At the start of half term, 9 members of the Rifle Club, and three members of staff, set off on a small-bore tour of Northern England and Edinburgh, via Cambridge. It was a five day, four match, three University and one School tour.

On the Friday, at the start of half term, the tour party travelled to Cambridge, along with 6 other members of the Rifle Club, for a match against Cambridge University. The University Rifle Range is located within a road bridge, which always quite interesting. The Gresham’s A team beat Cambridge A by 23 points, to continue their winning streak, and our B team beat Cambridge B by 2 points. A good start to the tour! The touring party then travelled north to Durham.

Our first day in Durham started with a most enjoyable tour of the University by the President, and other members, of the Durham University Rifle Club. After lunch, we had a match against the University.  Despite a challenging range, the Gresham’s team continued to battle on through to the very end. Each member of the team probably scored 4 or 5 points below their average, but they just managed to scrape a victory. It was nice to shoot against former Gresham’s Rifle Club Captain, Fergus Robson, who rather appropriately was joint top shot in the match, along with Georgie B. The team were hugely pleased to have the support of Mr Atkinson for the day and for some of the match. Thank you, Mr Atkinson.

The final leg of the tour took the team to the beautiful city of Edinburgh, where upon arrival they went straight into a match against Edinburgh University on an interesting double-tiered range, in a former air raid shelter. This was their largest margin of victory, winning by 64 points. Although Hannah B had the top score of the match with 199 points, closely followed by Georgie B, it was Alma De R’s score of 193 that was a hugely impressive score and a real highlight of the match.

Both Cambridge and Durham Universities are currently tying for first place in the top Division of the Inter Universities Rifle leagues, and Edinburgh University are joint second in Division 2.

The following morning, they took on Edinburgh’s leading school in Target Rifle shooting, George Watson’s College. Being their half term, they could only produce a team of 4, so the Gresham’s tour party was split into two teams of 4: left-handers and right-handers. While there were only ten points between the teams, Gresham’s succeeded in taking 1st (right-handers) and 2^nd (left-handers) place.

The afternoon was spent exploring Edinburgh, where some members of the team suffered their only defeat of the tour and were unsuccessful at escaping an Escape Room. They had their final tour dinner at a Chinese buffet, with Mr Grounds donning a kilt for the evening. This was followed by a lovely walk back to the hotel through the streets of Edinburgh.

The tour was a fantastic success and thanks must go to the team for being wonderful company and for some excellent shooting, despite the challenges of new ranges. A huge thanks must also go to Mrs T Liberman and Mr O Liberman for all that they did for the team during the tour and for the support they gave to Mr Grounds. It was a truly memorable and enjoyable trip for everyone involved.