Norman Court 2

I have always loved guns. Perhaps it is the smell of gun oil, a little sweet and a little bit bitter. My mother would never let me have any sort of gun when I was a boy, so starting the Shooting Club at Norman Court was a way to turn the clock back, to get a second chance at something that I had missed in my own childhood. One of the large cellars was just the right length for a shooting range and it was not long before I had painted it and installed some spotlights.


Target shooting with .177 air rifles and pistols is a harmless hobby, one that calls for a steady handy, concentration and patience. One of the first things I did was to join the PSRA and introduce an element of competition with shooting certificates. If your score was good enough, then you would receive one of those rather smart little enamelled badges: green for second class, red for first class, blue for marksman and yellow for mastershot. Getting your second class badge was quite easy, but you had to be very good indeed to win your coveted yellow badge.


The Shooting Club became very popular and it kept me busy for several nights each week. The pistol range was on the left, with targets at head height and so the three pistol shooters had to stand. On the right were three rifle shooters and they could lie down on some old carpet. Occasionally we had inter-house shooting competitions and staff versus pupils matches. Each shooting session would usually end with a “junk shoot”, with boys (and girls) blazing away at tin cans, balloons and all manner of other odds and ends.


There was a more serious side to the Shooting Club. On one occasion, I invited the Police to come to the school and give a talk about the laws relating to shooting. Very kindly, we were then invited to visit the Police Firearms Training Centre. That was probably the most interesting and informative school trip I have ever arranged. Yes, most Police officers in the UK are (thank God) unarmed, without any firearms. However, it was clear to all of us that the threat of gun crime was taken very seriously by the Police.    


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