Bideford Rifle Club
Margaret Thomson of Bideford Club approached us and asked if we could give their fund-raising cause some publicity. Bideford sounds like a ‘model’ club and we are delighted to help keep any shooting club going – particularly such a pro-active one as Bideford, who are clearly prepared to put the effort in. Margaret writes:
Bideford Rifle Club – like many others – is struggling. But, unlike a lot of Clubs, this is not because of a lack of members….just the opposite! After half a century of jogging along quite nicely, the past six years have been very topsy-turvy for the Club and we have had lots of problems to sort out.
Firstly, we lost our outdoor range very suddenly – we got over that one with the help of Devon Rangers who allow us to use their 50m range each summer. Then we had to move out of the indoor range while it was totally rewired – and had to raise about £2000 to fund it.
With renewed enthusiasm, we returned but realised that we shouldn’t take anything for granted in the future and took the positive decision to attract new members and keep our sport in the public eye. The local press are great – we give them regular reports and results and they now approach us for interviews and articles and we hold open evenings for local groups such as Rotary, Golf Clubs and Schools. From all this, enquiries for membership grew and we set up a structured coaching course each winter to introduce potential new members, which has been extremely successful and our membership has grown year on year as a result.
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LATEST NEWS...
We have around 40 members, with ages from 10 to 87, of all abilities; some will happily stay in the E team, while some are or have been of
international standard. Around a dozen members shoot for Devon in the inter-county teams and we now have nine qualified club instructors. We run a full programme of competitive shooting – each winter we enter prone teams in County, North Devon and National leagues and many individual competitions, and we have growing benchrest and airgun sections. In the summer we shoot 50m leagues and individual competitions in all disciplines and often take a minibus-full to Open Meetings.
So, what is our problem? We are losing our indoor range!
The site where our range is has been sold for development to a local man and - although he is allowing us to stay temporarily - we have to find a new home soon. Of the many possible alternatives we have investigated, two or three are still active and we are cautiously hopeful.
BUT – and it is an enormous but – we need a lot of money.
We are starting our fundraising with a nationally-run prone rifle competition and have been overwhelmed by sponsorship for prizes, including 20,000 rounds of ammo from Eley, self-catering holidays, sports vouchers and cash - a total prize fund value of over £5000!
Entry to the competition is only £5 and you can enter as many times as you like. Have a look at our website
www.bidefordrifleclub.weebly.com and either download an entry form from there, or ring our club captain on 01271 858859 for more details.
Please help us to help ourselves - we and the sport are worth it !
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