THE Caithness Small-bore Rifle Association team, consisting of 12 shooters, has narrowly lost out in winning the BSA Trophy in an indoor competition organised by the National Small-bore Rifle Association.
The trophy, presented by BSA Guns Ltd to the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs, was instituted to be competed for by teams of 20 drawn from counties in the UK or states in Australia with the first winner being the county of Surrey.
In 1936 the decision was made to open the competition to all Commonwealth countries and some of the victorious entrants were South Australia, Victoria, Wellington, Canterbury, Auckland and Ontario, as well as several English counties.
In 2005, in an attempt to encourage more teams from lesser populated areas to participate in the competition, it was decided by the NSBRA to have 12 shooters in each team. Caithness have won the trophy on two occasions since the inception of the reduction in team members.
The competition, shot at 20 yards, required each of the 12 team members to return two cards and the team with the best aggregate score (ex 2400) would receive the coveted, BSA trophy plus 12 silver medals. The Caithness marksmen, although returning excellent scores, had to be satisfied with second place after seeing Aberdeenshire finish four points ahead.
The top 10 returns (points dropped ex 2400) were: Aberdeenshire 33, Caithness 37; Wellington 47, Auckland 47; Lothian 52, Yorkshire 54; Sussex 55, Surrey 56; Cambridge 57, Victoria 70. The Caithness individual scores (ex 100) were: D.H. Bremner 100, 99; J.A. Henderson 100, 99; D. Simpson 100, 99; H. Simpson 100, 99; J.R. Sinclair 99, 99; R.L.O. Brown 100, 97; R.B. Campbell 99, 97; M.J. Green 99, 97; D. Mowat 98, 98; S. Nicolson 99, 97; M. Shearer 98, 97; J.G. Campbell 98, 95.
