The BFRC 50 Metre Open Meeting was held on the Malcolm Cooper Range in Lord Roberts Centre, Bisley on 18th & 19th of April 2009. The entries to this meeting were down a little on last year's but as often seems to be the case a lot of shooters put their entries in at the last minute & some were disappointed as the entries were full.

I was hoping for good weather so as to enable shooters to get a good idea how their winter work was progressing but as last year I was disappointed. A cold & rather variable northerly wind persisted on the Saturday but even so some good scores (for the conditions) were obtained. There was some sunshine but as that does not penetrate into the range by the end of the 2^nd prone match many shooters were suffering from the cold. The Sunday saw some improvement with the wind a little lighter & more sunshine, the main benefit of which was the possibility for shooters to go to the front of the Centre to warm up a little.

Comp 1 was an English match for a full squad of entries. The best score was put up by Mike Babb with 592, closely followed by Dave Phelps, 591. Third was Duncan Farmer with 589. There were 2 scores of 588 & 4 on 587 so the old phrase the every point counts was proved to be true.

  Comp 2, another English match with a full squad followed about an hour later. This time Dave Phelps came out the winner with 590, Liam Webster improved by 6 points on his 1^st match to finish 2^nd on 587, closely followed by Barry Butler, also on 587 but beaten on count back on the 5^th series of 10 shots.

 Comp 3 was a 3 x 40 3P-match shot on Sunday morning with 20 competitors entering the event. Top score was by James Huckle with 1139, 2^nd place was 1119 by John Croydon & 3^rd 1116 by Kenny Parr.  The winner of  B class was Jonathon Andrews on 1090, C class winner was Dan Rivers who was entering his 1^st competition using his new rifle, his score was 1084.

  Comp 4, also shot on Sunday morning, was the women’s 3 x 20 sport rifle match. The winner was Sharon Lee on 563, a convincing margin on 2^nd place of 10 points. Second was Sian Corish with 553 followed by Karen Webber on 551.

  Comp 5, a 60 shot air rifle match, was shot on the Hall A airgun range in LRC over 2 details on Saturday afternoon. An excellent score of 595 was the winning score, shot by James Huckle. This was a new PB, by 1 point so James was more than happy with his performance.

  The meeting was organised by Robin Taylor &the BFRC is indebted to those who helped to run the range over the 2 days. Particular mention goes to Ivor French who was Chief Range Officer on the Malcolm Cooper Range , he had one or two tricky problems to deal with on the 1^st competition but all worked out well in the end. Mention must also be made of the co-operation of the shooters and for leaving the range in a virtually immaculate condition. Well done to you all.

Next year the format may be a match plus a final in the morning with a repeat match in the afternoon. Comments for or against this change would be appreciated. Get your entries in earlier and all being well, we'll see you next year?!