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Airgun Licensing … What Are We Scared Of?
A request came up on my Twitter feed last night, asking me to sign a HM Gov petition rallying against any consideration of airgun licensing in England and Wales. The following is an explanation, despite my good standing within the airgun community, of why I can't sign such a petition.
On October 10th 2017 the Home Office, unsurprisingly, announced its intention to carry out a review into the regulation of air weapons in England and Wales. I say unsurprisingly because (as is often the case with gun law) incidents involving two young victims within little more than a year had raised questions about credibility of ownership regarding air guns. In the first, an 18 month old boy miraculously survived after an airgun owner deliberately pointed the gun at him at close range because he was crying and the gun discharged. Saved only by the skill of medical intervention, he will nonetheless be disabled for life. This happened in a flat in Bristol. In the second incident, a 13 year old boy was shot and subsequently died when his lifelong friend (of similar age) was looking through the scope of a gun, swung it around and the rifle discharged into his friends neck. The gun was, according to the police, owned by one of the fathers,not made by a commercial manufacturer. It was a .22 air rifle which had a telescopic sight and silencer, could be loaded with up to nine pellets without them being visible, had no safety catch, and could discharge without the trigger being pulled.The boys had been playing in a garden 'boy cave'. Many of you, like me, would question why, in the first case, a loaded airgun was in the presence of an 18 month old child. In the second case (like the first a blatant transgression of the Crime & Security Act 2010) a mature adult had left a weapon loaded and not securely stored. The second incident prompted the Coroner involved, Dr Peter Dean, to request an urgent Government review on airgun legislation. So that, folks, is why we are where we are now. The mature shooters amongst us know, of course, that there is no such thing as an 'accident' with a gun, only 'negligence' on somebody's part. I could comment on my perceived lack of sufficient legal retribution in both cases, but I'm not a lawyer.
We have enjoyed a long period of unlicensed ownership around legal limit (sub 12 ft/lb power) airguns when compared to other countries. Yet as proven above, these guns can kill. That's why we use them for pest control. Licensing for all airguns is mandatory in Australia, Romania, Eire, New Zealand, Scotland, Hong Kong, Japan, Luxembourg and Malta. Hunting with airguns is banned totally in Switzerland, South Africa, Estonia, Finland, France, Slovenia, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Italy and Greece. We really don't appreciate how good we've got it here in the UK, so why the big fear over 'licensing'? Is it because we don't want to be bothered with the paperwork? Try telling that to the parents of the kids mentioned above. It can't be cost? Taking the Scotland fee, 30p per week for 5 years?
We have long had, in the UK, stringent licensing around shotguns and firearms (+12 ft/lbs). The need for a Shotgun Certificate (SGC) or Firearms Certificate (FAC) has been widely accepted, so why not airgunning licensing?
Transition to a licensed airgun system will be a nightmare. Particularly for the police. The Scotland model has proved this. The first hurdle is that of retrospective ownership. Yet it's all been done before, so there must be a better model to work from. In the sixties, the introduction of shotgun licensing must have presented the same problem. There would have been thousands of shotguns sitting in farmyard kitchens and keepers cottages all around the country. Yet a transition was achieved.
Given that many of the airguns in current ownership will be owned by SGC / FAC holders already, why not add a permanent and immediate exemption for sub-12 ft/lb airgun ownership? They have already gone through a process. That would relieve the burden on police licensing departments immensely.
In Scotland, of an estimated 500,000 guns, only 12,000 have been surrendered under amnesty. Over 2,500 application for an AWC (Air Weapon Certificate) were received by January 2017 (a year after introduction). Of these, only around 400 had been processed (with no refusals). So now there are hundreds of thousands of criminally owned airguns in Scotland. Yet unless they live in a bubble, these gun owners know this. Responsible owners would have attempted to comply with the law and either surrendered their guns or applied for a AWC.
That reflects dreadfully on the mentality of the 'casual airgun owner' and justifies the public stance against these guns. Complacency has already cost lives. If you are reading this and think I am 'bracketing' people, you are right. There are airgun owners … and there are 'responsible' airgun owners. I only ever represent the latter.
So how would I handle the 'retrospective ownership' problem? You're not going to like this, guys and girls! I would get really tough with gun owners. The key to the shotgun transition was to include the purchase of ammunition. No ticket, no cartridges.So no AWC, no pellets. That would either deprive non-compliant shooters of ammo (eventually) or draw them out to apply.
Many keen airgunners swap and changes rifles regularly. The Scotland model covers this adequately. The AWC is for the person, not the guns. It does not record the guns in ownership, which is sensible. It also seems to cover airgun clubs well, who can apply for a club license and loan gun to members. I have heard arguments that target (club) shooters shouldn't have to be licensed? Why? Clay and skeet shooters have to be. The potential for harm is surely greater in the crowded environment of a competition than hunting alone in a wood. Yet we shouldn't be arguing amongst ourselves, should we.
It is interesting to note the stance of the major shooting organisations on this issue. BASC and the CA (I am a member of both, incidentally, and think they do Trojan work) have done little but try to reason with the Home Office that there is already sufficient legislation in place and that licensing won't achieve anything. The CA Briefing Note was superb but I've seen nothing since October last year. As a passionate airgun hunter, I have learned never to expect too much from either organisation in support of what they seem to consider a 'feeder' sport but on this issue, I think their relative silence speaks volumes. Most of those 4 million airgun owners aren't members of any such organisation and probably won't even have shooting insurance. How can we justify that and why should we support them? Forgive the pun but we are staring down the barrel of the inevitable.
What of the airgun supply and manufacturing industry? The impact of licensing could be significant … or will it? It could hit the cheaper end of the industry (who wants to buy a £100 springer and have to apply for a £72 license?) Remember though that any license will endure for 5 years or more, depending on decisions. Surely the top-end air rifle manufacturers should be able to use licensing as a marketing tool? "Buy our prestige £2000 PCP and we will subsidise your license fee!" Shotgun licensing never affected the major manufacturers. Bleating from the gun trade won't get any sympathy, particularly when the most elite have tried to market 100 ft/lb 'superguns' in .30 calibre in recent years. FAC airguns with no purpose in the UK other than bragging rights.
Do I need to get more contentious, or have you had enough? We shouldn't be wasting our time signing petitions (that's what anti-shooting types do, they achieve nothing but to piss on some strawberries for a day or two). We should be thinking about how to negotiate a sensible transition, which seems inevitable. Looking forward, not backwards.
The gun trade should be talking directly to Government about impact on business, not leaning on our representative organisations to lobby against licensing. How about trade-ins on guns without safety catches.Why not license ammunition purchase too, as I've suggested?What about license grants that run alongside a BASC / CA / NGO / GWCT membership? Could the cost of a license be spread over the duration?
I don't have the answers but I, for one, think we are facing licensing. So let's not just roll over and squeal 'victim!'. How dare we, given the circumstances that have driven this consultation. Let's do something positive about it, before there are more real victims.
I have been championing airgunning for the past 15 years in the media. I have been an airgunner for more than four decades. But as Heraclitus said, "There is nothing permanent except change".
Copyright Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, April 2018
Ian Barnett is author of the best-selling 'Airgun Fieldcraft – The Definitive Hunters Guide'and contributor of hundreds of airgun related magazine articles. His views in this blog are his own, not that of any publisher.
