Latest News
Day 13 – DCRA National Championships (Third day)
Day 12 – DCRA National Championships (Second day)
Day 11 – DCRA National Championships (First 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.
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!
Nigel Ball
GC SM SC
Nigel is no stranger to Canada having been on a variety of GB and England teams during the last 32 years. It was his first official team there in 1991 that gave him an appetite to tour and he relishes the chance to return and compete with old friends.
Nigel’s shooting career began in the Royal Navy, where he won the Queens Medal with Service Rifle. He then branched out into Target Rifle which is now his main event and thinks that one day he will be quite good at it if he practices hard. He has gained several Grand Agg, Queens Final and George’s badges in his time but it is team shooting he relishes most. In his opinion there is nothing like a well-oiled team that flows and supports each other, to perform to the best, hence his delight on being in this team with a blend of youth and experience all willing and eager to demonstrate their shooting skills.
