The BFRC 50 Metre Open Meeting was held on the Malcolm Cooper Range in Lord Roberts Centre, Bisley on 13th & 14th of April 2013. The entries for the prone matches were, as usual, heavily oversubscribed & I had to close the entries for both some days before the official closing date. It pays to get entries in very early as this is a popular meeting, being the first one in the year in the UK..

The message remains the same, BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.

As always I was hoping for reasonable weather as cold &/or windy conditions are no fun for the organiser or the shooters @ any meeting. Due to the meeting being held in mid April we are unlikely to ever experience very warm temperatures but this year was quite cold. Hence be prepared for inclement conditions, especially as next year's meeting will be even earlier (March 22-23 2014)

English Match 1 had 43entries. The best qualification score was 593 by Kenny Parr. Richard Wilson, with 592, was second closely followed by Dan Rivers with 591. The finals were run according to the new ISSF rules for finals which allow 8 minutes for preparation & sighting shots followed by a break when the finalists are announced to the spectators. Another 2 minutes of sighting shots is allowed followed by 2 series of 3 shots in 100 seconds. Then  series of single shots in 30 seconds are fired and after each pair of shots the lowest scoring competitor is eliminated. This continues until 20 shots have been fired in total by the top 2 shots, when all the placings will have been determined. This led to an exciting final with Dan Rivers putting in a strong showing to take top place with a final score of 205.1, closely followed by Kenny Parr in silver medal position on 204.4 and bronze going to Richard Wilson with 181.8.

English Match 2 also had 43 entries & this time Dan Rivers was top score with 596, Austin Wilshere was second with 591 and close behind was Keith Simmons on 590. The final for EM 2 was run under the same format as that for EM 1. This time Rachel Glover, who had qualified in 6th place came through to take the gold medal with a final score of 207.1. Richard Wilson came from 8th to take the silver medal with a score of 206.6 and Keith Simmons took the bronze medal on 185.0. This demonstrates how starting the final with scores set back to zero makes for a much more competitive and exciting final. The spectators and shooters all enjoyed this format with the regular commentary and lowest scorers being eliminated.

Sunday morning saw our normal set-up with a 3x40 match with 1 entrants running concurrently with a 3x20 with 13 entries for the women. We have space for more on the range and it would be nice to see this filled in the same way as the prone matches are over subscribed.

Top score in the 3x40 was by Kenny Parr with 1151, closely followed by Dan Rivers on 1141.Mark Symankiewicz was 3^rd with 1128. The winner of B class was Ross Shears on 1117. Luke Flack won Class C with a score of 1078.

The winner of the women’s 3x20 was Sharon Lee  with a score of 558 against 557 shot by Hannah Pugsley. Third place score was by Larissa Sykes on 556.

As in previous years, to decide the top shooter of the day we held an Olympic final taking the top 8 scores from the 1^st 20 shots aggregate from the 3x40 & 3x20 matches.This gave an equal mix of 4 men and 4 ladies being, in qualifying score order, Kenny Parr, Dan Rivers, Mark Symankiewicz, Sharron Lee, Hannah Pugsley, Larissa Sykes, Rachel Glover and Alex MacDonald. This final was also shot under the new rules. The format is, after preparation and sighting time, 15 shots kneeling in 3 sets of 5 shots, followed by 15 shots prone in 3 sets of 5, with only 7 minutes change over and sighting time in between kneeling and prone. Then there is a further 9 minutes change over and sighting time before the standing phase. This is made up of of 2 series of 5 shots, after which the 2 lowest scorers are eliminated. Then there are 5 single shots series with one shooter being eliminated after each shot.

Dan Rivers was the ultimate winner with a total of 448.2, having scored highly all through the standing phase. Kenny Parr took the silver medal slot with 439.5 and Mark Symankiewicz was third with 427.3 The format for the 3P final is quite demanding and the shooters have to be on their toes to make the change over between positions to leave enough time for sighting back in. It also taxes the brain of the Chief Range Officer who has to keep on top of the timing.

The BFRC is indebted to all those who helped to run the range over the 2 days. As organiser and Chief Range Officer I was ably assisted by a number of other range officers who used the meeting to gain experience for their future use. My thanks also go to Pam and Karen Webber for doing the stats and keeping the spreadsheets working in the finals!