Overcoming "Shooter's Block"
I'm an addictive and prolific writer but even I get 'writers block' from time to time. You pick up a pen or open up a blank Word document and waste time staring at a blank page or screen as ideas won't come. The best cure for which, I find, is to just put down random thoughts in a mind-map. This often kick starts a thread, which builds into a blog or article. The other way I overcome a mental 'log jam' is to scan through the photos I take while in the shooting field. The old adage that 'every picture tells a story' is very true. Often, revisiting these snapshots prompts recollections that evolve into anecdote and advice. Writers block is usually short-lived. There is another kind of 'block' which I fear much more. "Shooters block". I'm sure I'm not the only shooter who suffers from this and many of you will recognise the signs. It often starts with that feeling of shooting being a chore, a commitment you have to undertake to fulfil obligations and keep your permissions … rather than sport and recreation. You've been concentrating on particular quarry and specific tactics, perhaps ambushing warrens weekend after weekend (few of us with 'day jobs' can do this daily). Everything has become a bit mundane. You walk the same paths with the same gun, in rain or burgeoning heat, thinking you must have better things to do? Better things than hunting? Oh dear! You start making excuses not to shoot. It's too hot. Too wet. The garden needs attention. These are typical symptoms. When you go out with the gun, your indifference will result in poor returns. The best way to revive your enthusiasm is to approach things differently for a while.
Reverse your routes.
It's amazing how different a shooting permission can look when you walk it in the opposite direction to normal. It offers a different perspective and you will see things you've overlooked before. Even your normal shooting stances will be challenged at times and approaching obstacles (and shooting opportunities) such as gates or hedgerow gaps will change.
Leave the regular rides or paths.
Take time to explore all of your acreage, landowner permitting. Follow the deer and badger trails. Winter is great for this, with the briars and bracken shrunk back. Instead of walking through a wood, walk slowly around the edge. You'll find small warrens you were unaware of, dreys, dens and vermin runs from wood to field etc. Explore the parts of the land that were inaccessible during summers growth.
Spend a day in a hide with a camera / binoculars.
Leave the gun at home. Not only will this educate you as to what exactly passes through your shooting land but it will also bore you stupid if, like me, you need to be on the move. You will soon realise that your permission is alive with vermin and you'll wish you had the gun with you. You might, too, get that shot of a lifetime but with the camera.
Observe … don't shoot.
As with the 'hide' exercise, leave the gun at home and just go tracking and trailing. Walk the paths looking for vermin sign. Stop at puddles and gateways to study tracks. Learn what is frequenting your land. Examine scats and faeces. Watch the pigeon flightlines. Study the behaviour of hare, fox, pigeon, corvid, rabbit, stoat, partridge and pheasant.
Leave the dog behind.
If you normally take a hound with you, try shooting without it. It will break their heart but you will have to really fine-tune your shooting to ensure you don't 'lose' shot quarry or waste any game. You will also come to appreciate how much of a partner your dog is when you have to search and retrieve yourself. I know … I'm in that unenviable position right now!
Take a dog along.
If you never used a dog as a companion, think about getting a pup. Sure, initially, they are hard work. Yet training (in itself) is a rewarding experience for the shooter if approached with a passion to get things right. Trust me, there is no better companion in the field than a loyal and trained hound.
Take a different gun, challenge yourself.
I'm very much an advocate of sticking to one gun and mastering it. Yet if shooting is becoming boring, take a different gun out (most of us have more than one, don't we!). If I get bored with one rifle, I switch to another for a few weeks. Park the PCP air rifle and pick up a spring-powered rifle. Take out the 20g instead of the 12g. Sharpen your shooting this way.
Try a different shooting discipline.
If you shoot a particular discipline, try another. After decades of air rifle shooting and feeling very stale, the purchase of a .17HMR rimfire has totally re-awakened my passion for riflecraft. I have new ranges to master and quarry such as fox to add to my 'acceptable target' list.
Spend time just target shooting.
Don't hunt live quarry or game for a week or two if you're feeling flat. Visit a rifle range or set up your own targets somewhere. If you're a shotgunner, shoot clays for a while. If you're an adept stalker or sporting shooter, you'll soon be gagging to get out into the wilds again.
Read some books or magazines.
Pick up some shooting books or magazines. Sit and read pieces written by people at the height of their shooting passion. Look for ideas or projects that could enhance / revitalise your own shooting. In case you hadn't realised, you're doing it now!
Lock the guns away and go on holiday.
Your landowner may miss you if you take a break (so inform them) but the vermin and wildlife won't give a hoot. Do whatever floats your boat. Fly-fishing, hill-walking (my favourite), lying beside a pool somewhere hot (not my preference), scuba diving (that's more like it!).
Remember the privilege you enjoy.
Always remember, when you are feeling low about shooting, that there will always be someone who would love to walk in your boots and attend the land you are shooting over. Shooting permission, while accessible to many, is nigh on impossible to gain for others. Even your licenses rely on the 'access to land' for shooting firearms. That should be inspiration enough.
Copyright, Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, January 2018
A Simple Blast Of Air
Another walk out this morning with my little rimfire saw me return with a full five-round clip, yet again. On a bitterly cold morning, with icicles hanging from the alloy field gates, I didn't expect to see much in the way of vermin. Even the hoar-hardened plough forbade the probing beak of rook or crow. The hope of an early coney was optimism in the extreme. The few that are left on these fields rarely show beyond the cover of darkness. Similarly, prospects for grey squirrels in such a chill are low. The drey is a much warmer attraction than the freezing wood. There was quarry about, of course. Woodpigeon and crows mainly, though all in the trees. So not quarry for the long-ranging .17HMR round. I had hoped to run into the fox that killed one of the Lady's peacocks recently. No such luck. I saw hares aplenty but they are 'verboten' on this estate. For probably the fourth outing running with this gun I had to walk away from opportunities I wouldn't have hesitated to take with my legal limit .22 air rifle. In fact, during the past week I have taken the air rifle out twice for half a dozen woodies and a number of squirrels (therefore meat for the freezer). Back at the car today I unclipped the HMR magazine and ejected the chambered bullet. At least there is no waste of ammo with a rimfire; yet that is poor compensation for another barren hunt. Had I taken the air rifle (or a shotgun) I would have definitely taken pigeons and corvids today. I have, as is well documented, no great love for the blunderbuss …. that 'scatterer' of wildlife.
So once again I see myself drifting back to my lifelong favourite. The legal limit .22 air rifle. I mention the calibre simply to defer any argument about which is best; a closed debate as far as I'm concerned and the title picture illustrates. The air rifle (and a bit of shooting permission) gives the proficient hunter and pot-filler access to food and sport 24/7/365. No 'close season' frustrations. No 'buck or doe' seasons. Elevated shots with minimal risk of harm when taken sensibly. Ammunition as 'cheap as chips'. Whisper quiet execution (excuse the pun).
The .17HMR will maintain a place in my cabinet for longer-distance shooting and close-range fox culling as and when needed. Far more useful than an FAC airgun.
The days when I take an air rifle out stalking or roost shooting and come back with a blank card are as rare as hens teeth. That's why I have hunted with a sound-moderated .22 PCP airgun for over 40 years now. Diversity, efficiency, economy, silence, solitude, self-reliance and sustenance. True hunting. No politics, ritualism, false etiquette, class comparison or cap-doffing. No syndicate fees, tipping, gun envy or fear of ridicule. A simple, everyman's (or woman's) country sport.
All that's needed is a rifle, a pellet and a blast of air.
If you've never seen my books on the subject of airgun hunting, check out www.wildscribbler.com/books
Copyright Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, January 2018
Provenance and Pigeons
Christmas is always a bit barren for me in hunting terms. Not due to family commitments or work. I to tend to volunteer to work across the break as I prefer to take my holiday days in fairer seasons. The main reason, however, is that it is often the one time of the year my landowners would often rather not see me! On the lead-in to the traditional Boxing Day shoot, they have been busy dogging-in game-birds and topping up the feeders to keep the birds close in the coverts. The last thing they want is me creeping around the spinneys and pushing the birds away, much as they appreciate my efforts earlier in the year. One landowner always hosts the local Harrier pack on the land just prior to Christmas too, so I make myself scarce. These are small prices to pay for the freedom to roam with gun and dog for the rest of the year.
