Rifle shooting at Cambridge University

The sport of rifle shooting at Cambridge University has been practised since at least the early 19th century. Beginning as part of the military training of the Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers, it has since been conducted by a number of student clubs, and is currently carried out predominantly by the Cambridge University Rifle Association and Cambridge University Small Bore Club, with some participation by the Cambridge University Revolver and Pistol Club for the discipline of gallery rifle.

Cambridge shooters compete in a number of Varsity matches against the University of Oxford, which constitute one of the longest-running Oxbridge sporting rivalries. The oldest of these is the Chancellors', currently contested in the discipline of target rifle, which dates to 1862. In 1869, an inter-university long range fixture was set up, which later became the match-rifle Varsity match known as the Humphry. Other Varsity matches include several smallbore fixtures and a gallery rifle match, which replaced the former revolver match in 1997.

Shooting is generally a Half Blue sport at Cambridge, though shooters can be awarded Full Blues for exceptional shooting success. Several Cambridge shooters have become notable in the sport during and after their time at the university, including several winners of the Sovereign's Prize, the most prestigious contest in British target shooting.

Target rifle shooting in the United Kingdom is traditionally divided into smallbore and fullbore shooting. Smallbore shooting is conducted at shorter ranges, generally between 25 and 100 yards (23 and 91 m), with .22 calibre rifles. As smallbore ranges are often indoors, the competition season runs throughout the year. Fullbore shooting is carried out with larger-calibre rifles (in the modern era, usually .308 calibre) at ranges in the hundreds of yards. The fullbore season runs from March until October,^[1] which corresponds approximately to the Easter term of Cambridge University.^[2] The discipline of fullbore shooting includes target rifle, shot at shorter ranges — 300–1000 yards (270–910 m) in the modern era — with open sights and strict rules on the positions and equipment permitted, and match rifle, shot at longer ranges — 1000–1200 yards (910–1100 m) — with fewer restrictions on equipment and positions, which include allowing the use of telescopic sights.

Smallbore shooting at Cambridge is conducted by Cambridge University Small-Bore Club, which predominantly operates in the Michaelmas and Lent terms.^[2] Fullbore shooting is conducted by the Cambridge University Rifle Association, which largely trains and competes during the Easter term and the 'long vacation' between July and October.

The discipline of gallery rifle, which historically evolved from pistol shooting, is conducted by Cambridge University Revolver and Pistol Club.

Cambridge fullbore shooting, particularly match rifle, maintains close links with the English Eight Club, which administers the England national match rifle team. In 1954, Cambridge undergraduates (along with those of other shooting universities) were granted honorary membership of the English Eight; since 1960, both Oxford and Cambridge Universities have maintained a gun room in the English Eight's clubhouse at Bisley, and have used it as their base on the camp.^[3]

The first formal shooting club at Cambridge University was formed in 1859, shortly before the 1860 raising of the Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers, a militia unit recruited from the student body.^[4] According to a Cambridge rumour, Horatio Ross, one of the great rifle shooters of the nineteenth century, whose son Edward was a member of CURV,^[5] once fired from the top of the tower of the Cambridge University Press building at a target 2000 yards away, thereby setting the record for the longest range at which shooting had been conducted in Cambridge.^[6]

The CURV, initially part of the Cambridge Rifle Club (which included units from the town's non-student population), first shot on a range on Mill Road, but became an independent organisation on 7 February 1861^[7] and acquired its own range on Grange Road (immediately north of where Leckhampton House was constructed in the 1880s, and opposite what would become Selwyn College) on 30 October.^[8] The new range allowed firing at up to 1100 yards (1000 m).^[9] It is unclear precisely when the range fell out of use: it was noted on an Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1950, by which part of the range had been built upon,^[10] but is absent from maps from the 1960s.^[11]

Prominent Cambridge shots of the nineteenth century included Edward Ross, the winner of the inaugural Queen's Prize in 1860.^[9] In 1871, A.P. Humphry equalled Ross's feat of winning the Queen's, and subsequently won the Grand Aggregate in 1878 – successes which made him one of the most famous rifle shooters of his time.^[9] The Cambridge University Long Range Rifle Club was founded in 1864,^[12] to conduct the two-day 'Cambridge Cup' match rifle meeting.^[13] The Long Range Rifle Club is no longer formally associated with the university, but continues to administer the Cambridge Cup competition, now held at Barton Road, to which members of the club and recent alumni of the Oxford and Cambridge rifle teams are invited.

