Meet the Team
www.GBMRT2016.org.uk
Captain: Martin Townsend
A well-known coach both at Bisley and overseas, Martin has steered his shooters to success
for more than thirty years. Highlights include the Centenary Match (1990) and wins in all the
Great Eight International matches: the America, Australia, Canada, Kolapore, New Zealand,
Palma, Protea and West Indies - especially his wins in the 1992, 1995, 2003, 2007 (as Captain)
and 2011 Palma Matches. Martin was also a member of the Great Britain Match Rifle teams
of 1997 and 2004 to Australia to compete for the Woomera Match.
Poppy Lodge at Bisley is where Martin and his wife Pearl spend most of their summer
weekends. When not on the ranges, Martin works in the philatelic world, where he is one of
the UK’s leading dealers in the stamps and postal history of Great Britain.
Vice-Captain: Nick Brasier
Nick started shooting match rifle and target rifle at Cambridge University. On his first GB
tour he won the Canadian Governor General’s trophy, followed (a few years later) by shooting
in the winning GB Palma teams of 2007 and 2011. With a strong focus on match rifle in the
last 10 years, Nick has finished in the top 10 of the Hopton on 3 occasions and represented
England in 6 Elcho matches. Nick once won the Wimbledon (Match Rifle) trophy using
iron sights, after a 5-way tie shoot; but had to resort to using a scope on the rifle to win the
Armourers in 2011, and score 100.11 at 1200 yards in the Edge competition in 2012.
Nick has previously organised club team tours to Jersey, Northern Ireland, the USA and
Canada, and was adjutant on the GB 2010 team to New Zealand. He enjoyed shooting in
Tasmania with a London & Middlesex RA touring team back in 1996 at the Pontville range,
and is looking forward to returning to this beautiful part of the world.
Adjutant: Richard Whitby
Richard’s first memory of shooting (to the best of his slightly hazy recollection) is being
taken to the Nottingham High School Range by his Dad at about the age of 10 - these events
seem to run in the family! There he was introduced to the delights of the Empire Test and
Tin Hat Targets. It’s really all gone downhill since. Richard then graduated to the Target
Rifle discipline, via various school and cadet teams. He shot for the Athelings in Canada in
1969(?), and went on his first adult team to the Channel Islands in 1994. Having witnessed
how difficult all the better shots were making success at Target Rifle, and having tie shot for
the Queens final stage twice, he decided to try Match Rifle – this, on the face of it, appeared to
be more mystical, and involved many more slightly eccentric types who appeared vastly more
interesting. And so it was. Richard has been adopted by the English VIII as the honorary
clubhouse builder/maintenance expert, is the current English adjutant, and, having won
many more trophies at MR than TR, finds MR very rewarding.
Stickledown, Bisley, UK