Sophia Gardens venue, it was on a much bigger scale than we currently enjoy at the Welsh Open in the same arena but it extended to many more of the sports halls and included extensive trade stands.
It certainly was impressive and any participation at that time in Cardiff felt like a major shooting event and got the heart pumping and inspired many to go much further in the sport. This was obviously a good starting platform for George and just three years later in 1975 made his first appearance for Great Britain in the Nordic Championships. In the meantime George also won Pistol ‘78 and a Scottish Open title.
George enjoyed a long international shooting career representing Great Britain at numerous European
Championships Championships.
George also represented England at the Commonwealth mini games and also the full blown Commonwealth Games in 1982 where he won gold in the 10 metre individual air
and World
pistol event with a score of 576. He also won silver in the pairs competition with Geoff Robinson.
From 1987 onwards George engaged his shooting knowledge in a coaching career qualifying initially as a Club Coach and progressing to County Coach and then Regional Pistol Coach. By 1990 George had become the National Coach for Air and Free Pistol, an amazing transformation of his abilities in three short years.
From my own standpoint, I certainly remember when we had joint National Squad weekends, I was always envious of my air pistol colleagues who had such a structured, varied and productive two days of training with George as their Coach. Much planning and preparation by George before those weekends was inevitable to make them valuable and enjoyable, and were a credit to him. Perhaps the greatest endorsement of George’s work is the illustrious list of shooters whom he has coached which include Paul Leatherdale, Mick Gault, Nick
Target Shooter
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