(Photo: David Ayling, Winner Class A receives Felbridge Bowl from Dave Britchford)
Thanks to all of you who supported the Open Shoot 8-9 April. There was some excellent shooting, and although the honours at A and B Class went to our visitors, Tim Duncan and Geoff Gilbert won Class C and D respectively. The overall winner was David Ayling of Aldingbourne. He is the one with the beard looking pretty pleased with himself in the picture. The range looked good, the cuisine was excellent (Heather's cakes were exemplary as usual).
Message from the Chairman
You will probably have noticed that the trees along the range have been cut back. There are a few more items of maintenance to be attended to:
- The indoor range will need to be upgraded slightly in order to meet the criteria required by the Army for their cadets.
- Whilst this may not appear essential, wherever potential safety issues are highlighted the Committee feels that all reasonable steps should be taken to bring the range up to standard.
- Then we have some electrical work to be done, all of which will require certification.
- We are keeping an eye on the oil tank, which is getting near the end of its life and the whole installation would at that point require upgrading.
- Finally, we need to keep buying equipment such that the Club has good kit available.
The Committee is seeking to spread the outlay over time as much as possible to keep the cash flow balanced.
I am glad to report that a number of new shooters are beginning to settle down and have rached a sufficient standard of safety to be going solo.
Finally, a number of members have commented that it is sad to see our beautiful range being under utilised at the weekends. The Committee is therefore offering weekend shooting facilities to other clubs, for a set fee of £3 and bringing their own targets (or paying for targets they use). Part of this package will be to open the range on a Saturday morning from April until September (normal Sunday shooting will also be available for other clubs). Saturday opening has meant having a set duty officer rota rather than the current ad-hoc arrangements. The committee feels that this will help popularise the Club, attract shooters from other ranges, and of course bring in additional income.
Volunteer duty officers from experienced members are always needed so please give this some thought.
Comments from all are welcome as usual.
Good shooting!
