After a few years away, Oxfordshire has re-entered the Smallbore Astor competition. This county-level event is run in postal format, using the Dewer course of fire—20 shots at 50 metres and 20 at 100 yards—with a six-person team required.
Thanks to a little gentle persuasion from our club captain, we pulled together a full team of (mostly) willing shooters. We scheduled the shoot for 5th July 2025 so that Gavin could be on hand to provide some wind coaching—and perhaps pick up a few pointers in return when it was his turn!
Unfortunately, two team members couldn’t make the Saturday session. But as it’s a postal competition, they were able to shoot their cards earlier in the week.
We kicked things off with some practice, most of us using the opportunity to work through our Spoon cards. Then came the main event: three shooters on the line, with Gavin giving live wind calls—a first for Harwell in recent memory. For those of us listening, it was something like a cross between expert coaching and the Shipping Forecast… soothing, but requiring focus!
After a couple of details, it was Gavin’s turn to shoot—just as the wind picked up. A fair bit of time was spent waiting for the gusts to ease before he could take his shots.
The targets are being sent off for scoring however here is an estimate of the scores:
All in all, it was a great team effort and a welcome return to Smallbore team competition for Harwell.