St John's School, Leatherhead

The Old Johnian Rifle Club (OJRC) was formed by Old Boys of St John's School, Leatherhead. We continue to enjoy strong links with the school, shooting against the school VIII in smallbore 'friendlies', and with them in the occasional fullbore competition. We also lend our coaching talents to the school whenever we can.

The school has long participated in fullbore shooting at Bisley, making use of the excellent ranges and multi-million pound facilities housed at this world-class shooting ground. For smallbore shooting, St John's has it own four-lane 'miniature range' helpfully located next to the tuck shop. This range is also used by the OJRC and, together with its anteroom, forms our unofficial headquarters (during the smallbore season, at least). Although these pages focus on the enormously fun activity of fullbore shooting, it is worth noting that both in the school and in the OJRC, smallbore is actually the more frequently shot discipline.

The OJRC has smallbore practice and competition most Monday evenings, from 20.00, at the school's range. After shooting, the club typically drifts off to the pub. Sometimes the Club shoots in friendly competitions against the school after which we like to go for a meal at some local emporium of spicy foreign cuisine. The Club enjoys great success in smallbore shooting, with some members even shooting at County level.

We haven't a vast membership, and the majority of members are greater fans of smallbore than they are of fullbore. The convenience of being able to just turn up at the school after work on a Monday night and have a shoot is quite attractive to busy shootists and means that from time to time we have long-lost members turning up and re-joining our merry band. The school is relatively easy to get to, smallbore practice is relatively inexpensive and there is an atmosphere that says "You can shoot if you want to, or just stay for a chat and maybe a beer afterwards".

By contrast Bisley can be quite tricky for many people to get to and can wipe out just about an entire weekend. Fullbore shooting often entails a very early start and can be quite expensive. Consequently the club tends to restrict practice to the miniature range and go to Bisley only for competitions.

Bisley

One unique feature of shooting at Bisley is the inclusion of the very necessary talents of a coach. Unlike coaches in other sports, a shooting coach actually plays a role in the match, helping the shooter, shot-by-shot, to hit the bull. In the OJRC we are always trying to improve the quality of our coaching, taking lessons from the more senior teams with which we are frequently privileged to be involved. Because we don't have fullbore practice (only competition) there are relatively few opportunities for many members to shoot or coach with the club at Bisley, however it is one of the key goals of the captain to increase the number of members who participate in fullbore on a regular basis.

Shooting at Bisley is very different from shooting at the school. While the basic techniques of  the two disciplines are similar, outdoor, long range shooting involves a whole mess of complicated conditions which we have great fun trying to overcome. Shooting fullbore target rifle is a whole day out - not just a couple of hours one evening. We eat (and drink) in the Surrey Rifle Association hut, where we get the chance to interact with other teams. Smallbore competitions are almost always postal competitions, but in fullbore we actually get to see the whites of our opponents' eyes and this helps to make Bisley one of the most friendly, competitive and enjoyable places to be.

Several members of the club can often be found at Bisley shooting for other teams. No, there's no disloyalty in our ranks. Rather our members seem to enjoy quite a bit of success with County and National team selectors. In fact, some members end up spending just about every weekend of the summer at Bisley.

Officials

The club is more than just a loose association of shooters. We have qualified range officers; rifle lockers both at St John's and at Bisley; and we are a regular, high-profile prescence in the target rifle scene. To maintain this level of organisation we need a committee. Listed below are the club's key officials:

The President of the OJRC is John Jackman. Yes, the very same John Jackman who is currently Chairman of the NRA. A very experienced Surrey, England and Great Britain shot, John left St John's a looong time ago.

The club Secretary is Jonathan Tapster. And, for "club secretary", read "super-organiser without whom the club wouldn't function". John is a regular on the Surrey squad and has also shot with the NRA team to the Channel Islands.

The Captain of Smallbore Shooting is Jeremy Peachey. One of the most consistently good shots in the club, Jerry is equally talented at smallbore and fullbore shooting and even managed to get his picture in the paper for winning theTimes  competition.

