Rifle varsity 2019

150th NRA Imperial Meeting:
Oxford and Cambridge's pistol clubs both found themselves underpopulated in the run up to the rifle varsity, each having to conscript gravel-bellied support from OURC and CURA respectively. Cambridge's team consisted of captain Theo Chua (2018's de facto rifle captain) and three-time rifle varsity competitor James Cowley (Cambridge's highest scorer of 2018), as well as returning 2018 conscript Fergus Flanagan and new recruit Miles Stopher, both from CURA. Timing was tight as our extra shooters tried to balance their commitments to CURA with the demands of practising the unfamiliar gallery rifle discipline in the few days we had to prepare.

Thus, though Cambridge managed to enter a full complement of scores for three cups (McGivern, Fairbairn & Sykes and Peel), timing did not permit our entering scores to the Universities Aggregate. Oxford's cup entries weren't much better, so that the exceptional performance of shooters from Imperial College secured them a clean sweep, as in the previous year.

On the morning of the main rifle varsity, Cambridge discovered a fatal equipment malfunction in one of the full-bore rifles: the rear sight was totally loose! Every shot jiggled it into a random place in a broad circle, causing the user's shots to spread out into a wide circle that was still, on average, centred (casting doubt on the shooter's own accuracy!)

Urgent rifle surgery was performed, tightening the screw as far as it would go, but alas, that did nothing to help. The rear-sight was totally defective. After much fretting and experiments with rubber bands to brace the loose part, a second round of surgery was attempted, this time a transplant of the full rear-sight assembly from Cambridge's unused full-bore rifle (which was prone to jamming and so not itself a viable varsity gun). The range officers graciously sacrificed the first few minutes of their lunch break to allow us to test the new sight on the varsity range, revealing that the transplant had been a complete success, requiring no adjustments whatsoever! Thus, at the last minute, Cambridge was equipped to face the rifle varsity.

After lunch, despite the late morning drama, Cambridge reigned supreme, defeating Oxford 1488-1322, a huge margin of victory when compared with the narrow differences of previous years. Remarkably, newcomer Miles achieved the highest overall score (378 ex. 400), despite captain Theo achieving the highest precision score (187 ex. 200) and James achieving the highest duelling score (193 ex. 200).

Rifle varsity 2018

149th NRA Imperial Meeting:
Captain Damiano Barone, being on the Team GB development squad for air pistol, naturally was less interested in the rifle side of CURPC business, so it fell to Theo Chua to take up the reins and lead Cambridge into battle as the de facto rifle captain for 2018. Joining him was 2016 rifle varsity competitor James Cowley, back from a year away in Switzerland and ready to face off against Oxford once more. A pair of last minute dropouts created a crisis wherein the Cambridge team was 2 people short, but Theo conspired with CURA to conscript a pair of their rifle shooters (Fergus Flanagan and James Xiao) who, though used to shooting on their bellies, took to the new discipline of gallery rifle shooting with aplomb. Though Cambridge and Oxford both entered respectable scores for the university cups (McGivern, Fairbairn & Sykes and Peel), the accomplished shooters of Imperial College's team swept all three with exceptional scores.

Cambridge's new recruits took to gallery rifle like fish to water and, with just a couple of days' practice, were posting impressive scores in line with CURPC members who'd been training for months. Sadly, however, in the final count, Oxford pulled ahead and won 1509-1500, an extremely narrow margin.

Rifle varsity 2017

148th NRA Imperial Meeting:
Despite Cambridge shooting well and posting respectable scores, some exceptional shooting from the Oxford team secured them a victory 1523-1499.

BAR spring meeting 2017

Once again, CURPC headed to Interlaken in the Swiss alps to take part in the spring meeting of the British Alpine Rifles (BAR) and experience the broader range of shooting made possible by Switzerland's relaxed gun laws. After receiving instruction in the safe handling and shooting of CURPC's club-owned Sphinx 2000 9mm pistol and two Smith & Wesson revolvers, a traditional full-bore pistol varsity against the Oxford cohort was arranged. Cambridge won this handsomely, maintaining our long streak of victories in Switzerland.

Even more excitingly, a BAR member revealed he had acquired one of the original revolvers used in the earliest Oxford-Cambridge matches over a century before: a Colt New Service chambered in .455 Webley. Thus, the old revolver match was also contested, with Cambridge achieving a comfortable victory of 626-568.

Rifle varsity 2016

147th NRA Imperial Meeting:
Captain Nicky "Danger" Soane was joined by former captain Jonny Waite, returning competitor Stewart "BRJ" Forshaw and first-time rifle varsity competitor James Cowley.

Nicky led from the front by demolishing competition after competition, achieving 11 Gold medals, including 8 with the highest possible score (i.e. 100% accuracy), for which he was awarded the prestigious Highest Possible Score Cross by the NRA. Not content with simply earning more Gold medals at a single Imperial Meeting than any Cambridge student in history, Nicky went on to win the Man vs Man (falling plates) competition outright. Additionally, Nicky achieved the highest overall scores in the Fairbairn Cup and Peel Cup. His exceptional performance earned him the title of "Imperial Grandmaster" and caught the eye of the British Alpine Rifles (BAR), who recruited him to compete in non-university matches on their team in the multinational cups, where he was BAR's highest scorer in both the Mander Trophy and the Lord Salisbury Team Match.

Inspired by their captain's outrageous marksmanship, the rest of the Cambridge team posted respectable scores in the rifle varsity match, but none could keep up with Nicky, who scored an eyewatering 392 ex. 400. Not only was this a full 8 points beyond the internal CURPC criteria for Full Blue nomination, but it was the highest individual score ever recorded in varsity history.

