British Airgun 2014

[RobinC]

The NSRA have now distributed the entry forms and the rule book for the 2014 championships in Feb.

The big change and to me shocking thing is they have said there is one class for seniors and juniors, i.e. there is NO JUNIOR CLASS!!!! Rifle or Pistol.
Done to save time, they say, and they will tag a separate Junior championship onto the Pistol meeting in September (when the season is over!)
I think this is disgracefull.

Robin

[p.m.h]

It certainly sounds like corner cutting, and a decision from the norm.

We have had great difficulty in trying to get a set of rules, etc, out of the NSRA, something they promise will be sent out upon joining. When another club member enquired where they were, they got quite a rude "we've apart explained".

Is there anyway you could lodge an official protest? After all, these organisations only keep going by members renewing their membership.

Kind regards,



Phil

[tufty]

Couldn't agree with you more Robin,they've also decided not to run any of the 5 shot pistol disciplines,another disgrace.

Neale

[mickson]

Is it not time for a change, Airguns to move away from the NSRA, maybe a step back in time, but is that not what is needed to keep the future of UK airgun target shooting. No juniors No future. ...mike...

[RobinC]

And they have also taken out the Masters Championships (for over 50's) nothing even mentioned on that. This and the Juniors is stated to be to save time as the new 2013 ISSF finals take a lot longer, the same finals and rules other European country don't bothers with.

Its more of this blind following of the "olympic events" it will eventualy wreak target shooting as we know it. They are heading deeper into the abys of elitism at the expense of all else.
They say they have dropped the five shot to make space for a "Finals Hall", thats pretentious crap, they mean a dedicated finals range downstairs in the far end of the Cooper 50 mt range. So why would they be short of time for finals? They would no longer have to set up for finals using the first 20 points of the full range? they could shoot them any time and have more time?
Is this the olympic legacy?

There will be no protests of any significance, my own club has 4 Juniors who would have been in with a shout of winning Junior championships and at least making the finals, we even have a member who is on the PAC committee who has not mentioned this, I suspect he will get a spiny reception if he visits again, but I doubt our club will be bothered to protest and most others are the same. Our county association is in near collapse and many others are the same. Three or four responses on this site, its not even mentionioned on a more prominent target site, apothy rules.

My wife and I are no longer members of the NSRA, it was just £160 a year wasted, we have the same insurance from the same company for considerably less, our club is affiliated, and frankly they don't represent what we see as the future of the sport.
I have no youngsters in my coaching who would have shot finals this year, but I do wonder whether its all worth the effort any more.
Robin

[tufty]

Well I'm going to vote with my feet,and shoot at the British Pistol Club Open instead of this fiasco,hopefully others will do the same.

Neale

[Fierynick]

Hello All,
I agree entirely with all of the above! It is very upsetting that the NSRA don't respect the value of Junior shooters to the future of our sport enough to give them their own division.
Its also very upsetting that the 5 shot disciplines have been removed from BOAG, the idea is to then focus the British Pistol Champs in Sept towards the 5 shot and 25m disciplines.

Regards

[Hemmers]

The NSRA have now distributed the entry forms and the rule book for the 2014 championships in Feb.

For a given value of distributed. They're not on the NSRA website anywhere that I can find them, nor have I received them from the NSRA Mailing List. Unless my address has dropped off the mailing list for some reason, they only seem to have sent them out to a select handful of people

Hello All,
I agree entirely with all of the above! It is very upsetting that the NSRA don't respect the value of Junior shooters to the future of our sport enough to give them their own division.
Its also very upsetting that the 5 shot disciplines have been removed from BOAG, the idea is to then focus the British Pistol Champs in Sept towards the 5 shot and 25m disciplines.

Regards

Whilst I agree with the sentiment that their should be a junior event, I would caution against accusing them having "a lack of respect for juniors" and point out that the event is run in large part by volunteers. I strongly doubt the decision was made lightly and if the volunteers have decided they cannot realistically run 8 finals/day then that's their call.

If you don't like it, then I suggest you volunteer and help take some of the burden off their shoulders!
Incidentally, they're desperate for dogsbodies. They seem to get lots of offers to RO, but there's lots of backroom stuff that they're chronically short of helpers with.

The PACC are not like the ISSF Technical Comittee sitting in their ivory tower saying "I know, lets make everyone buy new jackets. That won't piss anyone off."
As with most shooting in the UK they're a bunch of mostly volunteers working out how much they can realistically manage with the meagre resource and handful of volunteers they have available. With the changes to the finals they can't get 11 finals/day in, and they're making some tough decisions.

That's why I'll be putting my time where my mouth is and joining the media team in February taking metric f**ktons of photos and hopefully a bit of video and trying to publicise the event a bit better via Facebook and other means - generally make a lot more of the media side, as that's one place no one has had time to develop in the past (as they've all been too busy running the event to worry about marketing the event, or publicise results, or tell people who won ).

