Rifle shooting at Cambridge University

Cambridge shooters compete in a number of Varsity matches against the University of Oxford, which constitute one of the longest-running Oxbridge sporting rivalries.

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.

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.

[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.

[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.

[11] Prominent Cambridge shots of the nineteenth century included Edward Ross, the winner of the inaugural Queen's Prize in 1860.

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.

[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.

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.

[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.

[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.

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.

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.

[33] Following the UK ban on fullbore pistol shooting in 1997, the match moved to lever-action .357[33] centre-fire gallery rifles.

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.

The breast pocket of the Half Blue jacket displays a lion, one of the traditional symbols of Cambridge University.

Photograph of a large outdoor shooting range.
Long-range target rifle shooting on Stickledown Range, Bisley. The jackets, rifles and positions used here are typical of the discipline.
Photograph of a young man wearing a cream jacket with Cambridge blue trim. On the breast pocket, embroidered in Cambridge Blue thread, are a lion and the Roman numerals IV and VIII
A half blue in rifle shooting: above the lion on the breast pocket, the IV denotes that the holder has shot in the Humphry (match rifle), and the VIII below indicates a cap in the Chancellors' (target rifle).
View of the Cambridge University Rifle Ground (opened 1861) on an Ordnance Survey map from 1888.
Photograph of a shooting range, with yellow-and-blue wind flags visible.
Century Range, Bisley, where the Chancellors' Varsity match is held each July.
Team photograph of a rifle shooting team, in black and white.
The Cambridge University 'Humphry' team of 1912, photographed at Bisley. In the front of the picture is A. P. Humphry, who donated its trophy in 1881.