NRA Journal - Spring 2011 - National Rifle Association

F Class Round Up and Looking Forward to 2011by David KentF Class Association and LeagueThe F Class Association is now six years old and heldseven league events last year for its F Class Openand FTR members. Mik Maksimovic, Des Parr andLes Holgate were very busy organising their eventsat Bisley, Blair Atholl and Diggle respectively. Ourthanks go out to them for organizing flawless events.Additionally various clubs held F Class competitionsat Bisley, Diggle, Blair Atholl and Altcar throughoutthe year. On top of those opportunities to shoot FClass, there were F Class shots competing in the MatchRifle events during the Imperial Meeting at Bisley. Ifthere were other F Class competitions taking placearound the country please let us know.The 2010 League season started with a trainingweekend in March which was well attended and verywell run. A shame the weather wasn’t a bit better butyou can’t have everything!The League started in earnest at Diggle with a fullcomplement of shooters in April in driving rainespecially for the FTR guys. For a beautiful picture ofDiggle in the sun, please see the F Class UK websiteorganised by Les Holgate at www.f-class.org.uk. Itwas shot on a 500 yards half minute V bull and thesame target at 600 yards! Very exciting, as with thewind changes there were many fours, threes, twos, hitsand a few misses. The ultimate winners at Diggle inApril were Mark Daish (FO) four points ahead of DesParr and Adam Bagnall (FTR) three ahead of RussellSimmonds .Next was Blair Atholl where it kept fine and weshot our usual five matches at 1000 yards. The realchallenge was 10 to 20 miles an hour gusts which keptus all guessing. We had sun on the Saturday but itturned windier and much colder on the Sunday. JohnCampbell shot magnificently to win with yours trulysecond. Ian Dixon won FTR with Russell Simmondssecond.A return to Diggle in May saw Grant Taylor in fineform beating Gary Costello into second place and inFTR Ian Dixon again shining to beat Russell Simmondsinto second. For detailed accounts please go to the FClass UK website. It really puts you there alongsidethe firers.The League moved to Bisley in June where it wasvery, very hot. This was for the long range matchgoing back to 1200 yards. As it was hot, the wind gotstronger and as it got stronger still it danced aroundas did the mirage. Peter Wilson shot magnificently(after being told how to fill in a score sheet and plothis shots) and proved what he could really achieve.His 82.3 at 1200 was three ahead of Mick East and theywere way ahead of the pack.In the end on a cooler Sunday the scores sortedthemselves out and (not surprisingly) Peter Wilsonwon the day ahead of Gary Costello in FO and in FTRAdam Bagnall won by eight points ahead of RussellSimmonds who had a disaster by his standards inone of the shoots.Match Rifle at the Imperial MeetingSome F Class shots attended the Match Riflecompetitions. The little band of brothers had a greattime but there was no distinction made between FOand FTR. Perhaps this could be rectified another year?Overall winner was John Carmichael in the Hoptonbeating Des Parr for the second year running!Main Imperial MeetingF Class OpenThere were up to 30 FO competitors, with a few lessin FTR, in 2010. After the World Championships lastyear the reduction in numbers was to be expected andthe other teams were missed.Notwithstanding this, for me it is still the most excitingweek of competitions in the world. More so this yearas all shoots were (thanks to Iain and Karen Robertsonand the Shooting Committee) extended to 2ss and 15to count each, apart from the Queen’s First Stage. Icertainly wasn’t aware of any detail slowing the TRshooters so I would have to say it was a rip roaringsuccess, if even more wearying and involving a lotmore loading.In FO overall honours were shared between thefollowing with one win each in the minor competitions:Olivier Larrue from Group Mike, Peter Medhurst, DrDavid Lloyd (see his article elsewhere in this magazine)and Armel Papezyk of France. Two wins each wentto Mik Maksimovic, who also won the StickledownAggregate, and three wins to Horst Mitera whofinished the Times with one of the only maximumpossible scores of the meeting. The others were shot byDr David Lloyd and David Pickering. Well done lads!In the major competitions I won the DonaldsonMemorial (see below), Darren Stewart won the StGeorges counting me out, and I also won the 2009FCWC Celebration Aggregate, the Queen’s and theGrand Aggregate; second in the Grand Aggregate wasHorst Mitera and third Dr David Lloyd.FTR at the 2010 Imperial MeetingIn the minor competitions there was a struggle forsupremacy between Paul Eggemann from BDMPGermany and George Barnard from Leicester andNorthants RC.In the end Paul had won seven competitionsto George’s six. Nick Hinchliffe had won one24