Together, the Cambridge team scored a record-breaking 1529 ex. 1600, which would have been the highest team score in varsity history, were it not for the fact that Oxford achieved a miracle and simultaneously broke that same record by a further 7 points, achieving a new high of 1536 ex. 1600. Thus, on a day of excellent shooting all around, Oxford edged out to win 1536-1529.

For his valiant effort and extraordinarily high standard of shooting, Nicky was emphatically nominated by CURPC to receive a discretionary Full Blue, which was then confirmed and awarded by the Blues Committee.

BAR spring meeting 2016

This year we had a very strong showing on the Switzerland trip, with eleven CURPC members and alumni heading out to Interlaken for a week of shooting guns that we would be able to access in the UK in the picturesque environs of Berner Oberland. With such a large group, there were plenty of beginners and we all received thorough safety introductions to CURPC's club guns. Despite only a few days' practice with fullbore handguns, several CURPC members scored highly enough in the BAR competitions to earn medals.

As is tradition when Oxford and Cambridge are both in Switzerland, a full-bore pistol varsity match was contested, in which Cambridge won another victory, securing possession of the full-bore pistol trophy (which we had left behind in the Hawks' Club) for another year.

In addition to using revolvers and pistols, we got a taste of the Swiss assault rifles used by Switzerland's armed forces (both current and historical).

Rifle varsity 2014

145th NRA Imperial Meeting:
The full-bore gallery rifle Varsity match took place on the last of the Imperial Meeting gallery rifle days in Bisley, Surrey. The outgoing Cambridge Captain, Alex Hackmann, was determined to bring home a good haul of trophies this year, and the teams he selected did not disappoint. These included former Captain Jonathan Waite and first time rifle Varsity shooters Stewart Forshaw and Nicky Soane. Despite Oxford having some promising new shooters at the start of the meeting, by the time of the Varsity match the experienced Cambridge team were consistently scoring higher. Oxford actually managed to creep ahead in the precision round of the match itself, but proceeded to collapse in the duelling round where the Light Blues held their nerve and secured the trophy for another year, winning 1492-1462.

Three other matches were contested in Bisley alongside the Varsity. We are pleased to report that, for the first time in current members' memories, Cambridge won all three. However, the margins by which one of these was won ( 571(13X) - 571(9X) ) just goes to show how hard we had to fight, and the Oxford team are by no means a spent force.

Rifle varsity 2013

144th NRA Imperial Meeting:

Match	Oxford	Cambridge
Oxford & Cambridge (Varsity)	1389	1488
Fairbairn	377	453
Peel	1072	1165
McGivern	572	566

Captain Jonny arrived early to the meeting with the club equipment and tent. The rest of the club would arrive over the next two days, in order to get plenty of practice in before the matches began. This year, Oxford also arrived early with similar plans in mind, showing that they were serious about ending their losing streak.

Initial results during training were not so promising, but before long, everyone settled in and began posting impressive scores. The first of the matches was the Peel Cup which took place on the Saturday. This was shot in two details, with two members of each club shooting shoulder to shoulder per detail. The Peel Cup was a challenging match, requiring shooters to fire a shot during a 2 second exposure, and two shots in 3 second exposures. This was no problem for Cambridge, who outclassed Oxford with a score of 1165-1072, with Jonny Waite top scoring 294 ex. 300.

Following this was the McGivern cup match, the only match to be shot with the .22 Ruger rifles. Unfortunately, Oxford took the match, although the score of 572-566 shows how close the match was. The third match, the Fairbairn Cup, was contested over the Saturday and Sunday. Cambridge again gave a dominating performance, winning with a score of 453-377, top scorer Han Yan with 117 ex. 120.

After the shooting on Saturday had concluded, both teams joined the British Alpine Rifles (who were holding their summer meeting concurrently with the Imperial) for an evening picnic on Century range. Efforts by Oxford alumni to ply Cambridge shooters with beer were largely unsuccessful. Both teams decided to retire to bed reasonably early, however any attempts to sleep were thwarted by a loud wedding party being held in the nearby pavilion, as well as a disco in another location within earshot.

Sunday morning came quickly, with shooters on both teams no doubt feeling nervous and tired from the lack of sleep. Both captains agreed to change the course of fire for the Oxford & Cambridge match by adding a duelling series. The match was shot shoulder to shoulder, with two shooters from each team per detail. Jonny and Alex, the two most experienced shooters were first, shooting alongside Oxford's Gil-Ad and Gareth. Next up were Han and Aline, who were the novices of the team (it was Han's first Imperial meeting, and Aline's first year in the club), shooting alongside Philip and Oliver. Aline shot a 6 in her first card, but quickly recovered to post an amazing 97 ex. 100 in her second card, the highest individual card score of the match. At this point, it became obvious that Cambridge was ahead, and all team had to do was to hold its nerve during the duelling part. This was easy for the well disciplined team and we extended our lead to a final score of 1488-1389. Han Yan took the highest score of 382 ex. 400.

Following the varsity match, Jonny shot the Cotterill Trophy match for air pistol and went on to win it with a score of 540 ex. 600, earning himself his own trophy to take home. This marked the end of a highly successful summer varsity week, with the club keeping to recent tradition by giving one match away to keep Oxford coming back for more.

The club dedicated the varsity win to coach Herb Teachey, for whom this was his last varsity before he returns to the United States. The club also welcomes Jim Hawkins as the new club coach.

