Diary
Day 24 – The Return Home
Our 9am team meeting started the process of travelling home. One member of the team realised he’d need to take an opportunity to visit Peter Bramleys for final time, and by our planned 10am departure almost all the team were showered and packed. The driving teams set off in convoys with very loaded vans back to Johannesburg Airport...
Day 23 – Recovery
With all of us feeling slightly delicate after last night's commiserations, we gathered on the lawn outside the downstairs rooms and began to pack all the team baggage. Under strict instruction to arrive at 10am with all items that needed to be included in team kit, only half of the team managed to achieve this basic task. Others had their team kit helpfully added to the pile by room or bus mates without regaining consciousness from the night before...
Day 22 – Palma Match Day 2
Day two of the 2024 Palma dawned cooler than almost any on the tour so far, following a spectacular thunderstorm overnight. For the final time, target teams made their way to their respective vans for the drive to the General de Wet range. With just two points separating ourselves and Australia after day one, it effectively came down to a three range shootout against the reigning World Champions...
Day 21 – Palma Match Day 1
And so, 1849 days since the last one, it was finally time to play for the big one: the Palma. Three and a half years of training and anticipation comes down to two days, six ranges, sixteen firers, and 7,200 points. The weather forecast suggested a somewhat cooler day, with cloud cover. Alas it wasn’t to be, as the morning dawned cloudless, with a gentle breeze from the left-hand side...
Day 18 – WLRC Day 3
Today again saw 2+15 at 700, 800 and 900m. The start to the day was more frantic for some than others, when they realised that they hadn’t necessarily brought all their kit to the range, they shall remain nameless, however Chris Mitchell found himself worthy of a name check for laughing about the missing kit whilst simultaneously realising he’d left his shoes behind, a whole day in flip flops on a rough range beckoned...
Day 17 – WLRC Day 2
Having rearranged our buses to group those on the same details, today was the first of three days where first detail shooters were back to the usual routine of 6am alarms and 6.45am leaving the hotel. Bus 2 was almost delayed with a shooter unable to tell the time having misplaced their watch, but having found it on their other wrist all was well...
Day 16 – WLRC Day 1
After the excitement of yesterday, Sunday was a slower start for most. The afternoon marked the start of the World Individual Long-range Rifle Championships. The morning gave an opportunity for a lie in, or, for those with the need, a practice session on the range to check equipment and also sight settings for 700m...
Day 15 – Under 25 and Veterans Team World Championships
Day 6 was our first day of shooting, and today was our only day without scheduled shooting until Day 23 - so a very important day to rest and recover before the World Individuals. Having had a great team meal last night, with the promise of a lie in, plans were afoot for pool time, late breakfasts, even some gym time. So, obviously, both of your beloved diarists were out of the hotel pre 9am heading to the range...
Day 14 – State President Final & SABU Cup
Another adjustment in the SABU calendar saw the conclusion of the State President competition move to Friday this year. The State President’s competition is similar to the King’s Prize in the UK. Competitors qualify for the 3rd and final stage via the aggregation of the scores from the first 2 stages. The score from the ...
Day 13 – The Protea Match
This morning saw the second of our three team matches, the Protea Match; considered the most prestigious match held annually in South Africa. GB Teams have competed in various international ‘test matches’ in South Africa from the first overseas tour to visit in 1921 but the first time a GB team competed in the Protea Match, as it is now named, was in 1998...
Day 12 – Dalrymple Cup & Col. R. Bodley Memorial
Today was the final day of the Grand Aggregate, and with three of our team in the top 10 overnight including Matthew Ensor in first place, hopes were high. Those who still wanted more practice reading the tricky Bloemfontein range or were in with a chance of a high finish in the Grand headed to the range...
Day 11 – State President II & Municipal Cup
With this year’s revised schedule, only one shoot today is in the Grand Aggregate so our readers might be forgiven for assuming a quieter day lay ahead for the team. However, the morning contained the State President 2nd stage, three shoots of 2&10s at 300m, 500m and 600m. This shoot is not part of the Grand, but counts both for qualification for the State President Final and for the SA Open...
Day 10 – State President I & Dave Smith Cup
After the extreme heat of the preceding 2 days, one might have hoped that the heatwave might be starting to ease off in Bloemfontein. Alas, in an African version of Groundhog Day (with fewer pianos), day 10 again promised unbroken skies, 36-degree temperatures and complex winds...
Day 9 – Free State Cup & President Cup
Normally there is no shooting on Sundays at the South African Championships and as a result the day is given up for rest, recovery and recharging batteries. However, this year any hope of a lie-in or leisurely breakfast was thwarted with the next major difference for this World Championship year - shooting on Sundays...
Day 8 – Scottish Sword & RSA International
The SABU championship kicked off today. The 8am first detail meant alarms were set at an unsociable 5:30 to allow time for breakfast, packing the vans, and getting to the range for 7:15.
The first match of the SABU Championships is the Scottish Sword, 7 scoring shots each at 300m, 600m and 900m, with a total possible score of 105.21...
Day 7 – Free State Championships
This year’s pattern sees a different schedule overall to accommodate the World Championships, but in keeping with the usual timelines Friday signalled the start of individual competition shooting in the Free State Championships, the traditional warm-up to the South African Champs (or SA Bisley as they call it)…
Day 6 – Range Practice
After 3 days of rest and preparation the squad were keen to get stuck into the shooting. An early start (with alarms before 6am) at the hotel the unwelcome consequence!
It was good to be back at the General De Wet range. The drive out from Bloemfontein is through large areas of wild grassland, with zebras, ostriches, and Wildebeests on the viewing menu as we went...
Day 5 – Final Rest Day
Today the excitement levels are building, as tomorrow we start the first of 16 days of shooting, with only one rest day (when we’ll still be on the range supporting the Veterans, Under 21s and Under 25s in their Team Matches). With that long schedule ahead of us, today was our last real chance to relax and fully get into the zone for the upcoming weeks...
Day 3 – Rest Day
The first of three rest days for the team, this was much looked forward to and needed after the travel marathon of the weekend. By 07:42 (05:42 for our body clocks) the Captain had not only done 40 minutes of Pilates but messaged us all to humble brag. Subliminal messaging ignored, the majority of the team started with a lie in and lazy breakfast...
June Training
For the first time in this cycle the 2024 Palma team met early on a Friday at Bisley for a 3-day training camp. The team and reserves had been allocated into 4 target families which, whilst not set in stone for the next 9 months, will aim to foster closer working relationships as the team work towards the Palma match.