This morning, two weeks into the New Year but with the pheasant season still live, I slid from the seat of the motor into an unusually warm Westerly breeze. I had parked alongside a high log-pile and the miserable grey cast to the sky foretold another damp and squalid day ahead. As I loaded my two magazines with Webley Accupells, the sterling fodder of my little BSA Ultra SE, a haunting sound grew in volume and I looked toward the pollarded willows bordering the flooded water meadows. A huge skein of greylag geese came beating over the tree-line. An avian blitzkrieg, their huge wings beating a down-draught that could topple cathedrals. They wheeled about, en-masse, then descended legs akimbo into the splashes on the meadow beyond my view. Their vocabulary drowned out all other sound … even the inland gulls that so annoy me with their presence. Xenophobia? You bet.
Staring along the track towards my intended venue, I smiled as a couple of cock pheasants broke from cover noisily. I tipped my cap to this seasons Boxing Day survivors. As I moved along the muddy trail, my own quarry broke cover consistently. The clatter of branch and the flash of grey, violet and white … darting out across the winter stubbles. Again I could afford to smile. They would be back later. My plan was a walk-about and then a session at the 'elevenses'. 'Elevenses?', I hear you ask. These are the woodpigeons that come to a late-morning roost while they digest their early morning plunder. I paused on my walk to check the rifles zero using one of the tiny paper targets I carry in my bag. The thirty yard zero was fine. I moved on. My activity had disturbed one of the local buzzards. It came sweeping over to protest. How would you describe a buzzards call? Scribes of old called it 'mewling' and I can find no better description. The bird swept low over the wood, it's complete contempt at my presence paying compliment to its lack of persecution in these parts.
I had already marked a spot, at the woods edge and with a cover of pines to use as my personal backdrop. No kit, no decoys, no frills today. Just a solid, dark curtain of cover at my back and an open view of the bare sitty trees to my front. As I crept into position I could see dozens of woodies and corvids way out on the stubbles and in the trees half a mile away. Had I picked the wrong spot? We would see.
This quiet retreat (for an hour or two in a wood) is pure indulgence. This my church, my temple, my mosque, my synagogue … my space. Nature is my 'deity'. And Nature demands no subservience from bird or beast or tree or flower. We human hunters are simply beasts of a higher order and must still bow to Nature. We are feral. Our eyes, ears, nose and instincts are tuned into a dimension that few of our associates understand, often even our direct kin. We don't hear a crow 'croak' like most. We hear it speak. It's call will tell us it's state of mind .. alert, relaxed, warning, courting? We can smell where the fox passed an hour earlier. We can sense that we're being watched intensely and will stop in our tracks until we identify the 'watcher'. The more time we spend in the wild, the more we understand and identify with the wild. And what many fail to realise is that until you 'kill', you can never recognise the value of life and the importance of the provenance brought through death. That is too deep a thought for many to face.
Having put a few birds in the bag from the morning roost, I decided to go walk-about. It was evident that Old Brock has clearly been plundering the buried squirrel caches and sign of their nocturnal meandering was all over the wood. The badger is definitely becoming the dominant creature in the coverts, even to the extent of evicting foxes from their dens to expand their social housing projects.
I stopped to indulge in a flask of tomato soup. Remember Barnett's Laws? The minute you lay your gun against the tree trunk, your quarry will appear. A fat carrion crow lit on a high branch as I drank. I slid behind the tree trunk deftly, lowered the flask slowly to the deck and lifted the Ultra. I chambered a pellet and slid around the blind side of the tree. It was still there. Compensating for elevation, I slipped the pellet. The bird tumbled into the mulch. A small victory in the grand scheme of things … but that's how Nature works. If things are balanced gently, with moderation and respect, she doesn't have to unleash the fury she often does to restore her demanded equilibrium.
Keep the faith
Copyright, Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, Jan 2018
The Buzzard and The Betrayal
The decision this morning wasn't whether to brave the winter weather. It was what guns to take? Looking out of the windows at home I could see the light boughs of young yew and cedar bending under a Northerly blow. In the habit lately of taking both air rifle and rimfire, I glanced at the digital weather station in my kitchen. The technological claim of 30C would be challenged later. What was certain was that was going to be a 'warm hat and shooting glove' morning so I opted for the air rifle. I had already decided on a location where I could balance leeward shelter with hunting opportunity. The expectation of some sunshine later added to that choice.
Arriving on the estate I ploughed the recently valeted CR-V through deep puddles and thick mud with a grimace. Oh well … no gain without pain, they say! I had hell n' all trouble getting a set of serious all-terrain boots for this motor due to the wheel sizes but I have to say it was worthwhile. It hasn't let me down yet … touches his wooden head! I parked up at the top of the escarpment, near the woodsheds, pointing my bonnet in the direction I would be stalking. An agreed code which allows the Lady and her staff to know where my rifle and potential risk is if they take some exercise, with their dogs, in the woods. I slid out of the warm motor and stepped onto the muddy track. A bitter wind, keen enough to make the eyes bleed, slapped at my face. Under the tailgate I donned a trapper hat, a snood and a pair of shooting mitts. It would be more sheltered in the old arboretum at the base of the escarpment … but I needed to get there first, with at least my trigger finger thawed! I loaded a couple of magazines with .22 Webley Accupells, loaded the gun, checked the safety was on and locked the car. Above me, rooks and crows rolled in the Artic born draught. Black surfers on an invisible tide.
The walk down the escarpment was slippery and testing, so I kept the 'safety' on despite the plethora of woodpigeon in the sitty trees on the slopes. They departed tree by tree, as I progressed; squadrons to be challenged another day. At the base of the hill I was met with the sort of target that every airgun hunter hates. A grey squirrel leapt from a flint wall onto the track just eight yards from me. It stared at me as I fumbled to bring rifle from slung to ready but was gone before I could level the gun, let alone focus so closely. Fair law and fair escape.
I paused at the gate in the lane between wood and field; just to watch and hear the birds on the recently flood-drenched water meadows. The waters have receded now but the splashes still hold a diaspora of fowl. Teal, wigeon, mallard, greylags, Canadas, mute swans and a little egret all visible from the gate. Turning into the murk of the wood and it's umbrella of ancient yew, I immediately heard the chatter and hiss of Sciurus carolensis. The grey invader. A species that was innocently introduced to Britain when these yew trees were mere saplings. Non-native, like the yew, they too have thrived. I stalked the garden wood and toppled three, which is two more than I expected in this chill. Squirrels don't hibernate but they will sit tight in the dreys in cold or excessively wet weather.
The climb back up the slope later warmed my limbs and at the top, as my heaving lungs expired the mist of spent breath, I looked into the blue sky; drawn by the shout of the rooks and the furious mewling of a raptor. The old buzzard wheeled and jinked majestically, pursued by a throng of nagging corvids. They might feint and fuss, but the old bird had the confidence to ignore their meaningless threat. She has ruled these woods too long to take umbrage to inferiors and this year, as in the past seven, she will breed here again.
It was with a heavy heart, when I got home later, that I read of the capitulation of another old buzzard, from a tribe in which I had placed the confidence of my vote for many terms of election during my lifetime. Resilience is the backbone of a stable and sustainable genus. Caving in to perceived 'popular opinion' is like letting the crows (or should that read Corbyns) batter you from your righteous perch. To then insult your voters by saying you will build a 'new forest' just confirms that you were never concerned about the 'old forest' anyway. This, for me, was the ultimate insult and most landowners don't seem to have spotted this dressed reference. An attack on private landowners by Tories? Ye Gods!
