Uppingham Veterans Rifle Club
A History of Uppingham and UVRC shooting
Walter Brown
[Article published in the club report in 2009 to mark the 50th anniversary of the club]
Walter Brown
[Article published in the club report in 2009 to mark the 50th anniversary of the club]
To divert for a moment from shooting, one of the winners of the Spencer Cup was F H Sheppee in 1893. Anyone who watched the Antiques Roadshow on BBC Television on 5 October 2003 would have seen a member of the public show a set of superbly illustrated envelopes addressed to F H Sheppee, c/o the Rev W Constable, Uppingham and postmarked 1889. The expert enthused over these but could shed no light on Sheppee, so I wrote to the BBC and they put the owner in touch with me – I could enlighten him a little on Sheppee’s prowess with the rifle, and described his subsequent career (courtesy of the School Roll) in which he was very interested. I gather the School Archivist has also been in touch with him.
Immediately after WW2 things took a dramatic turn for the better. There were several reasons for this – first, the appointment of a headmaster (Martin Lloyd) who had himself shot in the Ashburton as a boy and who was an active supporter of School Shooting, even to the extent of appearing personally in the annual match between the School and the Headmaster’s VIII; second, an influx of pupils of unusual ability with the rifle; third, the ability of Bill and Ernie Dalby as armourers; and fourth and most important, the arrival of Peter Godfrey on the Music Staff. David Hodgkinson as Commanding Officer of the CCF was officially in charge of shooting but was delighted to have Peter as coach – having shot for England in the National Match in 1948 Peter immediately created a feeling of real enthusiasm for the sport. One of my very happy memories was in July 2006 when three senior members of UVRC (who had been in teams in Peter’s days) together with their wives entertained Peter to lunch during one of his visits from New Zealand where he had gone (to pursue a most eminent career in music). Sadly, he only stayed at Uppingham for two years, but his legacy lived on, and his place was then taken by Paul Griffin, again an excellent and most enthusiastic shot in his own right. Subsequently Michael Pitt replaced David Hodgkinson and, although initially somewhat sceptical about shooting, soon became a real enthusiast. In due course Ian Bridges (OU) took over from Paul Griffin and continued his legacy. Mention should also be made of the RSMs in the CCF who were instrumental in keeping the teams “on the straight and narrow”, and of Guy Messenger who was an excellent coach of small bore, sowing the first seeds of interest in many boys. Jumping ahead some years, shooting was given great support by Nicholas Bomford as Headmaster (a top-class marksman himself) and Richard Boston as Commanding Officer of the CCF.
The School now began to win team events – the Marling in 1948 and again in 1952 and 1954, with high places in the Ashburton in 1948 and 1949. In 1953 there were nine pupils at Uppingham who in later years were to shoot in the Final of the Queen’s Prize, six of whom appeared in that year’s Ashburton VIII. Whilst it might be expected that this VIII (captained by the author of this history) would be all conquering, it can only be reported that it was one of the most lowly placed since WW2! Perhaps there was some excuse in that the School rifles were becoming old and unreliable and almost beyond the ability even of the Dalby’s to keep in good shooting order. The following year (by then with ‘only’ five future Queen’s Finalists but with brand new rifles) the VIII was placed second – by far the highest position so far.
Old Boys also recorded significant individual successes, led by John Slocock who was one of the top marksmen in the country in the late 1940’s/early 1950’s, shooting in all the important international matches, winning the Grand Aggregate plus other major competitions in 1954 and only missing the King’s/Queen’s Final once in the period from 1948 to 1952. Hal Doyne-Ditmas, as a Cambridge undergraduate in the early 1950’s (and Captain of the University team in 1954) shot in international matches and King’s/Queen’s Finals during this period. In team events, the Old Boys had their first significant success, winning the Whitgift Challenge Cup in 1948, although it has to be said that the team took advantage (quite legitimately) of an unusual clause in the rules. This allowed a school who only entered one team to nominate which of the three Veterans’ trophies it competed for – John Slocock, as Captain, nominated his one and only team to shoot for the Whitgift Cup (theoretically for third teams). This was quite legal in 1948, but the rules were hastily changed for 1949! In 1954, by when pupils from the early post war years were beginning to qualify to shoot in the Veterans, the Old Boys recorded their first really successful year. They won the ‘A’ team and ‘C’ team competitions, plus the Veterans Aggregate (for the total of the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams), plus the Lucas for the aggregate of the ‘A’ Team and the Ashburton. It might interest present competitors in the Veterans to know that the winning score for the ‘A’ Team in 1954 was 239, thus dropping 11 points – nowadays to win it is not uncommon to have to score a full 250 with a lot of V bulls. Whilst the successful ‘A’ team contained three post war Old Boys, it is interesting that the top scores were still made by the senior members, both John Slocock and Ian Wallace scoring 50.
