Co-educational 13-18 Boarding and Day
Target Rifle Shooting
Epsom College has a long history of excellence at Target Rifle Shooting, both small-bore and fullbore, and over the last 20 years has consistently been the premier rifle shooting school in the UK. The College Rifle Team has won the National Championships - the Ashburton Shield - for three consecutive years.
In the last 13 years, the College has won the Ashburton 7 times and been second 5 times. In the last 11 years the College has not been out of the top two places in the Ashburton. In the last 19 years, the College has been National Champions 12 times including five consecutive wins between 1990 and 1994 - a record.
Benefiting from first class coaching and an on-site target rifle range, recent years have seen the College team win the Surrey Open, the Sawyer Cup and the Clayton Challenge Trophy.
Results for 2010
Ashburton Shield Competition at Bisley 15th July The target rifle team finished the term in style by winning the prestigious Ashburton Shield at the National Rifle Association's 150th Anniversary Schools Meeting at Bisley. This was the 14th time overall and 13th time in the past 21 years that Epsom has won the blue riband event of the school target rifle shooting calendar, beating Charterhouse's record for the highest number of Ashburton wins by a single school. This year's competition was a close run thing, with holders Gresham's School pushing the College VIII of Samir Amin, Alex Dowle, William Broad, Jack Ball, Alex Brunton-Reid, Alastair Mazumdar, Jen Lewsey and Jamie Gibbons all the way. Epsom started strongly, winning the 300x and 600x distances, and despite faltering at 500 yards, the team held their nerve to win by a single point. The final scores were: 1st Epsom - 763.42 2nd Gresham's - 762.40 points 3rd Cheltenham - 753.39. In addition to winning the Ashburton Shield and eight NRA silver medals, Clare Huxter became the first lady to win the Allhallows Salver as "Master" in charge of the winning school. There were many outstanding individual performances from the entire squad throughout the meeting. Alex Dowle won the Monday Aggregate and was third in both the Tuesday and the Wednesday Aggregates, as well as second in the School's Hundred and 500x Aggregate. William Broad won the overall 600x Victoria competition, as well as the 600x Aggregate and Cadet Rifle Aggregate. The College also came third in the Schools' Fours with 335.9 points and third in the Reserve Man, with Henry Awin scoring 43.1 points, just 0.1 behind the winner.
The Sawyer Cup at Bisley 15th May VIII 1st: Epsom - 480.22 2nd: Oratory - 474.13 3rd: RGS Guildford - 458.26 Reserve Pairs 1st: Epsom (Harland and Gibbons) - 113.2 2nd: Oratory - 110.4 3rd: Oratory - 90.3 Individuals: 1st: Oratory - 64.3 2nd: RGS Guildford - 63.4 3rd: Epsom (William Broad) - 63.4
Surrey Schools' Competition 8th May Despite an utterly miserable afternoon weatherwise, with low temperatures and general drizzle, the squad were on fine form at Bisley for the Surrey Schools' Competition and pulled together to produce a series of excellent results. Firing point drills are becoming very smooth and this will hold them in good stead for the weeks ahead. Results were as follows: VIII 1st Epsom - 498.27 (a little down on last week's performance but admirable given the weather) 2nd Oratory - 481.19 3rd RGS Guildford - 463.13 4th Cheltenham - 448.22 Alex Dowle won the Talbot Tankard for the top scoring over 16 in the VIII, with a score of 67.8, the second year in a row that he has won this trophy. Cadet Pairs: 1st Epsom A - 127.7 (Ben Ross and Sam Owen) 2nd Oratory A - 120.7 3rd St Johns - 117.6 In the separate competition held for the top scoring under and over 16 at 600x, Alex Brunton-Reed was pipped to the over-16 tankard by a mere 3 v-bulls and Jamie Gibbons by only 2 v-bulls. RGS Guildford had the top scorer in both age groups, but only just. The OERC Vets team were also victorious in their part of the competition, beating the Old Guildfordians by 2 points.
LMRA Schools' Competition 1st May
Had there been a prize for the top individual performance, William Broad would undoubtedly have been in the running with his score of 67.7 out of 70. Jack Ball was the team's second highest scorer with 66.8 and Alex Brunton-Reed third with 66.6. Georgie Milne, on her first ever shoot with the squad, performed well in the Reserve Competition, scoring 60.2 to take fourth place place, just one point behind the third placed firer. In the pairs, Epsom came 4th, 6th and 8th as Oratory took the top three positions.
Clayton Challenge 24th April The first match of the term provided a very useful learning ground for the whole team! We were unfortunately faced with a completely unexpected and unexplained 'miss' for one of our firers at 500x on their first to count. A difficult choice to swap rifles resulted and we invariably lost points in zeroing in the new equipment using 'counting' shots. The firer is to be commended for remaining determined in the face of the most challenging scenario possible for someone in competition. The point was proved with a V-bull finish! It meant that we were immediately 10 points down on where we should have been in the match, so it commendable that we finished 4th out of the 13 teams competing and 3rd in the Schools' portion of the competition. We had some other minor early season wobbles within our overall score as well, so things are looking promising for the season ahead. Results were as follows: 1st Wellington - 510.26 2nd Greshams - 491.25 3rd 126 Derby ACF - 490.26 4th Epsom - 489.27 5th Oratory A - 480.23 6th RGS Guildford - 470.20 William Broad (C) is to be commended on achieving our top score of the day with 65.5 out of 70, with Jack Ball (Fa) a close second on 64.4.
Country Life Competition 9th March The College IX are to be commended on some very steady shooting across the board and despite a disappointing snap series, we maintained an excellent position overall. Congratulations especially go to our top scorers of Jack Ball (Fa) and William Broad (C) for achieving a 93/95 and Jen Lewsey (W) for 92/95. G R S Land Total 1st Dollar 200 307 228 199 934 2nd Epsom 200 301 221 200 922 3rd Berkhamsted 195 292 226 199 912 4th Ampleforth 195 290 211 206 902 5th RGS Guildford 200 310 232 156 898 |
The Target Rifle VIII returned to winning ways with a convincing win at the LMRA (London & Middlesex Rifle Association) Schools' Competition held at Bisley. The squad pulled together for their first outing as a full 16 and shot admirably throughout the afternoon. Final results put the Epsom VIII in first position with 513.43 points, Marlborough second with 461.16 and Oratory third with 448.16.