Air pistol varsity 2013

In Cambridge on 17th February Oxford and Cambridge met again for the air pistol Varsity match. After some rather late team decisions we were confident of the First Team putting in a decent score and the Ladies Team doing very well, it was really down to how good a year Oxford was having.

After giving Oxford's First team a quick chance to warm up, shooting began at 10:00. As always everyone was nervous and shot below their average, but once the first half of the teams had finished we saw Oxford were suffering more than us. Although they didn't know it, the rest of the First team stepped onto the firing point with a lead of 30-40 points. Minerva and Stewart did what they do best and both shot top scores, extending our lead out to 50 points and winning the match.

The Second team match was considerably closer. The teams were well matched and when Ali and Jin stepped off the line we were only 5 points ahead (and Jin had literally missed his Half Blue by half a centimetre). Due to the fact many of the Ladies team were shooting concurrently with the First or Second team, the last two details of the day were a mix of Ladies and Second team shooters. Han managed to increase our lead to 13 points after outshooting his Oxonian opposite before Oxford clawed a few points back, leaving us to win by a mere 6 points.

Oxford's Ladies team simply couldn't match the experience of ours and we won the Ladies match with a score close to their First team (not surprising when the team was composed of two First team shooters and the Second team top scorer!). Half Blues were awarded to Ali Simon, Minerva Singh and Stewart Forshaw (Stewart only began shooting in Michaelmas). Half Blues were re-awarded to Sophie Reed, Jonathan Waite and Han Yan.
Jonny Waite, Captain

First Team	Ex 600	Second Team	Ex 600	Ladies	Ex 600
Cambridge
Jonathan Waite (cpt)	535	Ali Simon	530	Sophie Reed	517
Sophie Reed	517	Han Yan	525	Minerva Singh	529
Minerva Singh	529	David Firth	484	Ali Simon	530
Stewart Forshaw	535	Jin-Hyung Lee	497	Matilda McAleenan	469
	2116		2036		2045
Oxford
Gil-Ad Schwartz (cpt)	527	Philip Young	504	Sophie Weller	488
David Main	527	Oliver Tozer	518	Siyi Xiong	517
Sophie Weller	488	Siyi Xiong	517	Abby Saks	436
Kennan Lee	524	Steve Bian	491	Val Liang	387
Oxford	2066		2030		1828

Bedfordshire Open Air Gun Meeting 2013

Five of us attended on Saturday 26th January. Captain Jonny Waite shot a below par 529 ex 600 on account of having been in a rowing race shortly before leaving for Bedford, but the others shot well. For all of them this was their first real match and none of them let the pressure affect their shooting. Stewart Forshaw was winning Class C at the end of Saturday with 512, closely followed by Djelal Osman with 492 and Sam Blayney with 482. Matilda also finished top of Class D with 484, despite suffering a penalty for putting an extra shot into one of her cards. In all it was a good shoot and a nice introduction for everyone to competitive air pistol shooting.

BAR Autumn Meeting 2012

Between the 20th and 22nd October we joined the British Alpine Rifles in Switzerland with our biggest group yet. Along with an equal contingent from Oxford we spent the weekend firing a variety of full-bore pistols, both semi-automatics and revolvers. The highlight of the trip was an impromptu Varsity match, shot over the aggregates of the Kett, Montgomery and PP1 courses of fire. Cambridge won quite convincingly, taking home the fullbore pistol trophy that was last contested before the pistol ban of 1997. Han stayed on for the rest of the week to shoot more pistols and rifles.

Shooter	Kett	M'gomery	PP1	Total
Cambridge
J. Waite	105	68	215	388
H. Yan	105	66	273	444
A. Davies	97	58	179	334
J. Lee	75	54	262	391
S. Kuppen	96	66	217	379
Total				1936
Oxford
G. Schwartz	78	61	240	379
D. Main	9128	46	225	399
P. Young	27	56	242	325
J. More	29	24	135	188
S. Weller	105	57	232	394
Total				1685

Muzzle Loading
The club has regained its muzzle loading revolver from Oxford's safes and is currently applying for Home Office Approval for it. For now it is held by Tony Garwood, the club President, at Bedford Range. After a little practice there, Jonny used the pistol at the Imperial and achieved some not terrible scores!

British Airguns
Vin Shen Ban, Sophie Reed and Jonathan Waite attended. As ever, Vin shot very well (despite minor distraction from Minerva Singh of OUPC) while Jonny and Sophie finished near the top of their classes in the aggregate and in top spots of the rapid fire.

NSRA Team Winter League
CURPC's team of Vin Shen Ban, Sophie Reed and Jonathan Waite finished just 2 points behind Division 3 winners Norwich City B.

Faded Blues Match
The inaugural return match for the Past vs. Present, held in Cambridge in January, was well attended by CURPC and alumni of both clubs (regrettably OUPC could only send one member). The theme was 'zombie invasion', so in the long range we had the rapid fire section of the standard pistol course and a 'El Presidente' course on zombie targets. In the short range we had more normal targets, either trying to smash (or even shoot through the hole of) a polo or circumnavigating (tens count as 0!). Followed by a formal dinner at Murray Edwards, the whole day was great fun.

Rifle varsity 2012

Match	Oxford	Cambridge
Oxford & Cambridge (Varsity)	701	742
Universities Aggregate	?	?
Fairbain	?	?
Peel	?	?
McGivern	?	?

