Just arrived at the ground                                                    Now there are some happy faces!

Well, we’ve had the first training day for the Britannia School Project and what a successful day it was. 15 pupils and two teachers arrived at Paul ‘Alfie’ Oldring’s new ground at Kingsclere Estate on Friday 6^th March for the first Britannia School Project training session.  Many of the pupils looked cold and serious (probably wondering what they had let themselves in for.  The session started with introductions to the coaches, Sarah Daly, Alfie Oldring and Andy Pye, followed range and gun safety.   Each coach took a group of five pupils who will stay with them for the duration of the training sessions.  It was not long before bodies were less hunched up and smiles on every face at it dawned on them that this was a sport that everyone can really enjoy.   

The three coaches all said at the end of the day what a great group we had, so out of 15 kids there was not one that we would be happy for them not to come back - and long may it last!!!  The teacher (Vincent MacLean) who set it up at the school said he had seen children smile that he had never seen smile before, so we must have done something right.  Everyone is really looking forward to next week.

              Smiley face                                                                In action

The second training session went equally as well as the first one.  The whole group turned up full of anticipation, especially when they were issued with their shooting vests sponsored by Engineered Interiors and Gemini Fire Management Systems, and supplied by Napier at a very special rate.

The pupils shot a selection of targets of driven, quartering and going away targets, all coping very well, even when their score on a given target was lower then on previous targets - a good lesson in disappointment and learning to move on positively to the next stand.

                17^th March and 20th March 2009 - 3rd and 4th Training Sessions

This was a busy week for the pupils as they had two training sessions.  The first being at Bradfield College, Theale Nr Reading, which gave the pupils an opportunity to see a different ground and targets, all of which they handled very proficiently! 

The second session of the week was at Frobury Farm Sporting Club.  We were joined by Robert Grainger from Laporte Clay Pigeon Company who have sponsored the clays for the entire project and Don Brunt who took masses of photos.  Many of the pupils started off very tense on their first stand or two, partly due to guests in attendance coupled with the fact that some the pupils were under the impression the team was being picked that training session!  However, they soon settled down and started hitting targets again, with the exception of a very tricky rabbit that was bouncing down the hill – a very unkind target, but a good lesson in how to recover from a difficult stand! 

 The next training sessions will be at Frobury Farm Sporting Club, Kingsclere Estate, Tuesday 7^th April and 10^th April.