NRA Message: 2009 Lord Roberts Team

[Hip's Ax]

Just got this e-mail from NRA Competitive Shooting Programs
************************************************************

2009 Lord Roberts Team

This is a special year for the 2008 National Championships, Camp Perry, OH. The 2009 Roberts and Goodwill Randle Teams will be selected to represent the United States at Bisley Camp, Great Britain. These teams will fly to Great Britain in August of 2009 to contest the Lord Roberts Trophy and to compete at Bisley Camp, our version of Camp Perry. All US Shooters competing in the 2008 Prone National Matches will have an opportunity to make the Roberts team.

The Roberts Team is selected from the top 12 shooters (10 shooters plus two alternates) making the 2008 Dewar Team. If a qualified shooter cannot make the Roberts Team trip to England then the next finisher on the Dewar Team will be selected. The 2009 Roberts Team selections will be made after the firing of the 2008 Dewar International Postal Match.

The National Smallbore Rifle Association of Great Britain invited a Goodwill Randle Team to accompany the 2009 Roberts Team. The Goodwill Randle Team is made from the ladies of the Randle Team, past or present, which are able to make the trip to England. The Goodwill Randle Team will be chosen from the top twelve (ten and two alternates) lady shooters making the trip to Great Britain. The history of the "Roberts Team" can be traced back to the 1931 Pershing Team. The Pershing match is a ten-man team firing the smallbore rifle Dewar Course (prone 20 shots at 50 yards and 20 shots at 100 yards). In 1931, the American Dewar shooters challenged their British counterparts to an international competition. The original plan was to rotate the match each year between the United States (Camp Perry) and Great Britain (Bisley) using the rules of the home country.

The Pershing was not shot on a regular basis as planned due to national and international economic problems and war. In 1969, noted British shooter Colonel Thomas Sutton, veteran of the first Pershing Trophy match in 1931, donated The Field Marshall Earl Roberts Trophy. With the donation of the Roberts Trophy the matches took on a more regular form. The Pershing and Roberts would be contested every four years. All matches conducted in the Unites States are for the Pershing Trophy while those in Great Britain are for the Roberts Trophy. The last Roberts Trophy match was held in 2001 with the American Team coming out on top of the British by one point 3852 to 3851.