"This new Northern Forest is an exciting project that will create a vast ribbon of woodland cover in northern England, providing a rich habitat for wildlife to thrive, and a natural environment for millions of people to enjoy."
Lest they forget, we already have a multitude of habitats for 'millions of people to enjoy'. They're called National Parks or 'Nature Reserves'.
Consider this too? "Paul de Zylva from Friends of Earth told BBC News: "It is a supreme irony that tree planters will have to get funding from HS2, which threatens 35 ancient woodlands north of Birmingham"
Great! Rip up ancient established woods to build a train line? Can you see the perverse ironies here, folks? Money matters, wilderness doesn't?
And the people that know, the Woodland Trust, say "the Forest will be less of a green ribbon and more of a sparsely-threaded doily". £5.7M doesn't buy many trees, let alone the design and labour to implement this nonsense.
I enjoyed my little sortie into a patch of ancient mixed woodland today, with my gun and not just a little taste of freedom. I'm old enough not to fret too much about all this getting closed down eventually (not the land but the hunting, the shooting, the freedom to walk it as a hunter). It's the young guns I fear for. And those whose income depends on the shooting and hunting tradition. A whole generation of urban, flat-living, cat-keeping keyboard warriors and plastic politicians who rarely leave suburbia (they might get muddy!) are about to destroy the countryside. We have fought to preserve the wild places against eco-hooliganism based on a real knowledge of how nature works … red in tooth and claw.
Those that seek to 'save' the fox seem totally oblivious to the fact that fox populations are in decline since the Hunting Act. Let's put our heads under the pillow, shall we? Perhaps let the cat sit on it? Killer of (in RSPB terms) some 55 million songbirds every year?
But I digress. I had a good day out today in an ancient wood today. I saw muntjac, roe, hare, squirrel (not for long), long-tailed tits … the list is endless. Strangely though, I didn't see a fox. Having got home and opened up the Mac, I wished I had stayed there.
Disappointed? Most definitely. Because a PM turned on promise. I'm just one in millions today to feel betrayed.
Copyright, Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, January 2018
'We Do It To Ourselves, We Do'
The title? "We do it to ourselves we do." is a line from a Radiohead song. Never more pertinent.
That I'm a committed 'shooter' is beyond doubt, despite a CV which predominantly reads 'air rifle' and includes many hundreds of shooting press articles. Not to mention several books. I have three shotguns and a .17HMR rimfire in the cabinet. The shotguns rarely come out as I have no real love of driven game shooting (a personal thing; it isn't 'hunting' and I'm a hunter). So tonight, when I ventured onto social media to see what all my Twitter contacts had been up to, I was mortified to see the posts about a North Yorkshire shooting travesty. Talk about an 'own goal'! What were these morons thinking when they did this? It hit home even harder when I noted the area.
I've just returned from a Christmas sojourn with my 'in-law' family in Hutton-le-Hole, very close to Helmsley. On Christmas Eve four of us (with a cocker and lurcher pulling us along, both leashed) enjoyed a testing circular walk up through Gillamoor from Hutton and back around to the village via what must be some of the most interesting shooting terrain in North Yorkshire. I was the only 'shooter' in the party and my eye was drawn far from the path in front as we passed the myriad feeders along the high trail. The hyper behaviour of the two dogs mirrored my observation. I watched dozens and dozens of birds (mainly hens) sliding into cover and disappearing down the slopes. Few birds actually broke cover but those that did drove Charlie the Cocker into an apoplectic frenzy. Not to mention the rabbits and grey squirrels criss-crossing the trail! Let me make this clear, I am not accusing this shoot of the despicable behaviour reported today, they were ten miles away from that discovery, which was made a month earlier.
At one point on the walk we reached an unmarked fork in the track and despite following the OS map, we were lost. A quad bike sped past towards the feeders, traveling too fast to hail down. Then a Range Rover appeared up another track and I was able to stop it and ask directions. The guys in the motor put us on the right path and I wished them good shooting on Boxing Day. I was hugely jealous. Not wanting to be part of the 'big shoot' (obviously imminent), but because of the terrain and the small vermin it must hold.
Alas, as always at Christmas, I was on a 'no-shooting, attend to family' agenda. On Boxing Day, as the family walked the moor North of Hutton-le-Hole with the dogs, the salvos could be heard across the other side of the beck. The Boxing Day shoot is as important a tradition as the Parade and trail-hunt of the Foxhounds. I applauded it from afar. The difference, of course, is that at this point in time we can't kill foxes but we can still shoot game and vermin.
I cull hundreds of small vermin every year. It doesn't matter whether it's a magpie, crow, rat, rabbit, stoat, squirrel, woodpigeon or fox. If it's edible, I recover the meat, as these miscreants seem to have done. What isn't edible is disposed of with discretion or intelligence. Leave a few breasted or paunched carcasses at the mouth of a live fox or badger den and they'll be cleared by dawn.
If the result of a legitimate driven game shoot leaves such a volume of breasted carcasses that can't be disposed of this way, surely a simple bonfire and restful cremation is easy to organise?
I doubt that the perpetrators of this damaging act are intelligent enough to be reading this piece? If you are, then please respond and explain your inane actions, which has damaged the reputation of all game and vermin shooters and will once more let loose the 'anti' hounds.
Best I finish now … because I am so bloody angry at what you have just done to our community.
Copyright, Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, December 2017
The Fairy Tale Of Re-Wilding
The Fairy Tale Of Rewilding
It was Christmas Eve, in the inn next the muir
Ex-keepers debating how life could endure.
Re-wilders, with funding, had bought up the land
No shooting, no snares, all vermin control banned.
They planted the hillsides; a young forest grows,
The grouse have all gone, replaced by the crows.
No gamebirds, no wardens, 'tis the realm of the pest
The curlews gone too, with no safe place to nest.
The sea eagles soared as the beavers felled trees,
Their dams slowed the rivers before they reached seas.
The estuaries were drying, the waders in plight
But the Fools continued to pitch their 'good' fight.
The hen harriers died, with no game to dissect
While Reynard and Brock walked the fields unchecked.
As the trees drowned the moors; a landscape was lost,
Rural economy and jobs? No-one counted the cost.
But the higher the sapling, the bolder the roe
Even muntjac had come here, to follow the flow.
"We need lynx", shouted Fools, "to trim out the deer.
Throw a wolf or two in, to keep the rides clear"
But what of the beavers? The start of the plan?
"Will the wolves eat the beavers?" asked the Chieftain.
"Of course not", the Fools laughed. "The wolves will eat deer!"
So in came the wolves to the Fools loud cheer.
Now, out of control, the wild creatures rule.
The re-wilders doctrine, the creed of the Fool.
A man can't kill fox … but the fox can kill bird?
A creed of hypocrisy, biased … absurd!
A hound can't chase hare but a lynx can hunt deer,
Where is the reasoning and logic at play here?
And the Fools had lied, there was blood on the hills,
The slopes strewn with wool from the numerous kills.
"Don't fret", said the Fools. "lets bring in the bear"
Old Bruin will bring balance and make things more fair.
So the bears were brought in but made rivers their home,
Scooping the salmon that leapt through the foam
The farmers and shepherds tore their hair out in rage,
For the Fools, again, were on the wrong page.
As the lynx and the wolf avoided bears paths,
Still slaughtering sheep and sometimes the calves.
