History

The present OL Rifle Club was formed in 1962 by the founder Col HJ Thompson, whose son Peter is still an active shooting member. However before that time, from 1927 onwards (excepting the war years), a team of OLs used to shoot in the Public Schools Veterans match every year at Bisley, and also take part in matches against SLC and some other teams such as the Old Felstedians. Of particular note was the Veterans match of 1930 when, according to the archives, the OL team won this national competition, scoring 242 out of 250 - with about 100 teams taking part. But these days, with more accurate ammunition, the winning scores tend to be much higher, and 242 would definitely not do the trick!

The club today

The club normally shoots nine times per year and this season we have 12 members.  The first fixture, in March, is always the CS Gale Cup  -  this is the .22 match in the indoor range at SLC.  In 2008 we convincingly beat the College. Sadly, 2009's match was unexpectedly cancelled, at short notice, by the College! 

Putting the disappointment of Ramsgate behind us, at the end of March we took to the firing point at Bisley.  Here we were booked to shoot against the Old Albanians -  but only one of their team turned up!  By this time OL team members were starting to ask ourselves why the opposition this season was becoming so elusive.  Clearly we had both the College and the Old Albanians running scared!  Was it something we’d said?  Had there been some rumours of skulduggery in the gun room?  Was it B.O.?  We shall never know. 

Determined to carry on regardless, we returned to the firing point at Bisley on April 18th 2009 for the annual ‘Q’ match.  Talk about feast and famine  -  this time we found we did indeed have an opposition, in the form of seven other teams!   Shooting at 500 and 600 yards we scored 375 (out of 400)  -  and won the match.  Old Cranleighians were second with 374, and Old Framlinghamians third with 373.  The cup was duly presented and has now been engraved with “2009: Old Lawrentians”.  At this point OLs could honestly say that this year we had not lost a single match!

But things would change.  On May 5th, shooting at 900 and 1000 yards in the Long Range match, we had mixed fortunes, scoring 352 (out of 415) and coming 5th out of 8 teams.  For the uninitiated reading this report, we can honestly say that 1000 yards is a long way, and some of us have trouble in actually seeing the target, let alone hitting it!  Then on June 7th we had our annual all-day match against the Old Framlinghamians which they won with some truly excellent individual scores.  Well done Framlingham!

The remaining fixtures that year were the Public Schools Veterans match on July 16th, and the Fun Shoot on September 12th, both at Bisley.

If any OL reading this would like to come along and try his/her hand, please contact either Robert or Mike (see below for contact details).  We’d be very pleased to see you.  Our base at Bisley is the North London Rifle Club where the guns are kept and where we can all relax with a beer on the veranda.  A very pleasant way to round off the day.

We would offer you a very warm welcome into the Club - you might even win some silverware!