SHOOTING
This year we welcomed a wave of new shooters , who have all taken the sport in their stride . After learning the basics , they were quickly shooting excellent groups , and many went on to represent the school in teams and competitions . Several had their first experience of shooting outdoors at 50 metres and 100 yards during a competition in early May and won a competition against Tonbridge School later in June with flying colours . Notably , the top averages for outdoors shooting are held by Alex Fleming and Helen Otto , both Lower Sixth and new shooters this year , closely followed by Henry Wilkinson of Year 8 .
The club has had a fantastic year , with participation from every year group of the school . Training has focused on self-awareness and maintaining positive mindsets , while always having fun .
A popular new exercise for shooters has been the Coin Challenge , shooting the smallest group possible within ten shots for experienced shooters and five shots for the junior shooters . The smallest group in the ten-shot category was Yaroslav Bobko with only 11mm , and second place was shared between Thalia Pettersson , Dario Cotti-Gregoriadi and Jean de Nassau with 12mm each . As for the five-shot category , Henry Wilkinson places top with 10mm , closely followed by Stein Russell-Jones with 10.7mm and William Galloni with 11.6mm .
The Henderson-Thynne trophy , a new knock-out competition among all Sevenoaks shooters , saw some very interesting pairs placed against each other , even including matches between new shooters against the Upper Sixth seeds ! With tensions high as the final approached , and the Headmaster eagerly watching , Thalia Pettersson became this year ’ s club champion against Yaroslav Bobko .
Statistics aside , what makes the shooting range so special is the companionship between students . Shooting is not only an individual sport , but also a team sport , and this year we have enjoyed some of the greatest collaboration and fellowship that the range has ever seen . After much competition between the top scorers of the range , first place on the average board with 97.1 is taken by Thalia Pettersson . Saying goodbye to many Upper Sixth shooters this year leaves an exciting cohort of young , capable shooters to rise and reach the top .
Mike Bargeron
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2021-2022 87