NRA Journal - Summer 2003 - National Rifle Association

INTO THE BREECHA personal view from Sarah Bunch, Director of ClaysLittle did I know, in those distant days of themillennium year, that I would end up as a director ofone of the foremost clay shooting centres in the world.We have come a long way in that short time. Therewere only two years to get a viable and properly runfacility together to host a very public competition, theclay events of the Manchester Commonwealth Games,and to turn the facility into a commercial operationwhich would bring in clients and also provide theNRA with some much needed income.When I arrived on the scene from my previous dutiesat the NRA, there was just a vast heap of earth andrubble where the old Shorts Range had been, and notmuch else. And it was raining. It rained and rainedand the mound of earth became soggier and soggierand the poor contractors who were trying to put inthe concrete tunnels and the new defence wall for themarkers walkway really had their work cut out.Eventually one could make out the shape of things tocome, and by the use of a lot of imagination and thededication of Barry Desborough (Ground Manager)and David Dale (Chief Instructor), one could see howthe lunar landscape which faced us every morningwhen we got to work would eventually look. We putthe 71 state of the art Matarelli traps in place and beganto set out the layouts and the safety areas, adjustingas necessary until we managed to achieve certificationfrom the CPSA (the clay world’s equivalent to theNRA) in all the formal disciplines and the ‘Down theLine’ layouts, some of which would be used everyother weekend each month by our colleagues fromthe Bisley Gun Club.We turned our attention to the new Clay Pavilion. Iwas pleased to be able to have an input during thedesign stages of this building, and after muchdiscussion we came up with a building we felt wecould manage to work with. Unfortunately, the officearea which we insisted upon was rather larger thanSport England were prepared to fund. The kitchenwas another additional facility which we felt we couldnot manage without and for which we had to find thefunds. This meant that we were struggling to provideany niceties for the building, and we found ourselvesbidding at the auction of redundant kitchen equipmentfrom the Millennium Dome, and scouring the localskips for the office furniture!Indeed we were very fortunate in that we receivedgenerous gifts from many of our friends. For examplesome of the office chairs were given to us by TimWebster of TWP Designs; instructors’ skeet jacketswere given to us by Kennedy’s Gunshop; our firstcomputer was donated by a member of the NRA staff;shotguns for those without were provided by ourChief Instructor until we could afford to buy our own;50the web site was originally designed for us by JohnStevens with the new version by Toby Coleridge; andmuch of the turf was donated by NCSC members toname but a few. There are also those who becamemembers to support us financially in the first twoyears. The amount of generous and unsung help wehave had from so many people has been a revelation -but for which we are extremely grateful.Eventually, with a lot of help from our friends, wemanaged to get the place finished and partially turfed,(the seeding which had been done three times andwashed away three times by the rain was no longer aviable proposition to provide green grass on thelayouts in time for the Games), and we rathernervously arranged for a Grand Opening to be heldon 10 August 2001, to which many dignitaries fromthe clay world were invited. We were horrified towake up on the day to find it teeming with rain, andall our carefully brushed concrete paths covered inmud washed down from the top of the range.Thankfully the rain stopped, and after some feverishwork from all hands with the brushes, we managedto have the place looking reasonably shipshape in timefor the ceremony. We had a large turnout and we feltthat all had gone well. Indeed it appeared that ourguests thought so too, as they were, thank goodness,very enthusiastic, and the word began to spread.We only had a couple of weeks of trading to sort outany teething troubles before the CommonwealthShooting Federation Games were held, and we hadmuch to do, tidying up and testing the computerisedelectronic releases and scoreboards. The place washumming with activity, not only from our ownpersonnel, but also with observers from Manchesterand TV crews. It was an exciting time.Just in time, we were ready for the Federation Gamesand we were blessed with wonderful weather. TheInternational Jury were happy with the arrangementsand we got on with the shooting. While of coursethere were some moments of drama behind the scenes,the competitors seemed to be very pleased with thelayouts, and the whole event went well.We now knew that we had to consolidate, get aworking membership, get people using the facility ona day to day basis and provide a service for ourmembers so that they wanted to come again. It wasour strategy to create a core of regular shooters in aclub-like atmosphere, and to provide a steadilygrowing number of registered events as we grew inconfidence to attract a wider audience.By the time we reached the Commonwealth Games,we had the confidence to know that it would be asuccess technically, and we had the task of pacifyingour clay shooters for losing out on valuable shooting