Back at the inn, with the log fire full flare,
The wise men of old talked of balance and care.
When the grouse were in lek and the curlews would cry,
When the hen harrier flew and the eagle passed by.
But in the ale-house, no shepherds stood there.
They were guarding their flocks from the lynx, wolf and bear.
Yet they needn't have worried, for Natures is strong,
And will level the field, when the balance is wrong.
Came the day when the salmon couldn't get through the dams,
So the bears slew the beavers and dined on their hams.
Then they turned on the wolves, who fled further downhill,
Where the shepherds rebelled and started to kill.
The sea eagles were famished, with no fish in the lochs,
So they swooped on the lynx as they preyed on the flocks.
The bears in their hunger, then came down to the farms,
To be met by the herdsmen, who raised up their arms.
I went to the Chieftain … to tell him the truth.
In Nature, life's balance is often uncouth.
That's why these creatures had long left our shores.
Starved, hunted; displaced and by natural laws.
Rewilding? What nonsense. What human conceit.
Mother Nature decides what will thrive, or forfeit.
If the creatures should be here, they'd never have gone,
Restoration was fruitless, intrinsically wrong.
And the Fools … they bleated like the cat-killed ewe
As the carnage continued and their dream went askew.
The dams were dissembled, the rivers could run,
The rewilding Fools were back where they'd begun.
The hills and the forests returned back to the Lords
While the disproven Fools all fell on their swords.
Mother Nature herself had re-balanced the glen.
Beaver, wolf, lynx, and bear … inexistent again.
Copyright, Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, December 2017
Woodcocks and Witches
The crunch of all-terrain tyres on the hoar hardened gravel sent a white scut diving into the scrub lining the gateway; the rabbit lost amongst the wilting and frosted nettle die-back. At the tailgate I paused to take stock. The morning after the Woodcock moon. All around me the heightening sun glittered on the blanket woven by the night-knitters. The tendrils of a chill breeze made the sylvan cobwebs tremble and, aware that it would gather pace, I dressed to challenge the cold. Even when loading the clip for the rifle, the nip at my hands asserted the need for shooting mitts. There is an inherent risk of failure in a frozen forefinger; particularly on a single-stage trigger. We shooters, despite our bad press, are sensitive creatures. Biomechanical efficiency is absolutely essential for accuracy. Accuracy is fundamental to clean, clinical despatch. With this in mind, I substituted my trademark baseball cap for a fleece bob hat. Simple 'tea-pot warming' theory … as I have a head like a tea-pot. As shiny as ceramic. Something always brewing inside but it needs to be poured while warm.
Dressed almost well enough for a polar expedition, I ignored the furious shout of an overhead crow and headed for the high path that would take me along the top of the escarpment. The coldest part of todays planned sortie but with the barbed teeth of that breeze at my back. I'm a great believer in taking the pain before the pleasure and I was interested to see how the upper wood wildlife was coping with this first whisper of brumal conditions. I walked slowly through the first deciduous plantation; the combination of de-frost and breeze producing a cascade of golden snow. Beech leaves, yellowed and spent; their season served. Returning to the ground to mulch, to reprocess, to rejuvenate. A damp ochre carpet stretched out for a prince of the wood to walk at leisure. The silent, spongey path lying ahead of me would ensure stealthy progress; but to what purpose? There was no particular urgency in todays walkabout. No specific mission. If I was carrying a shotgun, some would call it 'rough-shooting'. I prefer to call it 'stalking', which most associate with that grand creature, the deer. I don't shoot deer, despite my love of venison. My purpose amongst these acres, generously opened out to me by the owner, is in support of the family game syndicate. The deer-stalker and I keep to different agendas but with co-ordinated safety in mind. It works well. It must do. We haven't shot each other yet. My commission is the small vermin and, with recent additions to the armoury, this includes fox.
Through the upper wood I met with little but rook shout and pigeon clatter. The low, bright sun throws a long shadow; a hunters bane. Woodpigeon disruption can be like toppling dominoes. One after another, the trees along the escarpment emptied of birds that hadn't even seen me. A tree-swell of feathered panic, dipping and soaring across the river. Imagine a line of pigeon pegs placed along the plough in the valley below. What sport could be had! Alas, the birds were off and free, yet I wasn't weeping. The rifle I carried wasn't conducive to harvesting Columba palumbus at roost. Even as the thought of 'driven pigeons' crossed my mind, the silhouette of one of todays objectives appeared. Alerted by the spooked birds, it sprinted across the ride fifty paces away, dragging its bushy tail behind it. Out of sight before I could draw the sling from the shoulder. A creature which I wish had enjoyed the serious attention of the likes of James Wentworth Day and his cohorts back in their day. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, the grey squirrel was perhaps a novelty and 'frivolity'. A trivial introduction from North America. Would that this generation of 'hunting naturalists' (who left a legacy of wonderful writing but a horrific record of unmitigated slaughter) had turned their attention to the new parkland pest? If they had, our native red squirrel may still be here in numbers. But that was then and this is now. In reality, if JWD and his ilk had turned their attention to squirrels, I doubt that they would have discriminated twixt grey or red.
Reflection and rue are the luxury of the idle, so I pressed on. Knowing this patch like the back of the proverbial, I walked to the end of the escarpment with purpose. A competent hunter knows their land intimately. Having taken the pain (the cold and an empty bag), I had earned the gain. There is a seldom used path that creeps down the escarpment. A deer and badger track which, without discreet use of my secateurs, would be impassable to a human and invisible to most. A path to a magical, hidden kingdom that only the stalker could find. Often bereft of life in high summer, it is a haven for all during these bitter winter blows. The steep escarpment is dressed with deciduous saplings, briars and bracken. More importantly, it faces west, avoiding the most hostile winter winds.
Half way down the path the first reward for my fortitude sounded like a slap to the face. I had almost stepped on the woodcock and my heart leapt, more from shock than wonder. My admiration for any gun who takes down this little athlete (without warning from a dog) is immense. As I was still inwardly applauding its flight, another burst from beneath the mulching bracken and jinked off along the ride. By now, I had the CZ 455 across my chest, armed but on 'safety'. This half-mile bank, a leeside haven, is a natural feature to both explore and exploit. At the bottom, level with the field, runs a winding path … just inside the treeline. I stood here now in contemplation. From the cover of this track, over ten years, I have observed and photographed a varied range wildlife and their activities. The amorous buck covering a doe in a beet crop. The skulk of Old Charlie through the lush kale crop and the surrender of a Frenchman to his stalk; the rest of the covey saved by the sacrifice. Year on year, the boxing hares out on the spring barley. The cock-fights during the pheasant 'rut', where I sat and wagered against myself on the outcomes. Like my occasional trips to the 'turf accountant' I usually lost. It was here, too, that I first noted that the huge fallow herd. One year, the field yielding high maize, the bounce of a tiny devil-deer from the crop across the brambles right in front of me nearly knocked me over. Now there's a thing? Why is my .17HMR considered acceptable for fox but not for muntjac? Same size and supremely edible. It's such a shame to have to pass on this rich source of protein and such culinary opportunity.
The chatter and hiss of Carolinas finest interrupted my 'reflection and rue' and the robotic programming in my predators brain flicked off the safety catch as the rimfire came to the shoulder. Bandit at eleven o'clock, watching me audaciously from an oak bough. It's tail arched over its head, fluffing. Only young squirrels or immigrants from non-shooting land display such cockiness in the presence of a human. Once the Hornady V-Max was on it's way, its age (or origin) didn't matter. The certainty was that it wasn't going to get any older. The report caused some consternation along the escarpment so I took a time-out to field dress the grey. A two minute operation, leaving me with the edible. The inedible? Left out of sight for Brock to hoover up later … and Lord knows he has family aplenty here to help do the housekeeping. I swear I will motor up the drive one day and just see the grand Edwardian bell-tower sticking out of the ground? The Hall having sunk into the subterranean diggings of a beast long overdue a place on the General Licenses.