As can be seen from the above 1954 probably marks the year in which Uppingham (both past and present) became a real force in shooting. With the benefit of the new rifles Uppingham at last won the Ashburton in 1957 (but by now with only one future Queen’s Finalist in the team). John Szemerey achieved the hitherto unapproachable feat of scoring a “double possible” of 70 and thus won the Schools’ Hundred Competition.
The Old Boys continued to benefit from excellent leavers and most years featured in at least one of the Veterans’ team lists. However, this wealth of talent began to present some problems in team selection for the various Veterans’ team competitions. After the OU’s triumph on 1948 the rules for the Veterans’ match were changed to say that if only one team was entered it must enter the ‘A’ team competition; if more than one team was entered the ‘A’ team had to be pre-nominated and subsequent teams had to be pre-selected but the highest scoring would automatically be the ‘B’ team, the next highest the ‘C’ team, and so on. John Slocock had captained the Old Boys admirably for many years, but was beginning to find it difficult to select teams since he had little knowledge of the ability of recent leavers. He also had a somewhat idiosyncratic approach to team selection, saying that his main target was to win the Aggregate competition (‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams together) rather than the individual teams; hence he tended to pick the individual teams almost “at random”. When we only produced fifteen competitors this had some logic, particularly when the form of the younger ones was not well known, although it minimised the probability of winning the individual team events. The problem came to a head in 1958 when over twenty OU’s turned up to shoot in the Veterans. As a result of John’s philosophy these were distributed over all teams (including a ‘D’ team) and nothing was won.
After the 1958 meeting several of those taking part realised that John would have to be given assistance in selection, and this could only come from recent leavers. Accordingly it was proposed that a selection committee comprising John plus two recent leavers should operate the following year, and from this relatively modest beginning the idea was born that a full scale formal Club for the Old Boys should be formed. It is difficult at this time to remember exactly how this began, but there is little doubt that two OU’s (one very senior, and one a leaver from ten years previously) took the lead and carried out an enormous amount of work to ensure the formal and successful birth of the Uppingham Veterans Rifle Club. These two members were “Perks” Allen, who had been in the School VIII at the end of the First World War and Steve Knox, who had captained the successful School VIII in 1949. Between them they successfully completed the formalities and at the newly formed UVRC’s first AGM in 1960 were unanimously elected President and Hon Secretary respectively – functions they had carried out unofficially for some time. John Slocock was elected Captain, Christopher Belk Hon Treasurer and the Executive Committee was completed with the election of three members on an annual basis. From the beginning it was decided that the President and Captain should only hold office for a limited period – the President for three years and the Captain for two (subsequently increased to three). The Hon Secretary and Hon Treasurer had to go on indefinitely until they found someone else willing to take over! It was also decided that Presidents, on their retirement from office, would continue to be members of the Executive Committee ex-officio for life. Some doubts were expressed about this, but most Past Presidents voluntarily bow out if and when they feel they can contribute little more; others have continued to contribute into their eighties and are most welcome.
So the UVRC was off to a splendid start – many members had played important parts in its formation and apart from those mentioned above the Club would not have been the splendid institution it is without the help of, for instance, Ian Wallace and Pat Shea-Simonds (not least in leading the festivities at the bar after a successful shoot!).
