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Epilogue: Reflections on a wonderful tour
Day 17 – Packing and Departure
Day 16 – The Final Day
Featured Team Members
Andrew Lothian
Andrew was given a .177” air rifle for his seventh birthday. As he was absolutely useless at ball sports, he was delighted to discover something he could do.
He was lucky enough to attend Epsom College where he didn’t work very hard, but really got hooked shooting the good old .303”. He was in the school’s first ever Ashburton winning VIII in 1973, the month before he toured to Canada as an Atheling, where he shot like a drain.
Life then got in the way of shooting in Canada, spending the next 42 years flying airliners for a living, but still managed to shoot in the UK. He did squeeze in tours to New Zealand and Australia in the ’90’s, competing in a couple of Australia Matches and a Palma. He’s hoping his wife Alison didn’t notice. He toured with his son James in 2009 to Bloemfontein. As they were both missing, Alison probably twigged that one! After an interval of 38 years, he shot at Connaught in 2011 and again in 2019.
Now that he is retired, he indulges himself shooting as much as he can. He is passionate about supporting youth shooting, running the .22” range at a local Prep School and helping out at Epsom. Unsurprisingly, he is looking forward to meeting long standing Canadian friends and forging new links with others.
Reg Roberts
Reg is a Chartered Accountant who owns a recruitment agency in the South of England. Although Australian by birth, he arrived in the UK in 1983 and the country has suffered ever since! He started his shooting career as a cadet in 1971 when laid up with a rugby injury.
Reg has toured overseas on 11 previous GB teams including 7 to Canada, one to Australia in 2005 as Captain and was a target coach for the GB Palma winning teams in 2007and 2015. His personal achievements include 25 Queen’s final badges, 6 Grand Aggregate crosses and 12 St.George’s badges. Inducted into the ‘big five’ in 2016, he Captained the winning Kolapore match that year with a record score on ICFRA targets.
His is married to Jennifer and has four children, two of which, Nick and Tim, are already avid fullbore shots. Reg’s other hobbies include fly fishing, share investing and the development of a golf resort in British Columbia.
James Postle
James started shooting at prep school aged 11 and continued with small-bore at Brighton College, but it wasn’t until he went to Reading University that he started visiting Bisley. In 1995 James was appointed Shooting Master at Epsom College and enjoyed 13 years coaching teams to 7 Ashburton wins and 5 second places.
He is delighted to be travelling on this team not only with two of his former cadets but also the Captain, who 21 years ago he persuaded might like to come and help coach Epsom – a role he still (willingly apparently!) does today.
In recent years James has had more time to focus on his own rifle shooting and is now County Captain of Gloucestershire. Although this is his first GB tour, it will be his fourth trip to Canada, having been Adjutant of the Athelings in 2001, Commandant in 2010 and toured with the England Team in 2019; he is very much looking forward to returning in hope he can add to his three Governor General badges. James now works at Millfield School where he is a Deputy Head and lives in Cheltenham with his wife Eve.
Archie Whicher
Archie started shooting when he was knee high to a grasshopper. His WW1 experienced grandfather tried teaching him how to split an air rifle pellet by firing it at a pen knife. He failed!
Undeterred Archie continued to refine his smallbore skills at school (RGS Guildford) and started fullbore at Bisley early, firing the old Lee Enfield No4. He also made most of his pocket money butt marking as the back of Century is only half a mile from the family house.
His first trip to Canada was as an Atheling in 84. After that he went on to shoot for London University and subsequently the Old Guildfordians Rifle Club for which he was captain for 20 years until last year and toured with to Kersey and South Africa. Further tours were made as part of the GB team to Canada in 2010 and 2014, shooting in BC, Alberta, Ohio and Ontario, although in 2014 the only shot fired was from the hip due to a shoulder injury. In 2019 Archie was part of the England team who shot in Quebec and Ontario which he enjoyed so much he wanted to do it all over again.
He looks forward to the challenges of Quebec and Borden, and the anticipated experiences of Tim Tams, Harvey burgers and Waffles with lashings of Maple Syrup!
