Pre-Imperial and NRA Imperial 2021

Last month the NRA of the UK hosted the 152^nd Imperial Meeting at Bisley. Despite COVID-19, 740 individuals entered and competed in the meeting, of which 126 competitors were cadets. CCRS sponsored 50 of these cadets.

CCRS and NRA Pre-Imperial Training Course: 13^th – 15^th July

Due to COVID-19, both ISCRM and the Schools’ meetings were cancelled. CCRS and the NRA put on a Pre-Imperial Training Course prior to the NRA Imperial Meeting. The course was available to any cadet entering the NRA Imperial to allow them an opportunity to practice before the competition commenced.

The course was a great success and saw 65 cadets on the range over the three-day period. For some of these cadets, it was their first experience at self-coaching. For others, it was their first opportunity to shoot at 900x and 1000x. For most cadets, it was the first time they were able to practice using the rifle and equipment they planned to use for the NRA Imperial. The course could not have run without the support of the CFAVs involved and the NRA.

NRA Imperial: 16^th – 24^th July

There were a number of cadet shooting successes during the NRA Imperial and the full results can be found here: https://nra.org.uk/results/imperial-results-classifications/imperial-meeting-results/imperial-meeting-2021/

Some of these individual results are highlighted below:

Four cadets finished in the top 200 of the Grand Aggregate: Cdt S Hodge (92^nd), LCpl J Burch (112^th), Cdt T Cubitt (139^th) and Cdt R Roche (140^th).

Four cadets were in St. George’s, Stage III (Final): Cdt T Mulholland (22^nd), Cdt M Beaton-Jaramillo (27^th), Cdt H Thomson (81^st) and Cdt J Duffy (93^rd).

Six cadets made H.M. Queen’s Prize, Stage III (Final): Cdt T Cubitt (8^th), Cdt F Robson (52^nd), Cdt M Gerhardt (57^th), Cdt H Thomson (86^th), Cdt D Armstrong (93^rd) and Cdt H McCaig (99^th). Additionally, both Cdt H McCaig and Cdt T Cubitt finished in the top 10 of Stage II, 6^th and 8^th respectively.

One of the most exciting parts of the Imperial are the tie-shoots where you see competitors who have tied on the same score have a shoot-off for 1^st place. Two of our BCRT team members found themselves in a tie shoot with a large number of people there to cheer them on:

LCpl J Burch tie shot at 300x for the Donegall and finished in 1^st place, beating a member of the senior GB Palma Squad. Cdt F Stewart was in a five-way tie shoot at for the Lovell and finished a very admirable 5^th – a fantastic result in one of the toughest competitions at 1000x.

Other individual success included:

* This list includes cadets that placed between 1st and 10th place on a prize list only. Several more cadets also made prize lists and the full prize lists can be found on the NRA website.

During the meeting, a number of team matches took place both for the cadets and for National/GB teams. The following cadets should be congratulated for being selected to shoot for their Countries in the National: Cdt S Hodge (England), Cdt H Thomson (Scotland) and Cdt R Roche (Ireland). The following cadets were selected to shoot in the Kolapore against Great Britain: Cdt E Chambers, Cdt T Mulholland, Cdt W Mulholland (Jersey) and Cdt F Stewart (who also top-scored), Cdt R Tiffin, Cdt A Stewart (Guernsey).

The Cadet International saw full teams of 8 on the range from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands. After some terrific shooting from all 5 teams, the Challenge bowl and gold medals went to England with the Channel Islands in 2^nd place by only 2 points.

Twenty-six cadets were selected for the UK Cadets Team shooting against the Army and the Royal Air Force in the Cadets and Services Short Range and Long Range matches. In both competitions the UK Cadets came 2^nd to a very strong Army team.

For 2021 only, a cadet team was invited to shoot alongside the senior National match. This saw a team of twenty-five cadets on the range experiencing some of the highest-level competition they would have faced to date finishing in 5^th place.