also a regular member of the Norfolk County team. He has previously toured to Canada and Guyana with England and been a member of three European Long Range teams, appearing also in the National and Lawrence. This will be his first GB tour.
When not shooting or at work, he may occasionally be found cycling along local leafy lanes, although vigorously denies having gone full “MAMIL”. He also enjoys cooking and dabbles in the world of home brewing, sometimes with explosive results. Happily married with 2 grown up children and a dog.
Jane Messer
GC SB SC
A keen advocate of team shooting, Jane has toured widely, including to Australia, Barbados, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad, the USA and Zimbabwe. She enjoys both shooting and reading the wind, particularly at long range, so perhaps unsurprisingly she has eight Palma badges, including as Captain in 2015. Jane was also privileged to captain the successful GB team to British Columbia, Alberta and Ottawa in 2010 which she greatly enjoyed, not least because of the dramatic scenery at Chilliwack and Homestead ranges and in the Rockies. This will be Jane’s eighth tour to the Canadian ranges but her first since 2014. It will be her first visit both to Quebec and to Borden and she is looking forward both to the challenge of new ranges and also getting a chance to see areas of Canada unknown to her, especially the beautiful Quebec City.
Jane 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 as well as the Grand Aggregate and St George’s Vase at Bisley.
Tom Rylands
SC
Having accepted he will always be in the ‘Senior’ section of any team he tours with Tom is delighted that he is still shooting well enough to be selected!! He is also pleased to be continuing his recent run of DCRA meeting attendances with what will be a return to Borden 35 years after his last visit – he is hoping little will have changed apart from the trees being taller!!
Tom’s first Bisley was in 1978 and he hasn’t missed one since – his first visit to Canada was in 1988, on his first GB Tour, and he has represented GB in 5 Palma Teams and 6 Australia Matches as well as returning to Canada in 1998, 2017, 2018 (as Commandant of the Athelings), 2019 as England Team Captain and 2022. This year has already been busy with trips to USA, Kenya and South Africa.
After an initial career in the agricultural industry, Tom is now a gunsmith and shooting coach, is heavily involved with Cadet Shooting as National Chief Coach, Army Cadets and coaches 2 schools in the Bisley Schools meeting.
Along with 3 well known international shooters, he recently set up a new barrel making company in the UK; Phoenix Barrels, and is finding their products to be much in demand! Tom looks forward to catching up with his many Canadian friends again and will try not to go overboard on technical detail!
