The Goodwill Randle, the Bluebonnets & Perrywinkles and the Randle Club
Other matches and events run alongside the official Randle Trophy team match - the Goodwill Randle, the Bluebonnets & Perrywinkles Match and (very briefly) the Randle Club.
The Randle Club
This was set up sometime around 1959, and all women who had shot in any Randle team up until then were invited to join; individual and team postal competitions were organized as well as the occasional shoulder-to-shoulder event, and vague plans for a 50-metres match on the continent. The Club ceased to exist in the late 1960s.
The Goodwill Randle
The clue to this match is in the title! In 2001, in conjunction with the Roberts Match shot at Bisley between American and British teams, the Goodwill Randle team was born. A number of American women were either in the Roberts team or travelled with them and the challenge was issued for a match between the two countries; by the time the 2001 match was fired, South Africa had also entered a team as there were enough women from that country also taking part in the NSRA Meeting. The standard Randle Trophy rules are relaxed for the Goodwill Randle Match, insofar as the windcoaches do not have to be women.
When the match is shot in Great Britain, the metric targets are used, and in the States the NRA targets.
The Goodwill Randle is now fired every four years, alongside the Roberts (in Great Britain) and Pershing (in the USA) matches, and although the official rules state teams of ten, this is flexible and team make-up is actually decided by numbers available. The USA team won the inaugural match, Great Britain came back to win the 2005 match on American soil, retained the honours at home in 2009, lost by two points in 2013 but were soundly beaten at Bisley in 2017, when the advantage of having most of America's top male shooters as the wind coaches was very clear !
The Goodwill Randle, although fiercely contested on the firing point, is also a wonderful opportunity to renew old acquaintances and forge new friendships, and both teams prepare goody bags to exchange at the post-match social event, adding a new dimension to competition between the Randle teams past and present. Just once, South Africa has been able to field a team to be included in this match too, and it would be great if any of the other Randle countries were able to take part in the future.
The Bluebonnets & Perrywinkles
In 2002, following initial discussions a few years earlier between Marléne Jarvis (GB) and Edie Reynolds Fleeman (USA), an additional friendly match was organized between the two countries. In Great Britain, the team is called “Bisley Bluebonnets” and in the USA “Perrywinkles”; participation is limited to women who have represented their respective country in any Randle team. The course of fire for the Bluebonnets is a Dewar course on American targets plus the scores from the first Dewar of the NSRA Aggregate, and conditions are similar in the States for their Perrywinkles team. In the first few years, the American targets were shot by the GB team at a designated time during the championship week, but an increased schedule of shooting in more recent years has meant this has been amended to an unsquadded event. In 2009, two crystal bowls in memory of Marléne Jarvis were presented to the teams and are given annually to the highest individual scorer in each team.
BLUEBONNETS TEAM 2009 (with bonnets and ice-creams !)
Sheena Sharp, ?, ?, Viv Blow, Janet Nicholl
?, Michelle Smith, Sharon Lee
? - names needed - hard to distinguish faces under the bonnets !!
Sheena Sharp, ?, ?, Viv Blow, Janet Nicholl
?, Michelle Smith, Sharon Lee
? - names needed - hard to distinguish faces under the bonnets !!
BLUEBONNETS TEAM 2004
Helen Spittles, Monica Bristow, Ann Travis, Chris Scott, Stephanie Postlethwaite, Jill Norman, Yvette Edwards
Sheena Sharp, Janet Nicholl, Marlene Jarvis, Michelle Smith, Ann Clancy
Helen Spittles, Monica Bristow, Ann Travis, Chris Scott, Stephanie Postlethwaite, Jill Norman, Yvette Edwards
Sheena Sharp, Janet Nicholl, Marlene Jarvis, Michelle Smith, Ann Clancy
BLUEBONNETS TEAM 2003
Yvette Edwards, Liz Hughs, Linda Smallbone, Ann Travis, Jill Norman, Stephanie Postlethwaite
Janet Nicholl, Chris Scott, Helen Spittles, Sharon Lee
Yvette Edwards, Liz Hughs, Linda Smallbone, Ann Travis, Jill Norman, Stephanie Postlethwaite
Janet Nicholl, Chris Scott, Helen Spittles, Sharon Lee
LINA JONES & Bob Jarvis
with the
Marlene Jarvis Bowl
with the
Marlene Jarvis Bowl