RANDLE HISTORY
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Team Personnel from 1952
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The beginnings...
The Randle Trophy Match, sponsored by the National Rifle Association of America, started in 1952, being based on a suggestion by one of the top female shooters in the United States, Eleanor Dunn.
But the beginnings go back slightly further than this, and to a British shooter.
In 1950, Muriel Bryant, who was the secretary of a Civil Service rifle club based in London, wrote to the NRA of America to challenge any American club made up of female civil servants to compete in a prone rifle postal match. There was no immediate response to this, until the NRA Secretary forwarded the request to Eleanor Dunn. There was no equivalent club in the US, so Eleanor Dunn arranged for the American Women’s Club Rifle Team to take up the challenge as the American representative. Few could have realised at this time that it would lay the foundations for a respected International Match.
The GB team won this initial match by 45 points.
The success of this first match encouraged Eleanor Dunn to expand the level of competition, and she invited teams from the national associations of Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, while in Great Britain Muriel Bryant organized entries from England, Scotland and Wales - and in 1951 there were 32 teams.
The large entry was quite overwhelming for those organizing it, but fortunately there was so much positive reaction to the initiative that the NRA took note and the president, General Merritt Edson, suggested that the match should be brought under the control of the NRA, both to provide more efficient administrative support and to give the match greater legitimacy, and so it was agreed. In 1952, it was formalized as an international match similar to the Dewar Trophy International Team Match, and a past-president of the NRA Mr Thurman Randle offered to donate a trophy.
Initially, the NRA of America intended to levy an entry fee of $5 per team, but apparently the Bank of England would not permit entry fees to be paid in dollars, and the NRA withdrew the charge !!
How it works...
The Randle Match is conducted under the competition rules of the National Rifle Association of America and is shot on American targets. Invitation is to other English-speaking countries and participation has varied over the years. In the first few years, the Match was between just Great Britain and the USA, but by 1961 New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia were also taking part, and in subsequent years Canada were also competing. Sadly, in latter years the number of participating nations has reduced so that only USA, Great Britain and South Africa have competed since 1985, with South Africa's last appearance in 2014. The last time that Australia competed was in 1973 and Canada dropped out after 1957, and obviously Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) no longer take part. But the latest news is that New Zealand genuinely hope to be able to field a team again in 2020 and we welcome them back.
Traditionally, each country shoots the match during its National Meeting, which for the USA has meant Camp Perry in Ohio for many years, in recent times temporarily at Bristol in Indiana, and from 2020 they will be at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, while Great Britain always fires during the NSRA Meeting at Bisley in August.
The relevant National governing bodies are responsible for appointing a Captain and Coach (referred to in GB as Adjutant), who serve for a specified period. The USA has a stricter appointment policy, expecting their nominated Captain to have at least three years’ experience as a shooter in the Randle Match and with qualities such as “leadership, maturity and the ability to work well with shooters and officials”. But for both countries, being invited to be Randle Captain is an honour and a privilege.
Selection procedures for the team in both the USA and Great Britain are similar; in the States, qualification is through the scores achieved in the Prone Metallic Sight Championships and in Great Britain through the first two days (4 competitions) of Bisley Week; the team of ten shooters is chosen, together with two alternates (or reserves).
The selection procedure for Great Britain hasn’t always been this way, however. For the first match, the team was selected by a special set of cards shot during the NSRA Meeting. Over the next few years, the team was chosen by trials in a similar way to the Dewar Match, the first stage by a postal trial and then by further trials during the National Meeting.
And the match wasn’t always shot at Bisley, either....there are several early records of Worplesdon range being used at the end of the week of the NSRA meeting, with the matches being shot in the late evening. This obviously gave some problems with late sun on the targets, followed swiftly by dull light, and in 1954 the captain Jo Hawkins suggested in her report that the match be shot “earlier in the week and earlier in the day”.
Changes began...
In 1955, captain Elsie “Jane” Baker began to make some intelligent and serious suggestions for change, building partly on that report, and pleading for the Randle Trophy Match to have the same status as the Dewar Match. She also made comments about the coaches who “must be as competent as the ten who fire, as they can make or mar the confidence and composure of the shooter”. Wise words.
There are also comments made in the American regulations about the role of the wind coaches (all of whom have to be women) – including among their duties “be a calming, supportive influence for the shooter”.