Further along the foot of the escarpment, a wood witch lay dozing on the track. Somnambulant and vulnerable, her long ears flat along her back, her whiskers waving limply, betrayed by my close proximity. I don't shoot hares; I'm far too besotted with their mysticism. This puss was, like me, enjoying sanctuary from the barbs of the winter wind. I stood and studied, admiring her beauty until (as if sensing my voyeurism) her eyes opened. A flare of the nostrils, a twitch of the whiskers and away. The slow lope turning to a canter, then a sprint as she hit the plough with a kick of soil and flint.
Two more grey squirrels later, both delving along the trail ahead of me, it was time to climb back up to the motor. At the tailgate I neutered the rifle and removed the bolt. With the CZ safe in her slip, I shut the door and stepped towards the drivers door. Up ahead, eighty paces along the exit road, sat a fox. A very fortunate fox. My three squirrels were enough to scratch my hunting itch on this bitter morning. As I fired up the ignition, Reynard slipped into the wood. One for another day.
© Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, November 2017
If you enjoyed this piece, please visit www.wildscribbler.com/books and read my articles in The Countryman's Weekly
Anti-Hunting? Be Careful What You Wish For!
Sometimes I want nothing more than to sit back from the current round of pro & anti-hunting banter and just get on with my (hunting) life. Today the good folk at The Countryman's Weekly, for whom I write, accidently pointed me in the direction of a seriously worrying piece of biased journalism in The Independent (02/11/17) via their Twitter account. The leading image to the article immediately set the agenda. An image of a girl wearing peace & love buttons hugging a badger under water? Weird. The author then goes on to explain how modern animal psychologists are challenging 'Morgan's canon'. The advice, long held, that scientists should not confuse animal behaviour with anthropomorphic association such as emotion, love, hate, etc. What could have been a reasonable article, worthy of debate, was debased today by its author and The Independent through its totally un-necessary inclusion of fox-hunting images and a strangely misplaced tilt at trail-hunting and the National Trust? Why? Because clearly the author and his editorial team want to associate the suggestion of animal emotion with the impact of being hunted. The article talks at length about animal intelligence. LLoyd Morgan, of course, held that humans shouldn't confuse inherited, natural instinct with intelligence. Well (and this may surprise many readers) I think Morgan was right based on the knowledge at that time, but evolution has moved on. The dismantling of the 'Morgan canon' has been long overdue.
As a seasoned shooter and hunter (and I've written about this in all my books and many hundreds of magazine articles) animal and bird intelligence sometimes astounds me. Not just the acute, instinctive reaction to threat but the ability to distinguish between what is threat and what isn't amazes me. Walk a footpath with a stout stick and when a crow passes over, lift the stick as if it was a gun. Watch the reaction. Threat recognition. The same caution that is the genetic inheritance of the woodpigeon now. That wouldn't have been apparent in Morgan's day. Study a carrion crow or grey squirrel working out how to access a bird feeder. You can't question the ingenuity and calculated enterprise of what you witness. The fox prowling the outside of the chicken coop, searching for a weak point to breach. These are behaviours that surpass mere 'instinct'. Yet, even if we accept that all wild things will resort to the Darwinist 'adapt or die' theory, we can't deny that adaptation increases intelligence. That's why apes became hominids, then became humans. To deny that the progress of cognition and intelligence, no matter how long it takes, could advance other species too would be an unacceptable arrogance on the part of Homo Sapiens. A species which, itself, should be re-classified in the 21st century. A blog for another day, perhaps?
So, ignoring the rather barbed and biased text put forward by Nick Turner in his article today, I am going to concede on the point of 'Morgan's canon'. But I do that as a man who has spent 40 years in field and wood observing and hunting wildlife. A man who has watched creatures birth and die. A man who has protected the vulnerable from the predator. A man who is often the predator himself, to feed his family. Just as the fox does. Just as the badger does. And, therein, lies the rub.
If the 'antis' believe (as I do) that the fox, the badger, the crow … whatever … have 'cognisance' then that puts a whole new perspective on the whole hunting / shooting / wildlife transaction. It puts those who oppose hunting in a difficult place, surely? Because if we accept that animals understand concepts such as (quote) "memories, emotions and experiences" then we have to accept that they know the difference between "right and wrong", as humans do. That is a massive admission for the 'anti', yet much less so for the hunter. Why? Because, if it's traumatic for a creature to be 'hunted', isn't it equally as traumatic for the prey they hunt, themselves? If all animals are cognisant, then the rabbit pursued by the fox is as terrified as the fox pursued by the hound. Logically then? If the fox hunting the rabbit is acceptable, then the hound hunting the fox is acceptable too. Equipoise is the magnificence of Nature. If my culling of a rabbit is (to an 'anti') murder then they'd better take a good look at the mass-murderer that is the fox. Cognisance? Understanding what you are doing and why. The fox that decimates a chicken coop, slaughtering dozens of birds needlessly? Do the anti's want to call that 'natural instinct'; it's just doing what foxes do? Or do they want credit that fox with emotion and feeling as in Turners article?
Be careful how you answer, guys and girls. You can't have it both ways. I credit all creatures with an intelligence way above Morgans archaic teachings. That's why I cull vermin with care, compassion and respect. The predators I target know exactly what they're doing when they hunt down other species; just as I do. Which is why I never feel any guilt about being a predator too.
© Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, November 2017
"What can you scent on the wind, old hound?"
(An early extract from my forthcoming poetry collection.)
"What Can You Scent On The Wind, Old Hound?"
What can you scent on the wind, old hound,
As you stand with your nose to the gale?
What pheromones float on the breeze, all around?
And if you could talk, of what tale?
The coney's are out in the kale, good sir.
The pheasants have gone to the trees.
Old Charlie comes East with the wind, good sir,
Putting ewes and their lambs at unease.
The rats in the farmyard are woken, good sir,
Their piss-pools offending my nose.
The scent of the puss in her form, good sir,
What a chase there could be, in these blows!
I smell mice in the woodshed, tonight, good sir.
And Old Brock is bruising the wood.
I smell fish scales down by the river, good sir.
The otters are up to no good.
And what do you hear on the wind, old hound,
As you lift your long ears to the muse?
What noises inspire from forest or ground?
And if you could speak, of what news?
The tawny owls call in the high wood, good sir.
The bittern now booms on the fen.
I hear pipistrelles, barbastelles squeaking, good sir.
And the scream of the vixen near den.
The squeal of the rabbit speaks stoat-kill, good sir.
I hear lekking, too, out on the hill.
The bark of the roebuck means poachers, good sir.
And the grunt of the hogs at their swill.
I hear sea-trout rising to bait, good sir.
And the spin of the night anglers reel.
The snap of the woodcocks fast flight, good sir.
And the whistle of incoming teal.
And what of your eyes, pray me ask, old hound?
As you stand here beside me, what sight?
Can you see the round moon and the whirl of the stars?
See the difference twixt' day and night?
I see rabbit scuts, brushes and squirrels, good sir.
I see pheasant and partridge in flight.
I see hares make the turn and I'm close in, good sir.
I see fox and I'm up for the fight!
I see smoke from your gun and see birds fall, good sir.
I see the long beam in the night.
Though I can't see your face and can't keep up the pace,
I have memories to make up for sight.
Now pray walk me, good sir. Though just steady and slow.
Around field margin, heathland and wood.