Two other decisions were taken right at the beginning. The first was that of electing Honorary Members (who were not OU’s, but who had contributed greatly to Uppingham Shooting). This Custom continues today, and those elected at the beginning were Martin Lloyd, Peter Godfrey, Paul Griffin, Michael Pitt, Bill and Ernie Dalby, and the past and present RSM’s at the time – Messrs McKean and Wright. The second decision was to elect Temporary Honorary Members from the School leavers, on the recommendation of the Master i/c Shooting, and to help them with the expenses of continuing to shoot after leaving. Originally this temporary honorary membership had been for two years, subsequently increased in stages to four and now renamed (to comply with NRA Rules) “4 Year Honorary Membership”.
The first report was published in 1960, and it lists a total of 43 ordinary members, of whom 12 are still on the Roll, 50 years later. With two exceptions the report has been produced annually ever since. The statistics make interesting reading; it is not the place here to go into these in great detail, but a few highlights are worth pointing out. The membership has now increased to 94 Ordinary Members (Life or Annual), 16 Honorary Members and 8 “4 Year Honorary Members”. In the 1960 report the list of “Principal Competitions won by Uppingham and Old Uppinghamians” took up half a page; in 2009 it takes up four full pages. In 1960 the list of “Old Uppinghamians who have shot in International Matches” took up half a page; in 2009 it takes up two full pages. In 1960, the list of Old Uppinghamians who have shot in King’s or Queen’s Finals contained 11 names with a total of 22 appearances; in 2009 it contains 32 names with a total of 172 appearances.
One question which is occasionally asked is “who is, or was, the greatest marksman ever?”. It is an impossible question to answer, but I would think Arthur Fulton (not, of course, an OU) must be a strong contender. However I must put a personal view that UVRC has arguably produced the greatest marksmen of three separate decades – the 1970’s, the 1980’s and the 1990’s.
In the 1970’s Jimmy Spaight managed the unprecedented (and unlikely ever to be equalled) feat of winning the Bisley Grand Aggregate four times (1973, 75, 76 and 78), having previously won the St Georges Challenge Vase in 1965. He only missed the Final of the Queen’s Prize once between 1971 and 1976, with a highest placing of second.
In the 1980’s Simon Belither showed incredible consistency (and, indeed, still does) – winning the Grand Aggregate twice (1988 and 1989) and only missing out in the Queen’s Final once (and indeed only once in the period from 1978 to 1994). He also won the St Georges Challenge Vase in 1982. Simon is well up in the total number of appearances in the Final (26 by 2008, only 2 behind the all time record of Arthur Fulton) and in the number of appearances in the top 50 of the Grand Aggregate (23 by 2008, jointly leading the highest ever count).
In the 1990’s (if we can stretch a minor point to include 2001) Antony Ringer equalled the all-time record of winning the Queen’s Prize three times (1992, 97 and 2001), with a second place and two third’s as well and also won the St Georges Challenge Vase twice (1990 and 91).
In addition all the above won many other competitions and were virtually permanent members of all England and Great Britain National Teams during their decade (and frequently before and after). They also shot for England in the Commonwealth Games, winning a number of medals.
Another candidate for this “hall of fame” would have been Nick Crawshaw (Grand Aggregate in 1987) who sadly died in 2005 at the very early age of 41.
I would also suggest that Christopher Belk has proved to one of the most consistent marksmen ever over a long period, exemplified by 14 appearances in the Queen’s Final over a period of 47 years (1958 to 2005). He is still, in his early seventies, easily good enough to become one of a very elite group of, I think, three who have managed to appear in King’s/Queen’s Finals over a period of 50 or more years. He would no doubt have had many more appearances if he had not worked abroad for several years in his prime.
Coming to the 2000’s, there have been so many new competitors of the highest standard coming into the sport that it is difficult to single out any one; suffice it to say that UVRC now has many contenders right up there with the best.
