NRA Journal - Spring 2011 - National Rifle Association

The Imperial Meeting – What is it?The Imperial Meeting is alternatively titled the AnnualPrize Meeting of the National Rifle Association ofGreat Britain. It is probably the biggest, and certainlythe most varied, competitive shooting festival in theworld.The Meeting dates from the formation of the NRAin 1859, with the first celebration being held atWimbledon in 1860. The NRA moved to Bisley in1890. The Meeting reflects this long history in itsorganisation and language. To participate fully, oneneeds time at Bisley Camp for a period during theMeeting to savour the atmosphere and camaraderieas well as the competition.The Meeting is held annually starting in late Juneand continuing until the climactic event on the lastSaturday in July (occasionally a week earlier), theFinal of Her Majesty the Queen’s Prize, shot at 900 and1000 yards between the 100 qualifiers (The Queen’sHundred) from a competition that starts with around1100 entrants. Along the way are awarded HerMajesty’s medals for Champion Shots of each of theArmed Forces, the Hopton Trophy for the winner in theMatch Rifle Grand Aggregate, the solid gold EntenteCordiale trophy for the best competitor in the sniper(McQueen) competition, the Ashburton Shield for thewinning School, the magnificent National ChallengeTrophy, six feet long and three feet high in solidsilver, for competition between the Home Countriesat distances up to 600 yards, the great hammered ironElcho Shield, six feet high, for competition betweenthe Home Countries at 1000, 1100 and 1200 yards,the British Running Deer Championships shot ona moving target, and about 300 other competitionsvarying from turn-up-and-shoot air rifle events to thetarget rifle Grand Aggregate, widely regarded as themost stringent test of target rifle shooting. To enter allthe events of a single discipline will require, at most, acommitment of one working week plus the weekendsat either end. Other than target rifle and F Class, mostdisciplines are organised so that the full course of firecan be completed in at most four working days plusone weekend.The Meeting was originally designed to encouragethe 19th Century Volunteer movement to practisemarksmanship. As such, there has never beena performance bar to entry, and one of the greatattractions is that the most junior cadet may beshooting alongside the World Champion (currentlyDavid Luckman of GB). Provided that you are safe,can actually hit the target somewhere, and have readand are following the Rules, you will be welcome.Performance is honestly not a bar. If you are involvedenough to be reading this, you are almost certainlygood enough.There are difficulties. To enter the full course for anydiscipline is not cheap. Given the scale of the event,some entry forms are necessarily complex, though ifyou are entering TR, MR or F Class then enter onlinevia the NRA website as it is very difficult indeed to getit wrong. To get the best out of the Meeting you reallydo need to stay on Bisley Camp, and accommodationis at a premium. If you are past the age for a tentand do not have connections on Camp, your optionson site are to hire some of the NRA accommodation(which is expanded for the most popular dates byhiring in portable but comfortable facilities) or borrowa caravan. There are also hotels and bed and breakfastestablishments within easy driving distance of theCamp.If you wish to participate, the first thing is to pickyour shooting discipline. Then go to the NRA websiteand look in the NRA Handbook (online at http://www.nra.org.uk and click on the Downloads tab) atthe competitions applicable to your discipline. Mostcompetitions are named in memory of the past heroesor officers of the NRA, so you need to actually read thecompetition conditions to establish what is being done.If that doesn’t make sense, and we do understand thatit can be confusing, please phone Karen Robertson, on01483 797777 ext 146 from 12 April onwards. Karenwill either know the answer (she has been shootingthe Meeting for nearly 30 years) or will know who youneed to talk to. Alternatively e-mail your question tokaren@nra.org.uk.How to Compete in the Target Rifle EventsWelcome to the biggest and most prestigious of thedisciplines at the Imperial (but I would say that,wouldn’t I!). The problem with explaining theImperial Meeting is that it just doesn’t make senseon a first pass. If there is something here you don’tunderstand, please just keep reading – the explanationshould follow later. If it doesn’t make sense secondtime round, e-mail me at target@nra.org.uk and I willtry to explain. The information here is specific to theImperial Meeting. Other target rifle competitions maydiffer in some details.Target rifle (TR) is the discipline in which the mostimportant events of the Meeting are shot. These are(explanations to follow):Her Majesty the Queen’s PrizeThe Grand AggregateThe St George’s VaseThere are another 20 or so squadded TR competitionsfor individual competitors, and competitions forteams from clubs, counties, the Home Nations andinternational teams.35