Let me scent at the warren and linger, good sir.
For my service to you has been good.
© Ian Barnett, Wildscribbler, October 2017
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Momentous day, in a way. Couldn't have imagined I'd be watching a close relative's eye surgery as it took place - no, not in the O.T. but from an adjoining room, on a tv monitor that was recording each procedure. Dr. Ashok Shroff is one of the best ophthalmic surgeons in India, with impeccable credentials. It was a privilege watching him operate with such elegance and lightness of touch. His fingers moved like a graceful dancer's in a well choreographed sequence that dazzled me. ME!!!!! Someone who is so squeamish about injections and needles. I am seriously needle- phobic and close my eyes when someone is getting an injection - even if that is on the screen. And here I was paying such close attention to Dr. Shroff''s every move ( magnified, of course, and doubly scarey). Now that I know I won't faint at the sight of an eye when a cataract is being pulverised before getting it sucked out , I'll be able to handle myself less hysterically while donating blood.
Playing peeping tom was an awesome experience on one level. Sure. I shed a small bit of my earlier phobia.Do I want a replay?? Hell, no!! Even this was far too upclose and personal for my taste.
I happened to read an email that was forwarded to me by a responsible person, just to give me an idea of how aggressively the celeb game is being played these days. It was from a big fish flogging the rights to various functions that had anything at all to do with his own forthcoming wedding!!!! He was offering juicy details and tantalising teasers about every 'event' associated with the 'shaadi', starting with his formal proposal " on bended knee." How unique and original is that, I ask. He'd also provided payment details of the gigantic rock he'd be giving his lady love, helpfully adding he'd speak to the jewellers about an 'exclusive'. The price he quoted for the ring could buy an island in the Carribean. It made me wonder if the man was plain smart or entirely besharam. If the mags had been crazy enough to actually bid for and buy his story for the price he was demanding, he'd have got the engagement ring and his high profile wedding for free!! I guess some editors have better sense than to fall for such a Cheap Charlie's ghatiya tricks. He was told to go flog his two bit 'exclusive' to some other bakra. So far, nobody is biting. Who knows, he may peddle the rights to his suhaag raat next!!! Now that would be something given the yummy bride.

subset: commoncrawl


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Review: Chrissie Hynde falls short on solo debut
Chrissie Hynde
It's an awful irony that the most notable thing about the first album Chrissie Hynde is releasing under her own name is its lack of distinctiveness.
After two drug overdoses ended the first lineup of the Pretenders more than 30 years ago, the band essentially became Hynde and whoever came along for the ride. But she always insisted on billing her albums under the Pretenders name. Until "Stockholm."
Despite that change, Hynde said this disc is as much a collaboration as she's ever made. She wrote and recorded with the Swedish producer Bjorn Yttling of the band Peter, Bjorn and John. Frankly, much of it is generic, bouncy pop-rock, pleasing to the ear and forgotten as soon as it fades out. Distinctive guitar cameos by Neil Young and John McEnroe (yes, THAT John McEnroe, and he can play!) are wasted.
It could be anyone singing, not one of rock music's most recognizable voices, even though that voice retains its strength.
It hurts to hear rock's toughest chick spouting cliches or singing, "Look at me, I'm laughing like a child, and all of it because you're the one."
Hynde's voice is special because it can evoke both off-the-cuff sass and heartbreaking melancholy. There's one good example of each on "Stockholm": the danceable single "Dark Sunglasses" and the lovely "Adding the Blue." When her great career is recapped, they'll be the only two things worth recalling from "Stockholm."


text:
: Elections
Mitt's winning Ohio
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Comrade Crapski
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Sea of Green 23.4°
Casino cash: $5000
Every major poll has Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney in the pivotal state of Ohio.In the last 70 years Ohio has selected the winner EVERY year except in 1960. This year should be no different.
Now I am born and raised in Ohio and have spent OVER 50 years here. I doubt seriously that NO person who understands investing ,predicting the future and knows more about Ohio politics than me.
First question is why is the national media polls (even Fox )all showing Mr Obama with a lead or a tie? It is simple and you can decide for yourself once I lay out my FACTS,whether these pollsters are ignorant or intentionally dishonest
In 2008 Obama won Ohio by 262, 224 votes out of over 5.6 million votes
However McCain won over 60 of Ohios 88 counties . 4 counties, Cuyahoga where I live,Summit its neighboring county, Lucas near Toledo and Franklin in Columbus. Voted for Obama last time by 453,135 more than McCain
So Obviously Obama needs a big showing in these 4 counties because the other 84 counties selected John McCain by almost 200,000 votes
I doubt seriously that few if any McCain voters would switch their vote this time to Obama but MANY union workers who arent working will no doubt switch
I have reason to believe that those 4 counties will not provide enough votes to carry BHO to victory
Lets examine the largest Cuyahoga County, where I have resided since I was 3 years old.
Last election it carried Obama by 245,467 votes,almost the entire margin of victory.
This county where I live WILL go Obama again but the question is by how much
There was almost 1.1 million voters in Cuyahoga County last year and this year there is 916,000 almost 200,000 less
But there are now 26% more Republicans and 11% less Democrats in Cuyahoga county
The city of Cleveland which is by far the largest city in Cuyahoga County
There are almost 100,000 less registered voters in the city Cleveland in 2012 than in 2008. Part of that is due to the housing crisis and part of that is due to John Kasich the Republican governor, purging the voting rolls of many voters who were not purged under Democratic governor Ted Strickland.
I wont bore you with themath but my projections shows Mr Obama winning Cuyahoga county by about 100,000 votes which is about 145,000 less than last time.
Franklin county also has considerably less voters than last time and my projection is that Obama will only carry Franklin by around 16,000 votes a difference of 82,842
So basically in the other 86 counties Romney has to get about 326 more votes in EACH than he did last time
Trust me it is GOING TO happen EASILY
If these Democratic bastions are not supporting the President, how can you think the cities and counties that supported John McCain last time arent going to come out in record numbers?
Cuyahoga Falls,Sydney, Cincinnati Defiance all have had record crowds
Cuyahoga Falls drew 13,000 on a Tuesday night when it was under 50 degrees and I talked to a couple last night who were among a large group of thousands who were turned away.
I have talked to at least a dozen lifetime Democrats UNION Construction workers who are voting for Romney because they arent working.
Yesterday I drove through Parma Ohio which is the 2nd biggest city in Cuyahoga county. It is full of auto workers and union workers who are traditionally Democratic almost all white voters.
In 2008 the ratio of Democratic signs to Republicans signs were about 4 Democratic signs for every Republican sign. Yesterday the ratio was 3 Mitt signs for every 2 Obama signs. That is a HUGE differential
Then I drove through to the edges of Cuyahoga county and through Summit county which went to Obama by over 43,000 votes in 2008. I counted 45 Romney signs and 10 Obama signs in the 25 minute drive.
I am writing this article because Obama and his minions are using the only tactic left to try and win this: FEAR.
The media wants you to think that BHO has a solid lead in OHIO.But folks it just isnt true
In part 3 of this series I will explain how the pollsters have this wrong and what INCENTIVES they have to do so
I will also show you detailed polling and will show you the actualmath in coming to my conclusion which i would love to see the experts try and deny.
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Cursed no more, Boston enjoying epic era
Just like that, everything is backward. The sun now spins around the Earth, pigs really do fly, and who says the Fourth of July hasn't switched to something like the 17th of February? The Red Sox are back in the World Series. Not only that, they have a chance to grab a third World Series championship in 10 years.