By 1957, the timing of the GB team shoot had changed to early morning, and the team shot at 5.30 am on the Running Deer Range....in the most dreadful weather of rain, wind, thunder and lightning. The light was so poor that cars were brought on to the range so that their headlights could illuminate the targets ! Nevertheless, it was agreed that the early start was preferable, and that timing has continued to the present day.
In 1965, Great Britain recorded its first win, beating the USA by just two points, under the captaincy of Lilian Geer, who had her own wise words to add to her report; when congratulating the team, she added “....to the lowest scorers who only lost 3 or 4 points, it is the lowest scores which win matches”. Worth remembering.
In that year, Ernie Spiriti who was Range Officer turned up on the range in full “grandma” nightwear....full-length nightie, bed socks, woollen night cap with tassel and lighted candle - which must have been quite a sight and relieved any pre-match tension.
Ranges and witnesses...
In 1969, the Meeting and therefore the Randle Match moved to Century Range for the first time, but reportedly the weather conditions did not improve. However, in 1970, GB recorded their second win in the event, this time by just four points.
In 1972, the Match moved to the Time Limit Range, when it is reported that a gentleman firing full-bore at the same time on the adjacent Running Deer Range had to be asked to stop.
The team shoot in each country is overseen by an appointed witness, and for the first US team this witness was the Chairman of our NSRA, Lt.Col. Sutton, who was there with the GB Pershing team, while for the GB team a Canadian official, Lt.Col. Stephen Johnson officiated. Over subsequent years, GB team witnesses have included officials from America, Ceylon, Canada, Kenya and South Africa, as well as leading figures within the NSRA.
An interesting statistic is recorded in 1964, when Mrs Myfanwy McKenzie not only shot for Southern Rhodesia in their Randle team, but also officially witnessed the shoots of South Africa and Great Britain in the same year, clocking up a total of 14,100 miles travelling.
Trends, shots and records...
In early years, the USA completely dominated the event, including one memorable year in 1975 when the team fired a perfect 4000 ex 4000, a record which has never been equalled by either team. In 1965, Great Britain recorded their first win, by just four points, but it wasn’t until 1970 that they were successful again and had to wait a further eight years for their next victory, despite a record score of 3990 in 1975, the year that the American team “went clean”. There was a surprise win in 1997 by South Africa who beat GB by four points with the USA a further 7 points behind, but the tide started to turn in Great Britain’s favour in the mid-1980s and since 1985 GB have been winners in 20 of the 34 years, with particular success in the 21st century with 13 wins in 19 years, and gradually increasing scores, the best being in 2015 for a record score of 3996 which still stands.
The importance of every single shot was never more evident than in 1987 and again in 2017. In 1987, the GB team put up a new record score of 3993 which beat their previous record by three points - but lost to the USA by 5 x’s, and in 2017 when both teams shot in poor conditions for unremarkable scores of 3978 and again the Americans were triumphant, this time by a single x. Never has a match been closer.
Records of various kinds are made to be broken. That of being the youngest person to shoot in the GB Randle team was held for a long time by Valerie Hills who was 16 yrs 11 months old when she qualified in 1954, and it was not until 1989 that it was surpassed by Rachel Ambrose who was 9 months younger. In 1991, two sisters, Nicky and Donna Holland became the first siblings to shoot together in a team, and in 2011 GB had the first mother-and-daughter pairing in Jacky and Dani Perkins.
Individuals...
Many British ladies have represented their country in the Randle Trophy team on multiple occasions. The highest tally so far is held by Linda Smallbone with 27 team appearances, plus 2 as Adjutant and 2 as Captain, a record which will be hard to beat. Ann Travis has 21 appearances as well as 2 as Adjutant and 2 as Captain, and would surely have had more were it not for a break to raise her family; her first team place was in 1967 and her latest in 2019, another impressive record. And over the years, there are others with representation in 12 or more matches - Janet Baker, Yvette Edwards, Margaret Gibbs, Meriel Johnson, Lina Jones, Nina Lamberg, Alison Longbottom Leech, Connie Mays, Irene Read, Sheena Sharp, Mog Thomson.
All team personnel from 1952 to the present day are in the folder downloadable at the top of this page.
The Randle Trophy Match remains one of the most prestigious international events for women shooters.