The Varsity match was shot by Jonathan Waite (cpt), Alexander Hackmann, Stefan Kuppen and David Firth. This year the Gallery Rifle section of the Imperial had undergone a bit of an overhaul, so was meant to be a day shorter and some courses of fire ended up a little different. At Oxford's suggestion, the Varsity match was also different, now 10 precision and 10 duelling to count (each with 5 sighters). On top of this half of Oxford's team of four hadn't been to the Imperial before, so everything was new! This year we had developed a accurate and stylish load for our .38" rounds, using 'gold' bullets from our sponsors, H&N. We had also switched to more powerful .22" ammunition after a weak batch of Geco left the Rugers jamming almost every shot.

Although our kit was sorted, our team was a little thin on the ground as only 2 members weren't involved in the Target Rifle shooting (including the captain himself!). However, those that joined us from CURA were good shots, with David Firth shooting the Varsity 3 days after first picking up a Marlin! Tom French dropped by and was thrown straight into the Peel and gruelling 72 shot Fairbain, again shooting well. This all combined to give us clear (sometimes embarrassing) wins in almost every match.

In annoying tradition, we lost one match. This year it was the Peel when a notch in the innards of a Marlin caused it to stick for Sophie. Due to the size of the rifles, she couldn't clear it and dropped a few shots. She made up for it massively though when she shot the Fairbain, this time with a short stocked Marlin that was kindly lent to her, and shot a score that nearly equalled the guys that had been practising all term! The club will definitely be investing in some shorter stocks this year. Sophie also entered the Cotterill with Jonny, where they finished 4th and 3rd respectively after the Mundays had an unexpected bad day.

Air pistol varsity 2012

After travelling to Wantage range, everyone felt confident and most shot fairly well. However everyone was shooting below expected (even after accounting for match pressure) and some 544s from Oxford saw them win the match. They also pulled out a 543 from a fresher in the second team match, again clearly winning. Thankfully our ladies saved some face and won their match. The second team (paper) plate from last year reappeared at the results, along with a new first team trophy. This was our most cross discipline squad in recent years, as David and Diana joined us from CUMPC and Jonny, Stefan, Matilda and Kay were also shooting in CUSBC's Varsity. It was mentioned that the rather different lighting at Wantage distracted some of the shooters.

A Team	Ex 600	B Team	Ex 600	Ladies	Ex 600
Sophie Reed (cpt)	515	Han Yan	485	Sophie Reed	515
Jonathan Waite	536	David Firth	518	Matilda McAleenan	505
Stefan Kuppen	530	Christopher Jackson	478	Diana Burk	488
Clark Barrett	533	Alexander Hackmann	478	Kay Sharpington	468
Cambridge	2114		1959		1976
Oxford	2155		2075		1961

BAR Autumn Meeting 2011

Han Yan, Clark Barrett and Pradipta Biswas travelled to Switzerland where they joined former captain James Bullock and Herb Teachey to shoot handguns and semi-automatic assault rifles. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the chance to shoot full-bore pistols and an informal revolver 'Varsity' match was shot between the members of CURPC and OUPC present, mainly alumni. The Cambridge shooters even made use of the revolver used in the very first revolver Varsity.

British Airgun Championships
Vin reports: "This year the Varsity Match clashed with the Airgun Championships, so I had to travel to Bisley on Friday for the 10m Five Target, 10m Standard and the first leg of the 10m Air Pistol matches, return to Cambridge that same evening, shoot in the Varsity Match the next morning, before heading out to Bisley again to complete the rest of my matches there. All these when I was having a terrible cold and almost coughed my lungs out! Considering my lack of preparation in [the rapid fire] disciplines (as I was focusing on the Varsity Match), I was quite pleased with my performances."
His most notable results were:
10m Standard – 342 ex.400, 5th place
10m Air Pistol (aggregate) – 1087 ex.1200, 4th place
Universities Championships – 540 ex.600, 2nd place

Intershoot
Sophie Reed travelled to the Netherlands and shot personal bests on every day of the competition. The competition was high and friendly as usual, so Sophie not only had fun but learnt a few useful tips.

Rifle varsity 2011

Match	Oxford	Cambridge
Oxford & Cambridge (Varsity)	701	739
Universities Aggregate	?	?
Fairbain	?	?
Peel	?	?
McGivern	?	?

The Varsity match was shot by Clark Barrett, Jonathan Waite, Alexander Hackmann and Tom French. After last year we expected Oxford to come after us in the 720s, so we trained hard at Bedford (and even Birmingham!) until we were expecting to shoot in the 750s. This paid off and we had a clear win. Most of the other matches were the same, except for the McGivern. After a year of learning and worrying about the Marlin .357"s, as well as an evening in a tent stripping and cleaning them, they worked well in all the matches. But this left the Rugers neglected, and with the low power Geco ammunition we normally use we had a few jams when it mattered. Sophie Reed (cpt) and Jonathan Waite entered the Cotterill and posted good scores. We also had a significant number of recent alumni, up to 4 or 5 towards the weekend.

Air pistol varsity 2011

Held at QEW Range, we set up a 'live' video feed from the range and projected it onto the wall of the club room, although it occasionally froze before playing the missed footage at high speed. The first and second team matches were very close and the winner wasn't clear until the very end. Due to the lack of silverware for these matches, a clear plastic cup was awarded to the first team and a paper plate to the second team, with suitable titles scrawled on them. Oxford retained some pride with the ladies match, winning the only existing silverware with much jubilation.