Cambridge University Revolver and Pistol Club was founded in 1907, and competed in its first Varsity match the following year.^[14] In 1909, the Cambridge University Rifle Association broke off from the CURV as an independent club.^[6][a] The commanding officer of Cambridge University Officers' Training Corps, the descendant of the CURV, remains ex officio president of CURA.^[6]

In a 1913 survey of sport at Oxford, Cambridge and the English public schools, the cricketer and writer Robert Lyttelton noted the nineteenth-century history of shooting at Cambridge, but judged that the sport had "not made much headway" until the foundation of the Officers' Training Corps in 1908.^[4] In 1910, A.M. Humphry, a lieutenant in the OTC and son of the Queen's Prize winner, won the St. George's Prize with a record score of 139.^[15][16] Philip Richardson, a Cambridge graduate who made the top 100 shooters of the Sovereign's Final seven times between 1886 and 1907,^[17] went on to shoot in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in 1908.^[18] He later served as chairman of the National Rifle Association's council between 1939 and 1945, and gives his name to a competition shot during the NRA's Imperial Meeting.^[19] By 1913, most Cambridge colleges had their own rifle clubs affiliated to CURA, which had a total membership of around 300.^[13]

Cambridge University Small-Bore Club existed as a separate club by the 1920s.^[20] On 7 March 1952, CUSBC competed by telegram against Harvard University, each team shooting on their own range and sending the results to the other. Harvard won the match by 1581–1554, despite handicapping themselves by firing in the less stable standing and kneeling positions as well as Cambridge's prone.^[21]

There are currently several annual Varsity matches in rifle shooting contested between Cambridge University and Oxford University. The Oxford–Cambridge shooting rivalry is believed to be one of the longest-running Varsity competitions between the two university.^[22]

Other than the Heslop and Bentata, the Varsity matches are normally contested during the Imperial Meeting, a series of shooting competitions administered by the British National Rifle Association at Bisley each July.

Both CURA and CUSBC compete in British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS). They also compete in matches against clubs, universities and schools throughout the year.^[24]

In 1903, a 'Universities' Snap-Shooting Match' was inaugurated in response to the view of Frederick Roberts, then Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, that potential soldiers should be trained in accurate, rapid short-range fire.^[17] Each team, consisting of a 'commander' and eight firers, fired from behind cover at head-and-shoulders targets 200 yards (180 m) away, exposed ten times for three seconds each at irregular intervals of between five and ten seconds.^[17] The match was contested until at least the 1920s,^[25] but no longer takes place.

In addition to the formal Varsity matches, Cambridge compete in three additional annual smallbore fixtures against Oxford. These are the Kensington (2nd VIII), the Ex-Captains' Challenge (3rd VIII) and the Lerman (three-position). An informal black-powder shooting match, known as the Roads Cup, is sometimes contested during the Imperial Meeting.^[26] This match is named after Christopher Roads, an ex-Cambridge shooter who donated the trophy in the late 20th century. Within the university, an annual inter-college competition, known as 'Cuppers', is held annually in smallbore shooting.

In 1862, the chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge universities — William Cavendish and Edward Smith-Stanley — agreed to award a trophy for a shooting match between the two universities: a silver plate^[9] set into a large silver stein.^[27] The inaugural match was won by Cambridge.^[28]

Originally, the match was shot at 200, 500 and 600 yards (180, 460 and 550 m),^[29] and seven shots were fired by each shooter.^[9] The first matches were shot with muzzle-loading Pattern 1853 Enfield rifles, though breech-loading Snider–Enfield rifles were used from 1871.^[29] In 1883, Martini–Henry rifles were introduced, followed by magazine-fed Lee–Enfield rifles in 1897,^[15] which remained the standard until the modern era of target shooting in the mid-20th century.

In modern times, it has been contested at 300, 500 and 600 yards (270, 460 and 550 m), with each shooter firing one sighter and ten scoring shots. Any rifle that meets the criteria of the target rifle discipline may be used.

The Humphry is the long-range Varsity shooting match, in the discipline originally known as 'any rifle'^[30] (to distinguish it from shorter-range shooting, in which all competitors were required to use the same model of rifle) and currently known as match rifle. Its lineage can be traced to the Inter-University Long-Range Match, first contested in 1869, but it takes its name from Alfred Paget Humphry, who donated the challenge cup awarded to its winner in 1881.^[17] From 1897, the match changed from 'any rifle' to match rifle.^[31]

The distance shot for the Humphry, in common with other match rifle competitions, has increased over time as rifles, ammunition and optics have improved. The first matches took place at 800, 900 and 1000 yards (730, 820 and 910 m), which increased to 900, 1000 and 1100 yards (820, 910 and 1010 m) from 1910^[30] and to 1000, 1100 and 1200 yards (910, 1010 and 1100 m) from 1963.^[31]

The match is currently shot on Stickledown Range at Bisley. Until 1874, the venue alternated between Cambridge and Oxford; after a lapse in which no match took place between 1875 and 1877, it was shot at Welwyn in 1878 before being added to the programme of the NRA competitions in 1879,^[17] first at Wimbledon, and then at Bisley from 1890.

