The club is extremely sorry to report the passing of long-time member Will Morgan.
Will shot for many decades, and represented Staffordshire in the Inter-County Postal Leagues. He was a familiar and much loved face on the ranges.
A talented musician, he played with local groups and performed for the club at parties.
Rest in Peace.
Rugeley Rifle Club will host the Staffordshire Smallbore Rifle Association’s County Short Range Prone Championship in April.
On Saturday 18th April, the club will open it’s doors to competitors from across the county to compete at 25yards. The Short Range Championship has not been contested since 2019. Amongst the trophies up for grabs are the Smith Cup for Overall Champion, Cliff Everall Memorial Cup for Junior Champion and Col. N.C. Joseph Cup for Ladies Champion. The Pidduck Shield will be awarded to the top club team of five.
Rugeley is uniquely positioned to host this match due to the unusual mezzanine construction of the indoor range, which can accommodate 14 shooters at a time.
Entry form is available below:
Rugeley volunteers were in action this week at the 2026 Finals of British Shooting’s Schools Championship.
Held at Chase Leisure Centre, this year’s National Final saw a move to a full 30 lanes of electronic targets, supporting 220 pistol and 160 rifle athletes who had qualified from over 1000 competitors at the regional heats last autumn.
As an event sponsor, Rugeley were present with a club stand and ran a raffle for our charity account.
Rugeley Club Chairman Martyn Buttery saw history being made on Friday 15th August as official Team Witness for the victorious British team in the historic Roberts match. On a sweltering Century range where temperatures exceeded 28 degrees, teams from GB and the USA shot for the Roberts Trophy, contested once every 8 years.
Britain had pride to regain, having lost the previous Roberts Match in 2017, and also losing away during the reciprocal matches for the Pershing Trophy in 2022 (delayed from 2021) and 2013, hosted in the United States.
The United States brought score potential, with Sarah Beard dominating proceedings. Having already won the X-Class Aggregate during the week, Sarah shot an exceptional 396 across both distances, setting herself well ahead of GB’s top scorer Adam Fowler on 391. GB made up in depth though. Where the USA’s scores dipped rapidly through the 380s into the 370s, GB held steady to finished with a score of 3863 against USA’s 3821.
The Roberts and Pershing Matches are considered somewhat the Ryder Cup of shooting in their pagentry and alternating host continents. Canada also contests the Pershing Trophy. The next match will be 2029. Both Roberts and Pershing matches are a single dewar – twenty shots each at 50m/yd and 100yd – between teams of ten. As a team match, wind coaches are permitted. The only difference between Roberts and Pershing is the use of British vs American targets. The latter have a larger bull meaning it is common for top shooters to drop no points and be tie-broken on inner-tens.
Congratulations to two Rugeley members have been selected to the GB Team for the Drew International Postal Match.
Alex Buttery and Izzy Ward both earned spots as reserves for the main mixed Drew team of 10, earning GB colours. Alex was also selected as a reserve for the men’s team of 3. Both earn their GB Colours.
Two selections is growth from 2024 when Helen Robinson was selected as reserve to the Women’s team of 3. They will shoot their cards later in the year, after which scores will be shared with the US, Australian and New Zealand teams.
Four Rugeley members were recognised on Thursday night with NSRA Special Service Awards for their contributions to the club and sport. Presenting the awards was Cllr Olivia Lyons – the Club President.
Russell Barlow received a Special Service Award for his work instructing novices and for his promotion of disability sport. Russell has devoted huge amounts of time to coaching and promoting and encouraging participation both within the club and volunteering at events such as the British Schools Championship Finals.
Becky Andrews and Carl Kimberley both received Special Service Awards for their work on the marketing team, raising the profile of both the club and sport nationally through their work on the web and across social media.
Richard Hemingway received a Bronze Special Service Award for a variety of volunteering work at several levels. As well as contributing to the marketing team, Richard is the current Club Captain and has served as Staffordshire County Captain since 2022, also representing Staffordshire as the County Representative to the NSRA Shooting Council. He also volunteers as Membership Secretary with the Welsh Smallbore Rifle Association.
Rugeley Rifle Club was represented at Sunday’s civic service marking Sir Ian Dudson’s impending retirement as Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire. Graham Kershaw attended the service at Lichfield Cathedral with his wife Glenys. Sir Ian visited the club in March to present the King’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Sir Ian will formally leave office on July 15th – his 75th birthday. Lord Lieutenants must retire at 75. In Apil, Professor Liz Barnes, teachers and former Vice-Chancellor of Staffordshire University was named as Sir Ian’s successor.
Rugeley Rifle Club Chairman Martyn Buttery has been appointed as Chair of the NSRA Rifle Committee – the NSRA group responsible for smallbore competitions and rules. Martyn has been a member of the Rifle Committee for several years and takes over from Mike Chapman.
Rugeley Rifle Club was honoured to host the Lord Lieutenant for Staffordshire, Sir Ian Dudson KCVO CBE on Friday 28th March at our annual prizegiving. Accompanied by local councillors and Josh Newbury MP, Sir Ian visited to present the King’s Award for Voluntary Service, gazetted in November. Whilst visiting, he presented a number of awards and trophies and toured the club, viewing the ranges and learning about the club’s volunteering and charitable activities.
A £500 cheque was also presented to Rugeley and District Community First Responders, and £350 was presented to Staffordshire & Shropshire 4×4 Response – two of the club’s chosen charities. RADCFR maintain the defibrillator hosted on the outside of the club. This lifesaving piece of equipment was installed in 2019. Since then it has been activated six times, and used at least twice. SAS 4×4 Response provide charitable event support and transport for workers such as nurses during extreme weather.
The Lord Lieutenant was accompanied by Cllr Phil Hewitt (Chair, Staffordshire County Council), Cllr Steve Thornley (Chair, Cannock Chase District Council), Cllr David Williams, Josh Newbury MP and the Rt Hon Dame Amanda Milling.
Congratulations to Rugeley’s Competition Secretary Dave Glover, who has been appointed Adjutant to the GB Wakefield Match Team. The two year appointment will run for the 2025 and 2026 years, and normally leads to a two year appointment as Captain.
The Lord Wakefield Monument Trophy Match is an international postal match held in September, originally between Great Britain and Sweden. In 1985 Sweden was unable to raise a team and the match went in abeyance until 1991 when it resumed with a new field of competitors including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. The course of fire is an “English Match” – 60 shots at 50metres on NSRA/ISSF targets, using integer scoring. Competitors shoot on their home ranges, under supervision of a qualified witness.
Five of the ten team members are selected based on performance at the NSRA National Meeting at Bisley, with the other 5 taken from the top individuals in NSRA Comp 103 and 303 (10-metre postal leagues).