A Team	Ex 600	B Team	Ex 600	Ladies	Ex 600
Vin Shen Ban (cpt)	540	Sophie Reed	520	Sophie Reed	522
Jonathan Waite	528	Sugha Murugesu	460	Emma Kirby	443
Tom French	521	Matt Green	507	Sugha Murugesu	472
Tom Barber	520	Han Yan	505	Jess Touschek	436
Cambridge	2109		1992		1873
Oxford	2098		1987		1973

Rifle varsity 2010

141st NRA Imperial Meeting:
Cambridge's team A (Sophie, Clark et al.) defeated Oxford soundly 722-658 in a regular 4v4 match. Cambridge's lone team B competitor, Pradipta Biswas, faced off against Oxford's 3-person team B and defeated them with an individual score of 175 ex. 200 (averaged up to 525 ex. 600 for the comparison with Oxford's total team score).

Air pistol varsity 2010

This year's spring Varsity match was held at Oxford's Wantage range on the 21st February between CURPC and OUPC. Cambridge had so far enjoyed a very successful season with a squad comprising both experienced members (having recently competed at county or international level) and many new and talented shooters. However, last year's small-bore Varsity was won by a close margin and the summer full-bore GRCF (Imperial) match lost by only a single point, making the recent competition extremely close.

The Varsity match follows the standard pistol course of fire (gauged for a .22 round), comprising precision and rapid fire rounds shot in teams of four over 20 yards. This year's competition saw Oxford hosting, giving the dark blue side the home ground advantage. Both teams started strongly, shooting shoulder to shoulder, Cambridge with Oxford. However unfamiliar range conditions threw a number of the Cambridge side allowing Oxford to pull into an early lead. Equipment problems then put paid to Cambridge's 4th man's hopes of a comeback allowing Oxford to claim victory in the A team match.

The CURPC ladies' team, on the other hand, managed to successfully deal with all these setbacks (including a gun malfunction), despite the squad consisting mostly of novices. An ability to remain calm under pressure is of course crucial to any competitive shooting sport, and the squad clearly rose to this on the day with a personal best score from ladies' captain Wenjun Qu helping to secure the 2010 ladies' trophy.

Half blues (minimum requirement of 500 ex. 600) were awarded to Vin Shen Ban, Clark Barrett, James Bullock and Wenjun Qu.

Shooter	150	150	20	20	10	10	Total
Cambridge A
James Bullock (cpt)	87	93	93	94	86	84	537
Vin Shen Ban	87	86	88	85	84	83	513
Clark Barrett	91	87	89	93	82	87	529
Jase Taylor	77	74	75	84	80	72	462
Total							2041
Oxford A
Brian Tang	86	89	91	92	89	88	535
Imogen Solly	87	90	85	96	91	90	539
Patrick Schueder	91	92	85	88	92	88	536
Zheng Lo	87	92	87	89	83	91	529
Total							2139

Cambridge B
Emma Kirby	72	76	73	74	73	73	441
Pradipta Biswas	76	80	76	71	64	74	441
James Blackstone	78	82	88	87	77	76	488
Sean Ng	85	84	64	91	82	63	469
Total							1839
Oxford B
Scott Ansell	88	89	84	87	76	80	504
Alistair MacGregor(cpt)	91	85	82	87	87	86	518
David Main	90	95	93	92	81	83	534
Ariana Adjani	81	76	83	81	78	72	471
Total							2027

Cambridge Ladies
Sophie Reed	87	86	77	91	75	77	493
Jess Touschek	78	83	77	67	73	75	453
Wenjun Qu	88	92	91	87	86	80	524
Dominique Iste	77	78	75	67	65	86	448
Total							1918
Oxford Ladies
Imogen Solly	87	90	85	96	91	90	539
Ariana Adjani	81	76	83	81	78	72	471
Emma Hindley	72	85	79	79	63	70	448
Ksenia Peterneva	65	75	70	62	63	59	394
Total							1852

Multiple competitions, 2010

Six Counties Air Pistol Competition '10:
Congratulations to the Cambridgeshire team on winning this year's Six Counties shoot that took place in Norwich. It's the first time ever that Cambridgeshire have taken the trophy - with a winning team consisting 3 quarters of CURPC members (Cheng Liu: 551, James Bullock: 543 and Vin Shen Ban: 536).

Cambridge .177 April Open Meeting:
CURPC picked up 2nd (James Bullock 530/600) and 3rd (Vin Shen Ban 525/600) place in class D in this years April meeting.

NSRA National Inter-County Winter League 2009/2010:
Cambridgeshire TSC A came top of division 5 (and 7) of the NSRA national winter league postal match, featuring two CURPC shooters (James Bullock av264 and Chris Clemente av261). Other teams in div. 5 were: Somerset SSA A, Berkshire County SBR&PA, Cumbria & Northumbria B and Bedfordshire SBSA B.

ESSU Air Pistol League 2009/10:
Division 3 postal match was won by CURPC/ESSU member James Bullock with nine wins out of ten and a 5296 aggregate score.

Intershoot (The Hague):
Intershoot is held at the Sporthal Ockenburgh in The Hague and is a major international air gun competition with teams sent from around 16 different countries. CURPC are one of the few clubs that also regularly sends a team to this event. This year, one member of CURPC, James Bullock shot in the championship, although this year representing England, scoring a respectable 544 on the second day! The competition takes place over three days and each day involves a separate 60 shot 10m match, complete with Olympic final for the top 8 shooters.

Rifle varsity 2009

140th NRA Imperial Meeting:
Well done to the CURPC team, and to everyone who shot for Cambridge at this year's NRA Imperial meet. The scores are available on the NRA website for those interested. Despite the lack of silverware, everyone shot well - especially considering the difficult conditions with the guns. The Oxford vs. Cambridge match was also extremely closely fought with the other side wining by only a single point. There were also four individual AP and LSR NRA medals to bring home under the CURPC banner, including gold in the Scott Medals and a 4th place ranking for James Bullock in the Cotterill trophy, the main AP match.

