Police hot shots win for Warwickshire

Warwickshire Police team wins UK Shooting Championship and team member is selected to represent Great Britain

A Warwickshire Police Team scooped a clutch of medals including team gold in the Skeet event at the Police Sport UK National Clay Shooting Championships held between 7 and 10 September at East Yorkshire Gun Club. Following the event a member of the team was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2005 World Championships.

The team comprising of regular and retired officers and support staff attended the event along with over 240 other competitors from forces throughout the UK. The 5 man Skeet team hit 468 out of 500 targets to win the event by 2 targets from the Metroplitan Police A team. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) A Team took third place.

The Warwickshire squad comprised Steve Jones, a firearms officer on Warwickshire's Armed response unit, whose score of 96 secured him individual bronze medal position, Rex Francis, a law trainer at Ryton Police Training Centre, John Timmis an Inspector on the HQ Operations team, and two retired disabled officers, Bob Kibblewhite, and Dave Isham, whose score of 94 secured individual silver in the retired officers event.

Julie Close a member of the support staff based at headquarters secured a further gold medal to win the ladies title with an excellent score of 90.

Dave Isham went on to win further gold and silver medals in the retired officers trap shooting event and for his overall aggregate score, while John Timmis achieved another team gold as one of 5 men representing England Police in the home international Sporting bird event.

Immediately following the Police Championship Bob Kibblewhite, a retired officer, formerly in charge of the Force Tactical Firearms Unit, travelled to Sporting targets shooting ground in Bedfordshire where he won the selection shoot for the one standing disabled member of the official Great Britain FITASC shooting team. Bob will now compete in the European Championships in Cyprus in May and the World championships later in the year. He follows in the footsteps of Police team mate Dave Isham who won both World and European titles in 1999, followed by a silver and gold in 2000.