I went to Stoke Mandeville today..

[snock]

Fingers crossed, Graham!!

Thanks for getting this sorted.

[delta1]

I'll be there Pete, around 09:30 to 10:00?

[snock]

I'll be there Pete, around 09:30 to 10:00?

Excellent stuff, Rich!
I'll meet you there at 10:00, mate.

I'll PM you the post code for your sat-nav later on, mate.
If you don't have to rush back, perhaps I could take you to a nice pub for a glass of ale, after.

It'd be great to finally meet you, Rich.

[delta1]

No worries, That sounds like a good idea.

[snock]

The day started at around 10:00 when I met Rich [Delta1] there. It was great to put a face to the name, and to finally shake his hand.

We were discussing the digging work we had to do, and I pointed out to Rich the obvious differences to the plush, aluminium-clad, smoked-glass building which is no more than 60-70 yards away, and is the new stadium for disabled sportspersons, and our 1940's nissen hut. Quite a stark contrast, I can tell you!

Rosie Hughes, the organiser of the British disabled shooting squad, arrived soon after with one of - in fact I think she was our best disabled shooter, Di Coates. Another friendly person. There's a lot of them here!

After a cuppa and a quick introduction we went around the side to look at what needed to be done. We got our shovels and spades out and got cracking!
The sole reason this needed doing was to stop the ingress of water from the surrounding soil [read thick, claggy clay], getting into the walls of the hut and seeping into the ranges, as it has been since I don't know when.

We got the gulley dug out to accept the drainage pipe and shingle which Mr Graham Guest is hopefully sorting out for us. This will, when laid, allow any rain water to drain away into the ground further away from the hut. Sorted.

Then the next job of the day: to re-jig the guttering which was compounding the problem by controlling the water which had been pouring out of the broken joint between two lengths of gutter, by improving the 'fall' on the pipe, whilst diverting the water to a point where its drained further from the walls.

Richard is an engineer for the people who supply, fix and maintain the vacuum pod systems we have in supermarkets, so he already had a selection of off-cuts of 4" tubing and all kind of fitting which we used to do this job.

In these pictures you'll see that we did a pretty good job of using what we had, to do the best we could.

There was also a small job of stemming the flow of water from the overflow from the gent's loo, which was soon rectified by a bit of creative ballcock-bending.

After all this was done, a thoroughly beer-ready Rich and Pete disappeared off to sample the wares at the local hostelry.

Nice.

A huge, huge thanks to Rich for driving from Nottingham to help out today.

[windowrest]

Private Eye this week had a small piece about the 16 million they will spend on a shooting venue for 2012. it will be torn down after the olympics....

[delta1]

Well, today really opened my eyes.

Met Pete, as posted above, its great to meet people that we talk to so often.

The contrast between the on-site facilities cannot be over-emphasised.

The look on Rosie's face when the range was dry inside was a great start to the day, and made me realise how small improvements can make life more bearable and facilities more welcoming.

The ditch was dug, and a repair made to the guttering to keep the water away from the building, not earth shattering stuff, but moving toward keeping the place watertight.

The toilets and sinks are in desperate need of replacement, yet all the way around Rosie was telling us what's going where, and how its going to be once its done. It certainly has loads of potential!

Watching Di shoot was awe inspiring, the level of concentration and discipline required to shoot that well was clear, watching Pete shoot at a similar target he showed how far she is ahead of us!
I chickened out due to my fear of making myself look a complete Berk!

Beer was good to finish the day on.

I got home knackered, but having totally enjoyed the day.

Please revisit the thread when you can, and when we get to the point where larger work parties are needed, please ask yourself if you can spare some time/skill/materials, whatever you can offer.