Air pistol varsity 2009

The Varsity Match between CURPC (Cambridge University Revolver and Pistol Club) and OUPC (Oxford University Pistol Club) was shot on the 15th of February 2009 at the Elizabeth Way shooting range, Cambridge. CURPC had a team comprising mostly of freshers and was up against the same OUPC team that beat last year's more experienced CURPC team by 80 points. It was a very tight match which came down to the last shot of CURPC's Captain Daniel Kumbang.

The course of fire was: 5 shots in 150 seconds 4 times, 5 shots in 20 seconds 4 times, 5 shots in 10 seconds 4 times.

Cambridge fielded a team of:
Cambridge A: Chris Clemente, James Bullock, Daniel Kumbang (Captain), Kenny Wan
Cambridge B: Wenjun Qu, Xiao Han, Prith Hallikeri, Sean Ng
Ladies' Team: Wenjun Qu, Xiao Han, Lindsay Nemeth, Denise Law

Against Oxford's team of:
Oxford A: David Johnson, Patrick Schweder, Brian Tang, Arulkumaran Umapathy (Captain)
Oxford B: Zheng Lo, Elspeth Robertson, Minerva Singh, Imogen Solly
Ladies' Team: Nicole Grunstra, Elspeth Robertson, Minerva Singh, Imogen Solly

The Team A match, which counts for the Varsity Trophy, started off with James Bullock and Christofer Clemente shooting concurrently against David Johnson and Amrulkumaran Umapathy.
This resulted in the following scores: Arulkumaran Umapathy (Captain) 502 ex. 600, David Johnson 531, Chris Clemente 515, James Bullock 534. This put CURPC in the lead by 16 points initially.

In the second detail of the Team A match, Kenny Wan shot concurrently with Patrick Schweder and Brian Tang: Kenny Wan: 518, Patrick Schweder: 527, Brian Tang: 517. This meant that the final shooter, Daniel Kumbang, had to score a 511 to win the match.

Knowing the score needed to achieve to win the match normally puts immense amounts of pressure on a shooter, and the Cambridge team started to worry if this would happen. After a bad start, Daniel managed to pull it together to score a 521, with a perfect 10 points on the final shot, winning the match for CURPC.

Final score:
OUPC 2077 ex. 2400 CURPC 2088 ex. 2400.

Half blues achieved (minimum requirement of 500 ex. 600): Chris Clemente, James Bullock, Daniel Kumbang, Kenny Wan, Wenjun Qu: 501, Prith Hallikeri: 524

Multiple competitions, 2009

Cambridge .177 November Open Meeting:
Congratulations to Chris Clemente who came second in class E with a score of 537/600.

Six Counties Air Pistol Competition:
This match was held in Romford between Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridge. CURPC was represented by Cheng Liu, who registered the top score for the county team with a very impressive 549/600!

NSRA British Pistol Championships:
Team gold for CURPC in the 25m standard pistol event at the NSRA British Pistol Championships! There were also some good individual scores in the 25m sport pistol event including two personal bests and a 4th place (cat B) score of 553/600 for James Bullock. See here for the Varsity newspaper match report.

Welsh Airgun Association  10m Open Championships:
This was a good weekend and proved a great opportunity for some serious match experience against extremely strong competition. Many thanks again to Mick Gault and the Steyr team for their help and advice with match and the guns!

Freshers' Match:
Congratulations to everyone who shot in the annual CURPC freshers' match and in particular to Vin - this year's winner who scored a very impressive 170/200! The final scores are listed below and are very encouraging considering everyone has been shooting for only a few weeks now - so well done! Full scores: 170 V. Ban, 168 J. Taylor, 156 S. Reed, 146 J. Blackstone, 138 R. Bowers, 98 E. Kirby, 97 A. Jones, 95 M. Sommerfeld.

Cambridge .177 November Open Meeting:
Two members of CURPC entered the Cambridge .177 November meeting, which incorporated the Cambridgeshire confined county championships.

Past and Present Match:
This year's P&P proved a great day out, with a typically unusual course of fire that included two rounds of 'non-standard pistol' and some clay pigeon gallery rifle centrefire! Despite the present marginally losing out to the past team (as usual…) the day was pretty successful with CURPC taking home the novice trophy (won by James Blackstone) and the 'wine prize' (won by James Bullock).

Handicap Match:
The Handicap results are as follows with the tankard winner as.... Pradipta with a very impressive 219! This represents a strong improvement over the term, moving from 135 to 154 in the final, so well done! Everyone shot very well - with particular mention going to Vin who shot a 177 in the final. The scoring system means that every point dropped from your average (in most cases taken from the freshers' match score, ex 200) is added to the final - and hence designed to give a measure of improvement. For anyone who didn't shoot yesterday, the last 20 shot card scored was used. Complete scores: Pradipta 219, Vin 207, Sophie 207, Jase 197, Dominique 196, James 192, Emma 188, Chris 188, Clark 187, James Bl 184

Air pistol varsity 2008

Shooter	150	150	20	20	10	10	Total
Oxford A
Chris Leader	88	90	93	95	87	96	549
David Johnson	92	93	91	87	86	82	531
Minerva Singh	92	93	88	89	95	89	546
Arul Umapathy	94	92	84	91	91	88	540
Total							2166
Cambridge A
Dan Kumbang	88	91	86	89	82	66	502
Cheng Liu	90	90	88	93	89	92	542
Chris Bamford	85	85	84	92	89	88	523
Juan Tian	92	89	92	81	79	84	517
Total							2084

