Irish Practical Shooting Association - IPSA

Kells Rifle and Pistol Club Graded IPSC Competition
David Thompson

Kells Rifle and Pistol Club held its second 2007 Graded Practical Pistol Competition on the 20 October, which followed the clubs first graded match back in May. This was the first graded IPSC match to take place in the UK in ten years. As well as local Northern Ireland UKPSA members, a group of members travelled over from Great Britain and a squad of competitors from the Irish Practical Shooting Association
( IPSA ) attended from the Republic of Ireland, bring the total number of entries to over 50. This second match took on a larger international flavour. A bakers dozen of Northern Ireland UKPSA members took part in the Polish IPSC Level 3 Open in Cracow last August. Some contacts were exchanged and three members of the Polish IPSC Region flew over to take part in the Kells Grader.

Kells Rifle and Pistol Club is a combined indoors and outdoor range complex situated on a farm, some 20 minutes drive from Belfast International Airport and 40 minutes from Belfast City Airport. Numerous accommodation facilities and restaurants abound in the nearby towns of Antrim and Ballymena. The clubs facilities are currently being upgraded with a new clubhouse, including disabled facilities, being built.
The clubs second grader consisted of ten stages spread around both the indoor and outdoor ranges. The courses of fire consisted of five short, three medium and two long stages for 140 rounds. The stages consisted of a blend of free style, strong and weak handed only requirements with movement and reloads, combined with a high accuracy requirement. Many club members donated a lot of their own time to design and build stages and organise everything else that is required to run a proper graded competition.

Jim Gibney and Martyn Spence oversaw the running of the match. The local and visiting range officers, match officials and a small number of competitors shot the “prematch” on the Friday, with the main bulk of the competitors taking part on the Saturday. match took place on both the indoor and outdoor ranges with the competitors split into five squads, moving around the stages in chronological order. Once everyone had shot the indoor and outdoor stages, the targets and some props were moved around to construct the rest of the stages. The ten courses of fire came to a round count total of 140 rounds; which did not include the misses and no shoots! This was the clubs second graded IPSC Level 2 Match and the Kells match officials did a sterling job in organising and running the event. The assistance of the visiting UKPSA range officials and the work of the local RO’s, who had completed a range officer’s training course conducted by Martyn Spence, made the competition a smooth running event.

Results

Open Division was a three horse race with Steve Sheasby piping Robert McAlease and Mick Cowan at the finishing post. The bulk of the competitors were in Standard Division. David Thompson took the top spot with Andrew Pedlow and Bob Dunkley close behind him. In Production Division Paul Kirkpatrick came out on top with Graham Gill and Martyn Spence in second and third place. The top revolver slot went to Alex Ellis with Mike Pierce and Alistair Armstrong taking the next two positions. Dariusz Dabrowski, Slawomir Konik and Piotr Poniedzialek from the Polish IPSC Region enjoyed taking part in the match and will encourage other members of their Region to travel to future events. All in all, an enjoyable competition with good weather and all over, including the results and prize giving, by half past four o’clock in the afternoon.

For the Future
following future developments are being planned. Kells is planning to run another Level 2 UKPSA Graded Match at their range on 19 April 2008. Even better is the news that a Level 3 Championship Match, titled the United Kingdom Open Match, will be run on 26 – 28 June 2008, with a number of top level European IPSC competitors indicating that they will take part. Watch the club web site for the match details.

In the Republic of Ireland the IPSA will be holding a series of level 2 matches in 2008 and they also are organising a Level 3 Irish Open Championship Match in September 2008. Keep an eye on the IPSA web site for relevant details.

Other clubs in Northern Ireland are now starting the process to enable their members to both participate in and host graded IPSC competitions. With more graded matches taking part in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland, now is the time for those who live on the Island and who interested in competing in organised IPSC competition to get involved in their respective IPSC Region. For further information take a look at the web page links below.

Kells RPC

IPSC Northern Ireland

United Kingdom Practical Shooting Association (UKPSA)

Discover Northern Ireland