The 2024 European Championships Teams Matches Part 2 of the trilogy
Thursday
Many shooters taking part in the European Championships in Rutland teams may have wondered (or not, as the case may be) at the name given to this team format. For your information and it is rather apposite given the timing, the name was given to this team format by our late friend Jim McAllister. Jim passed away just a few weeks ago, he was active in F-class right from the early days; attending the Northern F-class Championships at Diggle – the first UK F-class match and now part of the National League. Jim was concerned that the World Championships should not just be for the ‘elite’ National teams but should be for everyone to participate in smaller teams and they too should have their own trophy. Jim put up the money for the trophy and in turn could name it “the Rutland Cup” after his business. The name stuck and is now applied to all such 8-man teams in World, European and National competitions. It is a lasting legacy to Jim and his benevolence.
Such is the popularity of the Rutland team format, that we had a bumper entry of 39 teams, by far the greatest number we’ve ever seen on Stickledown. A bit of mental arithmetic suggests that if fully manned, it would imply more shooters that had entered the Individuals, clearly many teams didn’t have the full complement of 8, but that doesn’t matter as it has been proven many times that just 4 team members will suffice, provided they plan ahead and are happy to multitask.
For the benefit of anyone who wasn’t in attendance for the Thursday team matches, I can honestly say it was an unforgettable experience; not for the standard of shooting or the camaraderie of team shooting, which were all great, but the for the weather.. it was truly diabolical! We had thunder, lightning and torrential rain to contend with and gusty wind as well. It was some of the most atrocious weather I’ve seen at Bisley. It became so bad that shooting had to be suspended; the targets were barely visible at all. At this point I should say that one unique feature that the UK has given to F-class is the white V-bull, this is a locally devised adaptation to our usually overcast conditions enabling the centre to be seen in dull and wet, low-light conditions, but the weather on Thursday went far beyond that; it wasn’t possible to see the targets at all, so the Chief Range Officer, Mick Williams called a halt to proceedings to wait for the deluge to abate.
It is often the case that after a rainstorm passes through, there is a period of still calmness or just gentle wind, so it was in this case. Having said that, despite the gentle wind there were quite a number of rather high and wide shots when shooting resumed, presumably due to rainwater ingress in the barrels or bedding, which is hardly surprising as it seemed to get into everywhere else. I recall we had a similar situation in 2009 at the Bisley World Championships when shooting was suspended due to heavy rain and when resumed, there were misses reported (not by our team though, having taken every precaution against the rain).
Now, on the subject of taking precautions against the rain, some of our fellow competitors have at times taken that to excess – for example, using umbrellas or building cloche structures over and around themselves. The rules are clear that shooters should not be sheltering in such a manner, so the Wing Officers were giving out humane but firm warnings where needed.
Despite everything that Mother Nature can throw at us, there are some teams that just seem to be inured to it all, either by training & preparation or just sheer doggedness in the face of adversity.
Mik Maksimovic and Ulrich Kwade have a light hearted and long-running private contest between the German and GB teams, with each having to present an annual trophy to the winner, this has been going on since the earliest years of the Europeans, but by an unfortunate oversight this part of the ceremony was omitted, thereby denying Ulrich the satisfaction of receiving the trophy from Mik, or did Mik have a premonition of German victory? Perhaps we can arrange a photo opportunity at another convenient time.
On the FTR side, there was some consternation on the firing point which resulted in an anomalous situation, advice was sought from the NRA on a ruling and the result was that the matter was resolved amicably with the Panda Black and Canadian teams sharing first place.
Overall, the team scores were remarkably high given the appalling conditions that the shooters had endured and remarkably tight at the top.
| BDMP Germany | 289.16 | Gun Fu Pandas Black | 281.15 |
| Italy Red | 288.20 | Canada | 281.11 |
| USA 2 | 287.21 | USA Blue | 280.11 |
Sunday
The International Teams matches offer the team Captains a second opportunity to reform their squads to achieve the best hope of success, you would expect therefore that the scores would be correspondingly higher and so it was on Sunday, though nature played a part in this; as the weather on Sunday could hardly have been any different from Thursday; the biggest difference being that it was mercifully dry, the added bonus was the winds, if you could call them winds, were gentle and quite benign; ideal for a high scoring match. The top teams didn’t disappoint, they rose to the occasion and achieved superbly high scores.
Just to show that the best laid plans can go awry, the GB underdogs if I may call them that, the “Three Lions” prevailed over the GB first team, perhaps it was the psychological imperative to prove themselves that propelled them onwards and upwards to take first place in Europe, well done guys, especially Bill Richards who was in the driving seat. The GB team management can take great comfort in knowing there is greater breadth and depth of talent in the squad. Although these are 8-man Rutland teams, the FCWCs will call for full-size 16-man teams and on current form the GB team has two teams in the top three positions, it augers well for the future.
USA 2 were in very close contention, just a measly 3 V-bulls behind in Silver medal place; a very good result for a team with so little experience of Bisley – these guys are quick learners!
On the F/TR front, the American FTR teams dominated this match, winning Gold and Silver in a very emphatic fashion. Their 3rd team very narrowly missed out on making it a clean sweep for the USA. It just goes to show the sheer scale of FTR talent in the USA. The relative new-comers; Pakistan have proved resilient, they won the European Championships at their first attempt last year, and this year against even stronger opposition have still managed to stay on the podium in third place, they could have taken 2nd place, but got counted out in a countback, it is a remarkable achievement.
The GB teams did not fare so well on the face of it, although I’m informed that all is well, there is no cause for concern and that they have a ‘cunning plan’.
| Three Lions | 598.75 | USA White | 591.48 |
| USA 2 | 598.72 | USA Blue | 589.59 |
| GB Blue | 598.68 | Pakistan Green | 589.59 |
Team shooting brings with it additional roles and responsibilities beyond those we usually have as individual shooters, it falls on the Captain’s shoulders to train his team and ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them and comes prepared. Now as an example of how NOT to do it, one team (who will remain nameless to save their embarrassment) sent their register keeper to do his job with; no chair, no telescope, no pen or weather writer nothing!– and then to cap it all, this chap proceeded to take two long telephone calls during the match and subsequently missed scoring shots.. Teams are missing a trick by overlooking how a resolute register keeper can play an effective role in assisting his teammates, but that’s a longer story and space doesn’t permit expounding on that now.
That concluded the 2024 team shooting aspect of the European Championships; it had been a real test of resilience and concentration while under duress from appalling weather and a test of sheer accuracy and precision in ideal weather – it had it all, and the rightful winners on each day richly deserved their hard-earned trophies and medals.