Oxford B
Brian Tang	93	91	83	89	89	94	539
Elspeth Robertson	86	90	86	82	80	90	514
Imogen Solly	89	83	93	91	84	83	523
Iain Jackson	82	85	74	86	80	81	488
Total							2064
Cambridge B
Xueni Zhu	88	89	85	84	80	85	511
Xiao Han	89	76	81	74	68	77	465
Wenjun Qu	80	82	80	86	82	89	499
Imran Yusuff	79	78	66	72	70	78	445
Total							1918

Oxford Ladies
Minerva Singh	92	91	88	89	95	89	545
Elspeth Robertson	86	90	86	82	80	90	514
Imogen Solly	89	83	93	91	84	83	523
Zoie Lambourne	72	79	74	77	77	70	449
Total							2031
Cambridge Ladies
Juan Tian	92	89	92	81	79	84	517
Xueni Zhu	88	89	85	84	80	85	511
Xiao Han	89	76	81	74	68	77	465
Wenjun Qu	80	82	80	86	82	89	499
Total							1992

Freshers' Match 2008

Six people shot the Freshers' Match, and the scores are below: James: 87%, Chris: 79%, Ying Hsuan: 76%, Mihaela: 70%, Sean: 68%, Pradipta: 29%. The winner for the Freshers' Match is James Bullock, with a score of 87%. However, these are some of the highest ever scores in a beginners' match, so well shot to all!

Rifle varsity 2007

138th NRA Imperial Meeting:
We won the Thompson Quaich Cup with a score of 1362 against Oxford's 1331

Air pistol varsity 2007

The teams of 4 each had to shoot a sequence of 60 shots over 20 yards in the Standard pistol discipline. The match was very close throughout with the lead fluctuating between the dark and light blues throughout the competition. However, Cambridge managed to hold their nerve in the final 10 second series to win the competition 2156/2400 versus Oxford's 2144/2400. All 4 members of the Cambridge A team earned their half blue by shooting a higher score than the qualifying 500 points. Top scorer was Julien Coyne with 569/600.

Shooter	150	150	20	20	10	10	Total
Oxford A
Will Manley	93	91	84	97	90	90	545
Simon Shenton	91	89	90	94	89	88	541
Chris Leader	92	90	88	89	89	89	537
Amanda Welford	90	90	83	81	89	88	521
Total							2144
Cambridge A
Julian Coyne	96	96	96	95	92	94	569
Cheng Liu	93	88	93	91	83	92	540
Michail Kibalchnko	91	91	81	90	88	90	531
Chris Bamford	88	91	84	90	80	83	516
Total							2156
Oxford B
Sarah Franklin	88	93	87	89	82	83	522
George Feast	83	93	76	82	81	83	498
Dave Wall	86	85	82	82	80	78	493
Davey Johnson	78	83	83	78	76	83	481
Total							1994
Cambridge B
Kenny Wan	92	89	88	84	86	90	529
Xueni Zhu	?	?	?	?	?	?	495
Daniel Kumbang	90	87	79	79	64	75	475
Guy Treevek	80	81	73	88	68	72	462
Total							1962

Oxford Ladies
Sarah Franklin	88	93	87	89	82	83	522
Amanda Welford	90	90	83	81	89	88	521
Elspeth Robertson	84	79	80	80	73	80	476
Imogen Solly	80	85	73	79	77	66	460
Total							1979
Cambridge Ladies
Wenjun Qu	83	84	87	81	83	87	505
Xueni Zhu	?	?	?	?	?	?	495
Xuan Luo	85	83	70	76	84	85	483
Georgina Sawyer	83	81	77	88	71	79	479
Total							1962

Air pistol varsity 2006

Shooter	150	150	20	20	10	10	Total
Cambridge A
Xunei Zhu	85	89	79	79	77	74	483
Xuan Luo	74	81	83	75	78	64	455
Cheng Liu	91	90	90	91	90	84	536
Alison Nimmo	92	80	81	70	70	84	477
Total							1951
Oxford A
Will Manley	92	89	91	86	87	90	535
Mandy Welford	95	88	87	90	88	84	532
Emma Crowley	94	91	87	92	91	83	538
Ollie Holt	93	91	93	90	87	91	545
Total							2150

Cambridge B
Bo Zhang	76	77	69	89	75	78	464
Ivan Wong	76	79	87	87	84	74	487
Nicole Taylor	70	72	74	71	65	48	400
Kenny Wan	77	77	74	81	74	88	471
Total							1822
Oxford B
Chris Leader	86	89	87	83	87	80	512
Sarah Franklin	80	90	79	92	84	89	514
Bijon Pani	89	91	85	86	82	82	515
George Feast	83	89	85	77	78	74	486
Total							1815

Cambridge Ladies
Xunei Zhu	85	89	79	79	77	74	483
Xuan Luo	74	81	83	75	78	64	455
Nicole Taylor	70	72	74	71	65	48	400
Alison Nimmo	92	80	81	70	70	84	477
Total							1815
Oxford Ladies
Emma Crowley	94	91	87	92	91	83	538
Mandy Welford	95	88	87	90	88	84	532
Sarah Franklin	80	90	79	92	84	89	514
Amanda Russo	79	84	72	81	83	66	465
Total							2049

Past and Present Match 2006

Cheng Liu achieved the highest score of 775, giving the Cambridge Present team the highest score. This was followed by Heinrich Harke with a score of 773 for the Past team and Will Manley from the Oxford Present team came in third with a score of 700. Great success!