In recent years several members of UVRC have been honoured by the Captaincy of National teams – Simon Belither, John Webster, Nicholas Hinchliffe, Simon Pattinson and Robin Pizer have all captained teams in major International matches. When Nicholas is not captaining or shooting in teams he is in great demand as a coach. Perhaps Robin Pizer’s record is the most remarkable; whilst a top Match Rifle shot (particularly through the 1980’s when he won the Hopton Aggregate in 1980 and regularly shot for England in the Elcho), I hope he will forgive me in saying that his record in Target Rifle shooting is by comparison relatively modest; however he has not only captained England in both the main Target Rifle matches (the National and Mackinnon) but is due to complete a hat trick in 2009 by captaining Great Britain in the Kolapore. He will also have to combine this with his latest appointment as Chairman of the NRA!
Mention should be made of a team event which began in 1959 – Marlborough, rather fancying themselves, issued a challenge to any other School to a match on the members’ scores in the Bisley Grand Aggregate. Only UVRC took them up – and won! Thus was born the Marlingham Trophy which for many years was run by the previous year’s winners; only the founder members – Marlborough and Uppingham – could modify the rules, but the competition became so popular, with many other schools entering, that the NRA has now taken it over. In other team events, UVRC appeared many times in the prize lists of the Veterans’ trophies, although it took the Club 22 years – until 1976 – to win the ‘A’ Team competition a second time. However, success then came more often – the ‘A’ Team won again in 1980, 83, and 88 after which there was another lull until 2003. The other teams also won a number of times; not infrequently the selected ‘C’ team beat the selected ‘B’ team and thus was promoted by the rules of the competition to ‘B’ – and actually won the ‘B’ team competition in 2005. The demoted ‘B’ team also won the ‘C’ team competition in the same year. Not surprisingly, the three teams together won the Aggregate. UVRC teams often enter competitions during the Bisley Meeting which are open to all clubs, and have a good number of successes.
Enough of the Club – what of the School? Success continued under Ian Bridges, and then, in 1968, Simon Pattinson, who had shot in the winning 1957 Ashburton VIII, joined the Staff. Consistent and substantial success followed, with further Ashburton wins in 1969, 76, 78, 81, 82 and 95. The steady flow of leavers who attained the highest standards in international events was due entirely to Simon, who of course was – and still is – a marksman of the very highest calibre. As well as this the School and Club combined to win the Lucas, for the aggregate of Ashburton and Veterans ‘A’ Team, on many occasions. Since Simon retired in 1999 his legacy lives on, but the School finds it increasingly difficult to finance anyone approaching his class to take on a permanent role of Shooting Master, although members of UVRC have managed this from time to time on a limited basis. The Club has recently, largely as a result of a magnificently generous gift from Simon Wall, been able to help in a significant way, and it is to be hoped that we can continue to do so in the future.
The School and UVRC have also been fortunate in generous donations of trophies for competitions amongst members. Since UVRC was formed, the President presents a medal annually for competition by present members of School Teams, awarded in the recommendation of the Master i/c Shooting, and in 2000 the Watson Family presented a Cup to be awarded to the most improved performer in the School. Since 1977 a Club Championship, open to both School and Club, has been instituted; suffice it to say that in the 1980’s and 90’s this almost became a private competition between Simon Belither and Antony Ringer, although in the 2000’s it has become rather more “open”.
So – What have been the major changes in the fifty years of the Club’s existence? Probably the most notable is the incredible rise in standards and scores. To highlight two instances – when John Slocock won the Grand Aggregate in 1954 he scored 554 (out of a possible total in these days of 605). Now it is necessary to get close to 700 (out of 705) to have a hope. In the Queen’s Final in the 1950’s, scores of 280 (out of 300) were rare; now 280 would frequently be near to the bottom score in the Final, and to win it is usually necessary to score in the high 290’s – and totally impossible score fifty years ago. When Antony Ringer won the Queen’s for the second time, in 1997, he scored 299, a previously unheard of score but which was overtaken in the next year with one competitor making a full 300; this has since been achieved again. So, what is the reason for this? Undoubtedly the enormous improvement in equipment (rifles and ammunition) is the main one, but so also is the more serious attitude taken by competitors, including improvements in coaching, much of which is due to organised Clubs such as UVRC.
UVRC’s 50th Anniversary thus finds us in the best of health and fulfilling one of the roles we had always seen for ourselves – helping the School in a substantial way. Floreat UVRC!