I'm led to believe that the 5-target pistol had really low turnout last year (though I wasn't there in person), and in fact ran at a loss, which is why they've prioritised using the space to run some really good finals with commentary and stuff.

[Fierynick]

Hemmers,
I have not said that the NSRA do not respect Juniors, I said that they do not respect the value of Juniors to the future of the sport. The talk is focussing the British Pistol Champs in Sept to 25m stuff, which again is ill advised as so few juniors shoot these disciplines. I have spoken at lenghth to a very senior NSRA official about this subject.
. The fact that 5 shot disciplines are so under subscribed should be of great concern. Other than Kristian we have no Rapid Fire shooters coming through at all. Cancelling these disciplines does nothing to solve this, the NSRA should be trying to attract more shooters to these events, not further deterring them.
. The profitability issue that you argue is a strange one, as finals don't bring any money, competitors only pay for qualification matches. Therefore the downstairs ranges will be operated with no fiscal return whatsoever.
. There is also a point to be argued that low turnout at NSRA events is due to previous poor organisation at such comps. I am glad that the NSRA have realised this and now have Ian and Karen Morris on board-two fantastic competition organisers.
. I am most certainly not 'anti-NSRA' I think that they perform a very valuable function, unfortunately I do not see the necessary investment being made in the future of our sport...at any level!
. Sadly shooting just doesn't bring the money in, which is why out national shooting centre is being taken over by ice hockey and acting classes!!

Regards

[squireoak]

The Target shooting scene died the day everybody started having there competitions at Aldersley, you need to be able to shoot at different venues and conditions. I have
been out of this scene for twenty odd years and looking at getting back into it. There isn't enough support for juniors and the prices of the equipment must have an impact
on juniors who want to get into the sport.
The juniors need to have there own class to give them goals and improve.
I agree we need to go back in time and re ignite the interest in this sport.

[Hemmers]

You make many good points, and I'm well aware of many of the NSRA's shortcomings as it stands. In the absence of a rival organisation who can do everything better of course, they're what we've got.

As you say, NSRA events have struggled with turnout, and 25M events even more so.

From where I'm standing, for one year at least, mixing things up a bit is worth a try. The status quo isn't working, so it would be foolish to persist regardless.
If the 25M event attracts very few people (and if most juniors shoot 10m), then start by making the 10m events really special - with really well run finals and so forth. The 25M events are the obvious casualties unfortunately as they're not only poorly attended but require a dedicated range.

From where I'm stood (on the outside, not on any committees), it seems like they're trying to get the meeting in order by doing a few events really well, rather than stretching themselves over too many events.

Those are hard decisions, and time will tell if they're good ones.

[RobinC]

Hemmers
The entries have alledgedly been sent to those who had an email address on last years entry, but we have members who have not recieved it either. I'll forward it on to your email address.

The claimed reason is that the new finals take longer (actualy not a lot longer) and there is not time. On the letter acompanying the entry, and Kaz Morris on another site has stated this as the reason and it appears from the wording of her statement that she is in aggreement of this move.
To me there is a simple answer, they have scrapped the Masters championships run on Friday, (thats both ends of the age span they are attacking then!), all the disabled qualifying rifle and pistol could be run on Friday (as was the masters), that would better utilise the range space on Friday, free space on the Sat and Sun, their finals hall will be unused on the Saturday morning and early afternoon so run the disabled finals then. That would leave space to run the Juniors finals.

They have taken the decision and we are stuck with it, regardless I think it stinks.

Edit: - the new print of the ISSF rules (out this week) has now reduced the time for finals by two minutes a final by removing additional sighting time after the competitor announcement.

[tufty]

Hello All,
I agree entirely with all of the above! It is very upsetting that the NSRA don't respect the value of Junior shooters to the future of our sport enough to give them their own division.
Its also very upsetting that the 5 shot disciplines have been removed from BOAG, the idea is to then focus the British Pistol Champs in Sept towards the 5 shot and 25m disciplines.

Regards

It seems a shame that they will now only focus on 5 shot once a year though,as I see it,they would prefer it was just forgotten about and dropped,I recently did the standard pistol competition at the Surrey Open,and had tried to enter the falling plate,but was told it was full......4 people competed in it according to the results page!!!

Neale

[Fierynick]

Hello,
Now that only the special few can get section 5 firearms, 5 shot disciplines for the rest of us are becoming scarce! The only real avenue for these disciplines is through the BPC monthly meets.
. I was one of the 4 shooting falling plates! Where can you find the results?

Regards

[tufty]

Nick,

They are on the surreysbra.org results page

Neale