Sussex marksmen attend National Meeting at Bisley
The 2025 National Smallbore Rifle Meeting at Bisley was a memorable one as it included a match between the USA and Great Britain, a match which only takes place once every eight years and which is always attended by a very strong American team.
The international match does not take place until most of the individual and club and county team matches have been completed and one of the first Inter County Matches to take place was for the Queen Alexandra Cup. This is the final stage of a competition between Counties where county team members have had to qualify to shoot for their Counties and then Counties have to qualify to shoot at Bisley.
Sussex have an excellent record in this competition, winning it on a number of occasions and hopes were high again this year, however, there are always the very difficult wind conditions to contend with at Bisley which can make achieving high scores difficult, particularly where there is little or no time to wait for tricky conditions to settle. The course of fire for each team member is 20 shots deliberate, 20 shots time limit and a skirmisher card where as many successful hits have to be made at small oval shaped aiming marks in 60 seconds. The final Sussex scores were Sara Carr (Chichester) 396, Rob Dowling (Chichester) 395, Linda Smallbone (Eastbourne) 388, David White (East Grinstead), Adam Cornbill and Nick Pike (Chichester) 386, to give a team total of 2337 and the Queen Alexandra Cup, 6 points clear of second placed Surrey, 2331, with Cheshire & N. Wales 3rd with a score of 2330. Shot at the same time as the Intercounty competition was a club team competition for teams of three and Sussex team Chichester made it a double by winning the club competition with a score of 1177, ahead of Ruislip 1173 and 3rd placed Tunbridge Wells 1139.
The next intercounty team competition took place on Wednesday with teams of six each shooting sixty shots at 50metres and once again expectations were high. The final scores were Rob Dowling (Chichester) 588, Linda Smallbone (Eastbourne) 584, David White (East Grinstead) 583, Nick Pike (Chichester) 580, Nick Mullins (5th Sussex HG) 574 and Adam Cornbill (Chichester) 551 giving them a team score of 3461 ex 3600 and 5th place, just 2 points behind neighbouring county Kent., Hampshire won the County 50m competition with a score of 3520. Shooting alongside the main 50m competition was the ladies 50m comp. and the Sussex ladies were more successful, finishing 2nd with a score of 1719 ex 1800 behind highflying Surrey (1755) and just ahead of 3rd placed Kent (1715).
The Sussex team were Linda Smallbone 584, Sara Marshall (East Grinstead) 577 and Jan Whittle (Petworth) 558. The final intercounty competition took place on Thursday afternoon, being shot at 50m and 100yds, with Sussex fielding the same team as in the County 50m competition. Their final score of 2229 placed them in 8th position with Essex winning the competition with a score of 2268, just 2 points ahead of second placed Hampshire.
Friday afternoon was the big international match with both countries having selected their teams of ten from their squads based on performances during the week.
Two of the USA team finished in the top three of the Bisley Aggregate including the winner, Sarah Beard who had an exceptional week and team mate Nick Mowrer who finished 3rd. Top man in the Aggregate for the Brits squad was Chichester’s Rob Dowling who finished 4th and based on performances during the week together with the American’s record in this competition, the favourites going into the match were clearly the Americans, however, favourites don’t always win and by the end of the afternoon’s shooting the GB team completed a comfortable victory by 3863 to 3821 and whilst America’s Sarah Beard top scored with a sensational 396 ex 400, the British team’s strength in depth saw them complete the win with Sussex’s Rob Dowling (390) making the team’s second highest score.