Bloxham’s Shooting Clean Sweep at the National School Championship
On Saturday, Bloxham’s Clay Pigeon Shooting teams did exceptionally well at the British Schools and Young Shots Championships, which were held in Bedfordshire.
In total, Bloxham enjoyed first place success in the A event, B event, Junior event and CCF trophy too – a fantastic day of shooting all round!
Clay Shooting Magazine summarised the School’s success as ‘an incredible score of 230 from Bloxham A secured the top team prize on the Red course. Bloxham finished 12 ahead of Strathallan A from Scotland, with Stowe A and Warwick A sharing third place. Bloxham achieved continued success as its B team shot 227, 11 clays ahead of Millfield, with Warwick in third. And Bloxham’s Thomas O also picked up the Cadet High Gun with a score of 38. The Under-14s competition saw Bloxham do the triple by picking up the third team competition with a score of 69 to win ‘500 from BASC to go towards clay shooting activities’.
Bloxham’s achievement in winning four out of five classes at the National Schools Clay Pigeon Shooting Championships is unprecedented. Fittingly, this success marks the thirtieth anniversary of the’ school offering clay pigeon shooting as an activity it started in the Summer term 1987, thanks to the initiative of a 4th form pupil, Oliver Hill.
This is actually the sixth time Bloxham’s A team have won the National Championships; they did so in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2012 and 2013. Two boys, Richard Crofts and Richard Foxon, were involved in all three successes at the turn of the century. The B team won their class at the Nationals in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and again in 2014, when the A team finished 2nd in theirs, and the girls’ team won in 2007, when the A team again finished 2nd
Congratulations to everyone involved. The victorious team members were as followed:
A Team
Nick V S
Jonty R W
Patrick M
Thomas O
Toby S P
Benjamin S P
B Team
Rebecca S
Oliver W
Thomas O (also won CCF high gun)
Samuel N
Harvey J
Oscar H
Junior Team
Edward E
Charlie C
Rory M