The Humphry is shot between teams of four,^[32] with fifteen scoring shots fired at each range by each shooter.^[32] Unusually for a modern shooting match, coaches who are not otherwise eligible to shoot in the match may be part of the team, though firers must be current students of the university they represent.^[32]

The Oxford and Cambridge Match is contested in gallery rifle. It was first shot informally in 1908, with formal matches beginning at Bisley in 1909.^[33]

The match was originally shot with revolvers, and so named the 'Universities Revolver Match'.^[17] In this format, each shooter fired twelve shots at each of 20 and 50 yards (18 and 46 m).^[17]

The trophy for the match was presented by Ian Heslop in 1929.^[34] The match was officially known as the Heslop Cup between 1929 and 1948,^[33] and continues to be informally known as 'the Heslop' among CURPC shooters. In 1949, the official name was changed to the 'Oxford and Cambridge Revolver Match', followed by the 'Oxford and Cambridge Pistol Match' in 1962.^[33]

Following the UK ban on fullbore pistol shooting in 1997, the match moved to lever-action .357^[33] centre-fire gallery rifles.^[35] Each university enters a team of four.^[34]

The annual smallbore Varsity match is held in February. Since the 1920s, it has been named for Ian Heslop, a British naturalist and conservationist who helped Cambridge to a period of dominance in the match between 1923 and 1926.^[20]

The Heslop is contested between teams of eight shooters, each shooting two ten-spot cards at 25 yards (23 m), with a total highest possible score of 200. It is traditionally held on a neutral range: in the 21st century, venues have included the National Smallbore Rifle Association at Bisley,^[22] The Perse School in Cambridge^[36] and Sevenoaks School in Kent.

The Bentata is the newest of the Varsity matches,^[22] contested since around 1990. It is named for David Bentata, an Oxford University alumnus who established the match and donated its trophy.^[37]

The match is contested between women's teams of four shooters. It is shot to the same conditions and at the same time as the Heslop, and shooters may shoot the two concurrently, counting their score in the Heslop for both.

In 2017, an informal revolver Varsity match was conducted in Switzerland, fired with a revolver used during one of the early 20th-century matches. Cambridge won by 626 to 568.^[33]

Rifle shooting is a Discretionary Full Blue sport, meaning that shooters who compete in Varsity matches are usually awarded Half Blues,^[89] but can be awarded Full Blues if they meet certain additional criteria. To be awarded a Half Blue for smallbore shooting, a shooter must score at least 190 out of 200 in the Heslop or Bentata match; in fullbore, those shooting in the Chancellors'^[89] or Humphry are automatically awarded one.

The breast pocket of the Half Blue jacket displays a lion, one of the traditional symbols of Cambridge University. A shooter who has won the Half Blue for competing in the Chancellors' will have the Roman numerals 'VIII' stitched beneath the lion; a shooter who has competed in the Humphry will alternatively or additionally stitch 'IV' above the lion. Those who have won the Half Blue in small-bore shooting stitch the initials 'CUSBC' lowermost upon the pocket.

Shooters who represent the university against Oxford, whether in 1st-team competition or at a lower level, may wear the club colours. These consist of a jacket and matching tie, sometimes with a cap, in maroon and Cambridge blue.

• Alice Good (Emmanuel): winner of the Queen's Prize in 2022.^[90]
• Ian Heslop (1904–1970): shooter, naturalist and lepidopterist.^[91]
• A. P. Humphry (fl. 1871 – c. 1914): winner of the Queen's Prize in 1871.^[4]
• Henry Jeens: winner of the Queen's Prize in 2004.
• Richard Jeens (brother of Henry): winner of the Queen's Prize in 2014.
• Philip W. Richardson: silver medallist in the 1908 Summer Olympics.
• Edward^[3] Ross (son of Horatio): a private of the CURV who won the inaugural Queen's Prize in 1860.^[4]
• Nick Tremlett: winner of the Queen's Prize in 2009.