Great Britain Rifle Team

South Africa 2023

Bloemfontein, South Africa

Featured Team Members

Coach

Bill RichardsSM SB

Bill Richards

Cap Number

685

Home Country

England

Big 5

81

Bill RichardsSM SB

This will be Bill’s twelfth GB tour and his fourth to South Africa, including once with England in 2009. Although best known as a coach, Bill has appeared in the final of HM Queen’s Prize final 25 times and 18 times in the top 50 of the Grand Aggregate, so he can occasionally point his rifle in the right direction.

Bill has been a Maths teacher since 2003 and is extremely grateful to his school for allowing him time off during term time to tour. When Bill isn’t teaching or on the range, Bill is involved in running Space Design Competitions, inspiring the next generation of rocket scientists! He is rarely found without his Kindle, reading mostly a diet of science fiction and fantasy.

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Team Member

Paul SykesSC

Paul Sykes

Cap Number

854

Home Country

England

Big 5

22

Paul SykesSC

Paul started shooting with his father, having spent many a year at Bisley “on holiday” as a child. In his early years, he captained The Perse School and University of London. His first shooting tour to South Africa was in 2004 as Adjutant of the GB Under 25 Team. He gained his first senior international honours as part of the England National Match team that same year, first toured with GB in 2008 and made his first Palma Team in 2011.

After a brief hiatus flirting with the world of cycling and writing his PhD thesis, Paul returned to shooting in 2018 with a bang finishing 4th in the Grand Aggregate and completing his “Big Five” following selection for the Kolapore Match. He topped this by winning the Silver Cross (2nd in the Grand) the following year, his highest individual honour. Other highlights include seven top 50 Grand finishes, 13 HM The Queen’s finals and winning the Welsh Open. This is his fourth GB tour and fifth trip to South Africa.

Away from shooting, Paul is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the Queen Alexander Hospital, Portsmouth. In what little spare time he has, he enjoys skiing down big mountains and cycling back up them.

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Team Member

James Watson

James Watson

Cap Number

795

Home Country

England

Big 5

31

James Watson

With seventeen previous England and GB Tours, James is now amongst the more seasoned members of the team. He has shot in South Africa and specifically Bloemfontein on nine occasions, the most recent being for the 2017 Australia Match. A member of the last four GB Palma Teams, James also earned his “Big Five” Matches badge in 2011 and captained Great Britain for the Kolapore match in 2021. Individually, his most recent success was winning the Gold medal in the 800 yards aggregate at the 2019 World Championships.

James works for Amazon in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) business enabling customers to run their computing in the cloud. At home, he is married to Ellen with two children Eddie and Zoë who keep him on his toes.

James has missed touring over the “Covid years” and is looking forward to seeing many familiar faces back on the General de Wet ranges.

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