Christ College Cadets Sweep The Board At Shooting Competition

With a practice over Exeat weekend under their belts, Christ College Brecon CCF headed off to the Sennybridge Ranges for the 2014 Cadet Skill at Arms Meeting (CADSAAM).

With three relatively inexperienced but keen teams taking part, expectations were mixed with the staff aware that if they shot to their potential they could bring home some trophies.

The first day went well, with the heavy overnight rain moving on, and some fine shooting being observed by all teams. As the Light Support Weapon gunners undertook their specific shoot, the top firers in the competition prepared for the championship shoot off. This is shot by the highest scoring 12 competitors, both CCF and ACF, and Christ College provided an amazing 5 of the 12 firers.

Falling Plate Final from Christ College Brecon on Vimeo.

Day two started with results from the previous day’s firing kept a secret, but all of the 23 teams had one thing on their minds – the falling plate competition. The blue-ribbon event involves a FA cup-type knockout competition where teams of four firers sprint 100m to the 200m firing point, load their weapon with ten rounds and attempt to shoot down 30cm square metal plates in the fastest time. The Christ College C team suffered an early exit, but gained valuable experience for next year’s competition, whilst the ‘B’ team fell at the quarter final stage to a strong Gwynedd and Clwyd ACF team. The ‘A’ team progressed well and overcame a very strong Monmouth A in the quarter final with a time of 39 seconds to knock down all the plates. After a win in the semi-final, the ‘A’ team had progressed to the final, as they did last year. However the aim of team captain, Cadet RSM Rhodri Edwards, was to go one better. In an amazing run the team succeeding in knocking down all their plates in 37 seconds, whilst their opponents still had five plates standing, to seal an emphatic victory.

So it was onto the prize giving where Christ College swept the board, winning an impressive eight trophies including Cadet Sgt Dempsey winning best LSW Gunner and Cadet CSgt Neil Wang just pipping Rhodri Edwards to the best shot in Wales on count back at 300m. An outstanding weekend’s performance from all our firers and the future looks bright for shooting in Christ College.