Pride, Tradition, and some sadness (From Wirral Globe)

Pride, Tradition, and some sadness

1:30pm Monday 12th January 2009

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Phoenix Shooters Association measure their success (or lack of it!) by the number of times our members have come to shoot with us during the year - the number of attendances - a sort of "bums on seats" approach, if you like.

Ever since 2002 this number has been increasing, each year being a record - and 2008 wasn't in any way an exception - in fact it was an increase of over 30% over 2007.

Some of this increase comes from the rising popularity of the shooting sports, but a large proportion is due to the opening of the first new shooting range in the Wirral area this century - the Geoffrey Place Range at Mostyn House School. OK so this century is ony eight years old, but we are still very proud of the achievement - as it's certainly well over fifty years since the Grange Rifle & Pistol club opened their range in West Kirby.

We're also proud of keeping the tradition alive in this area - the Geoffrey Place Range is only about 500 yards from the site where the Parkgate Rifle Club had their range (see the photograph) and about the same distance from the area where Mostyn House pupils used to shoot on the Parkgate sands.

Sadness? Well, that's because we have had to close our membership books for a while for a period of what is known in management-speak as "consolidation."

What it means is that we can only accomodate so many members, and we're at the point where we have to re-organise if we get any bigger.

We don't want to lose the friendly atmosphere of the club, and we like to ensure that everyone who comes along to a shooting session gets as much shooting as possible, rather than waiting around for their turn on the range.

When we've re-organised ourselves, we'll re-open the books - soon, we hope.

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