Air pistol varsity 2005

Another day of glory for the CURPC team. This year we beat Oxford in the Varsity Match, held in the Elizabeth Way range! Oxford won the B team and ladies matches.

Event	Cambridge	Oxford
Varsity Team A	2104	2098
Varsity Team B	1773	1866
Ladies Team	1862	2011

Rifle varsity 2004

135th NRA Imperial Meeting:
Great performance by the CURPC team, and an impressive collection of silverware!

Trophy/match	Team score	Highest individual scorer
University Team Aggregate	424/1600	E. Kotsovinos (366/400)
Oxford and Cambridge Match	709/800	K. Smith (182/200)
Universities Gallery Match	2140/2400	K. Smith (550/600)
Fairbairn Cup	790/960	K. Smith (215/240)
Thomas Quaich	2062/2400	C. Liu (530/600)

Universities Team Aggregate:
20 shots duelling exposures on Gallery Rifle ("Granet" match: series of 5 shots, 3 second exposure, 7 second spacing), to give a score ex. 200.

Oxford and Cambridge Match:
Shot on Gallery Rifle, this is a straightforward match, where teams have 20 minutes to take 20 shots on a regular PL7 target at 25m. This is known as a "Scott" match; but Oxford and Cambridge's entries are counted towards this Varsity Match. Universities Gallery Match: The combination of the Oxford and Cambridge and Universities Team Aggregate matches to give a score ex. 400.

Fairbairn Cup:
Shot on Gallery Rifle, this is a most unusual course of fire. The targets advance from 25 yards to 10 yards, while the competitor places three rounds on the two targets. This is repeated to give a score out of 240.

Thompson Quaich:
A regular Standard Handgun course on Air Pistols. Scores ex. 600 Individuals: In individuals, L. Stanning was 6th in the Cotterill Match, scoring 549/600. In the same competition, C. Liu was 9th with 530/600, and J. Capes and Kate Smith were 10th and 11th with 517 and 516/600 respectively.

Air pistol varsity 2004

This year's Varsity Match was held at the Wantage range in Oxfordshire. CURPC honoured the tradition of winning the Ladies match (1016 to 990), while Oxford won the A-team match (2101 to 2046) and the B-team match (1008 to 943).

A Team	B Team	Ladies
Kyle Maddison (528/600)	Georgina Sawyer (251/300)	Gail Aw (265/300)
Jacqueline Capes (510/600)	Evangelos Kotsovinos (238/300)	Georgina Sawyer (253/300)
Gail Aw (516/600)	Emma Keeling (232/300)	Jacqueline Capes (250/300)
Kate Smith (492/600)	Ioannis Chatzigeorgiou (222/300)	Kate Smith (248/300)

Rifle varsity 2003

134th NRA Imperial Meeting:
This year we won the McGivern Cup. Using Lightweight Sporting Rifles, Evangelos Kotsovinos 148, Ioannis Chatzigeorgiou 146, Kate Smith 145, and Ben Arnold 138 (all ex 150) beat Oxford. They shot at 25 Metres on Silhouette targets (disruptive charging man) 5 shots in 10 seconds ; 5 shots in 8 seconds and 5 shots in 6 seconds, beating them by a small margin. Cambridge lost the Air pistol (Cotteril) almost by default as we had not been given the correct squad time and having to shoot together (all 8 of us!) Ben and Kate were sharing a gun, and when the match started Lauras Morini packed up and she was left to shoot with a right handed Drulov using her left hand! Jacqueline Capes shot well and led Cambridge scores with 533 ex 600 and was placed 10th out of 23. Even putting our best scores in, we would not have won, as it was Oxford 2085, Cambridge 2026.

Air pistol varsity 2003

CURPC won the B-team match by 27 points and the Ladies match by 181 points. Oxford won the A-team match by 47 points.

A Team	B Team	Ladies
Kate Smith	Jacqueline Capes	Jacqueline Capes
Laura Stanning	Ben Arnold	Kate Smith
Kyle Maddison	Gail Aw	Laura Stanning
Cheng Liu	Michael Bisgrove	Gail Aw

The A-team match at this year's Varsity competition was the highest quality for many years. Despite having to re-start his match with a club gun when his Steyer broke, Kyle Maddison (Jesus College) went on to shoot 524/600, Cambridge's top score. Although the rest of the A-team also shot well enough to qualify for a half-blue (over 500/600), Oxford proved the stronger team this year and won by 47 points overall.

The results of the B-team match show definite promise for next year and showed how difficult squad selection was this year. Both Ben Arnold (Fitzwilliam College), with the top score for the B-team, and Michael Bisgrove (Downing College) competed well in their first Varsity match. The atmosphere was tense as Cambridge waited for the Oxford Captain to put in the final score for their B-team, but in the end Cambridge won overall by 27 points.

In the Ladies match, Oxford fielded a fresh faced squad compared to the Cambridge 'old hands'. Special mention goes to Emma Crowley of Oxford who only recently started shooting and scored the highest score for the Oxford Ladies.

Intershoot (The Hague) 2003

This is an annual international competition held in The Hague during the first week in February. Club members are given the unique chance to shoot against teams from countries all over the world.

This year everyone shot very well, and a special mention should go to Laura Stanning (Emmanuel College) who shot her way to an Olympic final on two of the three days, finishing in 2nd place on the final day. The ladies team came away with three medals, a silver from the first day and two golds from days two and three.

Although there is a minimum standard to enter this competition it is a really relaxed atmosphere. There is always the opportunity to improve your shooting and enjoy the success and excitement of a 'real' competition.