Latest News
Day 15 – The Canada and Commonwealth Matches
Day 14 – DCRA National Championships (Fourth 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.
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.
Christina Cuming
Christina started shooting at Bradfield College aged 14 and quickly fell in love with the sport. Her first tour was with the UK Cadet Rifle Team to Jersey in 2018 followed by a tour to Canada with the Athelings as well as a tour to Scotland with the GBU19s. Christina shoots for Yorkshire, and earned her England caps in the 2021 and 2022 National Matches. She is now looking forward to travelling to Bloemfontein as part of the GBU25 Team for the 2024 World Championships.
Christina has just graduated with a Psychology degree from Durham University, where she was also Captain of the University Rifle Club. When she is not shooting, she loves to run and hike and more recently took up rowing at university. After university she is taking a year out to shoot and is hoping to do a ski season as a chef, before looking for a job in the City and moving to London. She is hugely grateful for the opportunity to improve her skills on tour with GB this summer.
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!
