The Virtuous Circle of Bradfield's Shooting Success - Bradfield College

The forum of the 2022 Annual Shooting Dinner is a great platform to use to talk about not only the success of shooting at Bradfield but also the journey of how that success was achieved. This year it was an opportunity to further highlight the strength of the partnership between the College and alumni shooting community and why it is a strong contender as role model for other clubs.

The dinner itself was a celebration on many levels. Firstly, three OBs, Elliott Sewell (C 12-17), Christina Cuming (M 15-20) and Annabel Morris (J 16-21) were recognised as becoming accomplished GB shots. Secondly, the dinner recognised 60 years of Athelings at Bradfield College. Aside from being an Anglo-Saxon term to describe someone of noble birth who was eligible for kingship, ‘Atheling’ has been used since 1926 to describe someone who has secured a place in the British Cadet Rifle Team.

Since 1962 Bradfield has produced 42 athelings, including three Commandants and one Adjutant, an outstanding achievement. In addition to recognising this, Nigel Suffield- Jones, President of the Athelings, was also given the opportunity to present the 2020 Athelings with their iconic hats, righting the wrong dealt by the pandemic that had prevented the team from representing their country as they would have wished. The undoubted highlight of 2022 however, was winning the Ashburton Shield at the schools’ meeting for the first time since 1985.

A very poignant presentation was also made during the event, the presentation of the Simon Dixon Memorial Tankard, made to the College by the Dixon family and awarded to the highest scoring cadet on Ashburton day. Simon (C 58-61) was instrumental in ensuring the current health of shooting at Bradfield, not least through the hiring of Steve Bates as the shooting coach.

Steve praised Simon as his mentor and it was a heartfelt moment with Simon’s widow, Chris, and his two grown-up children in attendance.

As Simon was a key figure in the development of shooting at Bradfield, he was by no means alone in the support that he offered as an Old Bradfieldian.

Indeed, the role of the alumni in ensuring the success of the current shooting team is a significant one and the strength of the bond between the College and the Old Bradfieldians is very strong.

It was identified by the Headmaster as perhaps the only example of a sport where College and alumni could unite and be successful as a combined team as happened at Bisley this year.

The connection exemplifies the call to ‘be involved’, and the desire of individuals who have benefited from an experience at College to want to reciprocate and give back to the community to perpetuate the experience for others.

It is a true benefit right up to the point that those top College shots become the alumni. At this point the competition between the teams is fierce and in the recent Tremlett Trophy on Winter Bradfield Day the College lost to the OBs for the second year running. So, almost the perfect virtuous circle then…

If you are interested in joining the award-winning Old Bradfieldian shooting team do make contact with the Club Secretary, Richard Vary via email Richard.Vary@twobirds.com

ATHELINGS MEMORIES

Richard Nicholson (D 60-65)

In 1965 it was still possible to be delightfully amateur about something like an Athelings trip. There were no prior training weekends; there was not even a meet-up before we set off. We were selected on the basis of our performances the previous year on either the CCF circuit of meetings or in ACF competitions. Our rifles were .303 Lee-Enfield No 4s; they had vernier rearsights, but the foresight was a blade that had to be aligned with the horizontal diameter of a semi-circular aiming mark. There was a magazine that could be loaded for snap shooting and fire-with-movement competitions, but not for Ashburton type competitions. In those days the Ashburton, and most ACF competitions, were fired at 200 yards and 500 yards only, so most of us had never shot at any longer distance before going to Canada.

We gathered at Heathrow and boarded a Boeing 707 going to Montreal. First, however, we had to land at Prestwick, south of Glasgow, so that the plane’s tanks could be filled to the absolute top. The 707 only just had the range to cross the Atlantic: Prestwick was not only closer to Montreal, but had a very long runway, of which we used the full length before creeping into the air. Thereafter the journey was uneventful, but I do remember seeing icebergs for the first time.

We stayed at an Army barracks in the suburbs of Montreal where I had my first culture shock. Walking round the area, it seemed that every house was painted outside from top to bottom: the shock was that the fashion that summer was for houses half painted in orange and half in emerald green. We were taken to Ottawa in a bus similar to early Greyhound buses, in which the driver opened and shut the front door with a lever arrangement; no hydraulics then.

At Connaught ranges the team was housed in a large marquee tent, but the leader and adjutant had more private accommodation in the officers’ quarters. As at Bisley, most of the running of the meeting was done by Army detachments, which did mean that there was reasonably edible food available in their canteen almost any time during the day. To begin with the weather was like a good English summer, but then the thermometer climbed: it was close to 90F three or four days in a row with very high humidity due to the ranges proximity to the Ottawa River which is wide and shallow. Most of us spent a lot of time lying on our beds in the marquee, with its sides completely rolled up, hoping for a bit of breeze. I survived on about half a gallon of milk a day and large quantities of blueberry pie.

There were a couple of individual competitions for cadets and I was pleased to win the Canadian Cadet Open Championship: I thought it would look good on university applications. The reality was more mundane. The competition was 2 sighters and 7 to count at 200 yds, in quite a high wind. Only three out of about 100 cadets got a possible and I won the first tie-shoot of my life. It gave me confidence, however, so that I was not worried about making a fool of myself at 600, 900, and 1000 yards, distances at which I had never shot. I do not remember much else about the individual shoots: I don’t think any of us came close to winning anything. We did, however, win the match against the Canadian cadets. As I recall it was hot, windy and a close-run affair, which left those of us in the GB VIII feeling very pleased with ourselves.

ATHELINGS MEMORIES

Hugh Fernyhough (F 66-71)

Perusing the previous edition of The Bradfieldian, I read with interest of the exploits of Bradfield’s target rifle shooters. I enjoyed looking at the happy smiles of the first team with their trophies lined up in front. In particular, I was interested to see the Ashburton Shield once again. What a great achievement to win with such a decisive margin over their rivals!

Sitting at my desk I glanced across at a framed photograph of the 1970 first team, with the Ashburton Shield perched at our feet. We had won it by a very slender margin of victory over our competitors. It was however, a great thrill when somewhere down on the Bisley range, Nigel Suffield-Jones (NSS-J) quietly informed us that we had won the shield. It was a moment that I shall not forget and I never felt so bonded with my team mates as I did then. I believe that it had taken since 1913 before Bradfield had managed to win the Ashburton again. We spontaneously purchased a small medal as a memento for NSS-J and managed to get it engraved there and then. He had always been a stickler for rules and regulations – quite rightly so – which we often found rather a bore. However, I believe our underlying respect for him as our coach and leader suddenly shone through. I remember a rather emotional NSS-J, as he accepted our small gift.

I was fortunate to be selected for the Athelings tour of Canada in 1971. We were thoroughly spoilt by our hosts. I remember in particular, the 5-star breakfasts provided by the Army catering personnel on the Ottawa ranges. I performed reasonably well in all the individual events. Nerves got to me in the team event, but thankfully we beat the Canadians by one point.

I would like to congratulate Keisha and Rory on being selected for the Athelings team and wish them every success. With fond memories of my own shooting days at Bisley and elsewhere, I hope Bradfield’s target rifle shooting continues, after the outstanding success that has already been achieved in recent years. What fun it can be!

From the May 2023 issue of

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