Imperial Meeting 2023

The culmination of the fullbore season, members of CURA took part in both the match rifle and target rifle Imperial meetings in late July. The first week of match rifle shooting saw tricky conditions with strong, changeable wind, but we got into the swing of it by the end! This year also saw two CURA members shooting in the 150th Elcho Match, with A. Harrison (Emmanuel), and the captain, A. Clark (Robinson), selected to shoot for Wales and act as reserve for Ireland respectively. The last day of the M.R. meeting saw the Humphry IV, including a backgunner not named Flanagan (!) (pictured) win the Varsity match against OURC after a nail-biting 1200x shoot by 2 points, with three new caps and an exceptional score of 220.17 by the captain. Many thanks to our wonderful coaches S. Whitby, N. Brasier, A. Abrahams and R. Furniss for expertly guiding us through the challenging wind during the Humphry!

We then moved on to target rifle, with a further week of competitions. Our former captain, A. Good GM (Emmanuel) (pictured), excelled as usual, ranking 51st in the Grand Aggregate and shooting for England in the National match, achieving the third-highest score on the range. Other CURA successes included A. Xu (Pembroke) coming 42nd in the Times with a 50.6, and four CURA members making it to the second stages of HM The King’s and St. George’s prizes, with CURA cocktails the night beforehand rendering George’s II particularly interesting…

As ever, the tail end of the TR meeting saw the Chancellors’ match against Oxford, with the CURA VIII putting in a solid performance, but just losing to OURC by a similarly razor-thin margin of 6 points (pictured preparing in the clubhouse garden, and after the match). We look forward to bringing back the trophy next year!

The meeting then finished with the final of HM The King’s Prize, with the aforementioned A. Good GM shooting in the final, and the rest of CURA assisting the RAF with scorekeeping. Following the chairing of the winner, CURA and OURC celebrated a successful meeting with a delightfully riotous Chancellors’ dinner at the English VIII club.

Hearty congratulations to the CURA Humphry IV and the OURC Chancellors’ VIII, many thanks to C. Catuogno-Cal (St. John’s) and R. Vary (Downing) for magnificently adjutating for the varsity matches, and we look forward to doing it all again next year! As always, thank you to all of the alumni and friends who have coached and helped us throughout the year, as this operation would not be possible without your support.

If all this sounds like good fun and you would be interested in trying shooting at Cambridge next year, get in touch with our Secretary at secretary@curifle.org.uk and check out our info on membership and our FAQs, as taster sessions will be running in the first week of Michaelmas term!