The Captain of Fullbore Shooting is Tom Spencer. That's me. I'm the youngster of the group, though I can still out-shoot the old guys.

More Info.

Find answers to a range of Frequently Asked Questions in the 'FAQ' part of this site. If you have any questions that aren't covered there, then please feel free to put them in an e-mail to Tom Spencer.

The meeting was held on the North London Rifle Club verandah. The President, John Jackman, opened the meeting at 13.25 hrs.

Present were: John Jackman, Jon Tapster, Stuart Pearson, Tom Spencer, and Jeremy Peachey.

Apologies were received from Alexis Roth and Alexandra Hakim.

The minutes were read out by the Secretary, discussed by all present and signed by the President.

The Secretary reported that the old No. 4s and P14s had been handed over to an RFD, Eric Stuart-Bamford on 6^th October 2002.

A new master, John Burrell, is now in situ at St. John’s, a newcomer to shooting, but who is very keen to make a successful go of things. He has met various members of the OJRC including the President and the general view is that his involvement augers well for the future. The OJRC has been actively supporting the cadets at Bisley and Tom Spencer has visited the school, lecturing the team on all aspects of shooting and worked with them on the ranges. The cadets at long last have the cadet TR which they are getting along well with in spite of rather dubious sights, coming 4^th recently in the Clayton Challenge. Parents of the cadets foot the larger expense of shooting, just as the parents do at Epsom College.

Jeremy Peachey’s return to shooting and good form after last year’s injury was welcomed.

Tom Spencer reported on a successful season so far this year, winning both the LMRA Veterans and successfully defending the Surrey Schools Veterans title. We had narrowly been defeated in both the Civilians and Astor due to lack of competent shooters, but he felt he had to make a balance between the top people and less able shots to keep them interested and give them match experience. Tom has designed a web site for news, photographs and results following on from the demise of the OJ pages on the school’s official site. Our web site had been submitted to various search engines and it was hoped that parents searching for news and information on the school would see that there is progression for shooting with a successful OJ club after pupils leave the school. He suggested that the OJRC report to the Old Johnian magazine at the end of the year be submitted in less detailed format to cater for reduced space availability. The last report was heavily edited by the magazine’s editors. He congratulated Jon Tapster on his selection for the successful NRA team to the Channel Islands and that 5 of the OJRC members were to shoot for Surrey teams in the forthcoming Inter-Counties weekend.

Jeremy Peachey reported some good results in the Individual leagues over the winter and that very good scores more recently boded well for the Summer leagues. We had received the results of the BSSRA Fletcher Cup and we were a close 3^rd place. Jon Tapster had made it into the County side from the Reserves, but from September could no longer shoot for Surrey under NSRA rules as he had now moved to Middlesex.

Jon Tapster reported that the issue of the old rifles was now closed and no further liability to the club existed. Monies were hoped for but deemed unlikely. He raised the issue of subscriptions still not being paid on time and that this was creating problems with affiliation payments at the start of the year. Andy Farrant and Jon Loveday were both nil returns which could pose problems for them later when their respective FACs need renewing. The President suggested taking over those firearms onto the club certificate if space permitted to avoid their requisitioning by the Police if need be. Peachey proposed to talk to Loveday and offer to take at least one of his .22 rifles off him.

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The current Officers duly stepped down. John Jackman proposed all officers be re-elected en bloc which was seconded by all present.

There was no other business.

There was some discussion as to who held The Colonel Watts Bowl. Rob Harwood was thought to be the winner for 2002, but after the meeting was concluded, the Secretary checked through the annual reports to the OJ Magazine and found that the winner in 2002 was in fact Philip Hakim with 50.5 and Rob Harwood the winner in 2001 with 50.7.

The Ian Warren Tankard for the highest .22 average for competitions for the year was awarded to Jon Tapster with 98.33.

The meeting was closed at 14.20 hrs.