RAFTRC Team Tour to Jersey – 17 to 20 Sep 2010

Team Manager: Wg Cdr Chris Hockley RAF Retd

Team Captain: Wg Cdr Chris Hockley RAF Retd

Veteran’s Team Captain: Wg Cdr Chris Hockley RAF Retd

The Team travelled to and from Jersey by individual arrangements using a mixture of Service, private and rental cars, ferry and air. Serving personnel shared transport where possible and the cars were able to take team kit. There were no problems travelling out with all the team plus rifles and equipment arriving safely in Jersey.

The Team was accommodated in the Wheatlands Hotel which had a restaurant, bar and 9-hole golf course and was just minutes away from the airport and the shooting range. Early cooked breakfast was arranged enabling the Team to start the day well nourished for the matches.

The Saturday was an individual prize shoot with 2 sighters and 10 to count at 300 yds and 2 sighters and 11 to count at 600 yds. Competitors took turns to mark the targets in the butts and the day was dry and bright with a northerly wind coming off the sea and straight towards the shooters with small deviations to make the conditions interesting. Keith Trowbridge proudly held on to his lead from 300 yds to beat Richard Benest by just 1 v bull and Flt Lt David Calvert by 3 v bulls.

Full results are as follows:

It should be noted that this was Robert Mathieson’s first uncoached shoot with the Club and after his initial problem with the sights, he made a fine recovery.

After the Sat shoot we were grateful for Peter Norman from Jersey who cooked up some fine egg and bacon rolls to savour before some of the team took advantage of the hotel’s golf course while the others sampled some of Jersey’s culture. The casual team dinner that evening was in a fine restaurant, the Casa Mia, in St Helier. This was highly rated by Alan Le Sueur and his wife Margaret who joined us. The Teams for Sunday were announced by the Captain and, given the form displayed in the earlier prize shoot, there were high expectations of a double win for the RAF TRC.

On Sunday the wind had shifted around to blow in from the left and it was stronger with more gusts than the day before. As students from Victoria College were in the butts there was no requirement for competitors to mark targets. David Calvert, Chris Hockley, Jim Lindsay and Keith Trowbridge were selected as the Club’s shooting coaches and they had also secured places in the both the main match and veteran teams. They were joined in the main Team by Rob Douglas, Matt Leyman, Dave Mattieson and Scott Glanville, and in the Veteran’s Team by Jim Bryant and Bernard Parke. Jersey’s Main Team made a blistering start at 300 yds but the RAFTRC slowed the haemorrhage at 500 yds and managed to equal Jersey’s score at 600 yds. Unfortunately that was not enough and Jersey won the match by 13 points. However, in the Veteran’s Match, Jersey commanded a 4 point lead after 300 yds but the RAFTRC pulled the stops out at 500 yds to make it all even again and thrust ahead at 600 yds to win the match by 12 points. Full results below:

The Tour ended with the Teams Reception at the Somerville Hotel where both teams enjoyed an evening of fine food and wine followed by the prize giving. Tokens of appreciation were shown to all those who had contributed to making the Tour such a success.  The RAFTRC looks forward to the Centenary Jersey Meeting next August where it will be fielding a full strength team of 12 shooters.