How weird. How bizarre.View Full Game Coverage
Just like that, everything is backward. The sun now spins around the Earth, pigs really do fly, and who says the Fourth of July hasn't switched to something like the 17th of February? The Red Sox are back in the World Series. Not only that, they have a chance to grab a third World Series championship in 10 years.
How weird. How bizarre.View Full Game Coverage
Well, how did this happen? I mean, this was a franchise that supposedly was haunted for eternity by pinstripes in general and the Bambino in particular. But nobody remembers those spooky times anymore for the Red Sox -- you know, except those with too much time on their hands, historians taking a break from the real world or Yankees fans yearning for their version of the good ol' days when their team actually was better than the Red Sox.
Speaking of those historians, there is Doris Kearns Goodwin, who regularly finds time to root like crazy for the Red Sox between studying the inner workings of past presidents. I just finished reading "Blood Feud: The Red Sox, the Yankees and the Struggle of Good versus Evil," and Goodwin described in the book how Red Sox Nation evolved after its team spent October 2004 making "ridiculous" just another word. That's because Red Sox Nation did the unprecedented back then by roaring back from a 3-1 deficit to the Yanks to win that best-of-seven American League Championship Series. Then the Red Sox did the unthinkable against those Cardinals by snatching the club's first World Series in 86 years.
The Red Sox even did so with a sweep. Said Goodwin to "Blood Feud" authors Bill Nowlin and Jim Prime, referring to those 2004 Red Sox, "The players' exuberant faith in themselves was contagious. It changed the character of the fans. We were no longer afraid of what the next batter or the next inning might bring. Whatever happened, they would see us through. And they surely did, bringing us the greatest victory in sports history, one that, with luck, maybe has forever altered our temperaments as Red Sox fans."
We still have to go a tad longer in life to reach "forever," but Goodwin has been omniscient so far. For instance: As a whole, Red Sox fans aren't into doom and gloom anymore. Why should they be? Two seasons ago, there was their September collapse with much emphasis on fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse. Then came last year's free fall to the bottom of the AL East. So all the Red Sox did this season was finished tied with the Cards for the best record in baseball at 97-65 along the way to capturing the division and the AL pennant.
They've done so with the best hitting team in the Major Leagues, impressive pitching and more Curse-killing stuff. For instance: They have this beard-growing deal in which they are refusing to shave until they hoist the Commissioner's Trophy. Plus, they've been the focal point of the Boston Strong slogan that became a rallying cry for those around the city and elsewhere earlier this year after the Boston Marathon bombings.
The Curse of the Bambino? Remember? I'm getting to it.
For now, I'll mention that the 2004 Red Sox had their so-called "Idiots," and it was a term the Red Sox used back then to signify that they had a group of players who didn't know any better while ignoring curses, goblins and Yankees to win it all. Three years later, the Red Sox had some of those "Idiots" remaining to complement the likes of Dustin Pedroia, Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell doing their things enough in October to push the Red Sox to a second World Series championship in four years.
So much for the Curse. But about the Curse. It goes back to the Bambino, otherwise known as Babe Ruth, and you know the story. When the Red Sox sold the pitcher turned slugger to the Yankees in the winter of 1919 -- reportedly so the Red Sox's owner at the time could finance a Broadway play -- the Curse of the Bambino was born. While Ruth set the foundation for the Yanks' explosion toward 40 AL pennants and 27 World Series championships, his former team went 86 years without capturing a World Series, and they regularly did so in odd ways.
Ever hear of Bill Buckner? Enough said.
Let's go further back than that. And remember: The Red Sox once were a baseball powerhouse. They went 16 years through the Babe's last season in Boston in 1918 winning five World Series championships in five attempts. Granted, the Red Sox reached the World Series three times between 1967 to 1986, but the Curse was alive and well back then. No World Series championships during that stretch. Just excruciating endings.
In 1967, the Red Sox's Impossible Dream season finished with a thud, because their hitters couldn't do anything against the fastballs of Bob Gibson in the seventh and decisive game at Fenway Park. In 1975, there was the drama of Carlton Fisk's home run in the 12th inning of Game 6 at Fenway Park, but the Reds had the final thrills on the Red Sox's home field the next night in Game 7. Then there was 1986 and Buckner, along with the inability of the Red Sox to win a another Game 7.
There also were the slew of times when those pinstripe folks kept the Red Sox from reaching the World Series.
Two words: Bucky Dent.
Two more words: Aaron Boone.
So here are the Red Sox, opening this year's World Series at Fenway Park on Wednesday night, and they are the favorites. Wow. Guess there really is a Great Pumpkin and Mr. Claus.
Terence Moore is a columnist for MLB.com.


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November 2012 Whoops!Posted in Whoops on November 1, 2012
Jay's Bluff
After wheeling for two days and managing not to break, we were ready to head home. Just before we left we ran across the park owner's son, who told us about a bluff that no one had made it up. He then proceeded to tell us that the first person to make it up gets to name it. We took the challenge and ended up making it up! Unfortunately, the trip back down the bluff didn't turn out as planned. And that, boys and girls, is the story of how it came to be known as Jay's Bluff!
Via firstname.lastname@example.com
Submission Information
Send us your wheeling foul-ups! Letters must be signed by the vehicle's owner. Due to the large volume of mail we receive, we regret that not all submissions can be used and none will be returned. Digital photos must measure at least 1,600 by 1,200 pixels (or two megapixels) and be saved as a TIFF, an EPS, or a maximum-quality JPEG file. Write to: Whoops!, 4-Wheel & Off-Road, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245 Email to: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Managing "contacts" has been a bit of a challenge for many, especially as the number of places that contacts can be stored and the number of PCs and devices we use to access those contacts has increased. Storing contacts in the cloud for easy roaming and connectivity is a part of the solution. With Windows 8 and the new People app, we are taking cloud storage a step further by optionally connecting it to other services you already use. This brings together email contacts and contacts from your service / social accounts in one easy to access and use place that roams across your Windows 8 PCs and phone.
In this post, Jeff Kunins, a group program manager on the Windows Live team, details the People app. This is the first of a series of posts on the new service-connected apps that are currently in App Preview. --Steven
Modern devices come with an address book or contact list because the people we communicate and share with are so important to how we use those devices. Email, texting, phone and video calls, social updates and comments – these are but a few of the people-based activities we do with the phones, PCs, and tablets we use every day. With Windows 8 we set out to meet this fundamental need with a new kind of contact experience: the People app.
The People app in Windows 8 is a modern take on the flat contact lists of the past–it's built for the way you communicate today, and it's connected to the cloud services you already use. The People app connects to your email and social accounts, bringing together all your contacts (and what they're up to) in one convenient place. Windows 8 Consumer Preview users have already used the People app millions of times and received millions of social notifications on its live tiles. We are proud of the early enthusiasm for our approach, and thankful for everyone's helpful feedback on how we can improve this early preview version. We thought we would take some time to share more of our perspective on the modern social address book, and how our point of view is driving the evolution of the People app in Windows 8.
Modern devices like Windows 8 and Windows Phone require an address book that's crafted around four simple principles:
- Complete & Connected – All your personal and work contacts are there, alive with their social activities and photos, letting you instantly engage and react to them. Data syncs from your email and social accounts rather than getting this info from a one-time import, and you get a simple unified contact card for each person, regardless of how many versions of their contact info you have from different accounts.
- Designed for Windows 8 – On modern devices the address book is a core part of the overall experience, therefore it is important to design it with the whole system in mind. The People app follows Metro style design principles so it is fast and fluid, and it works together with all your other apps through the Share and Picker contracts.
- Cloud-powered – your contacts and settings are effortlessly backed up, so "they just work" when you sign in from a new device, or even from the web. And when you pin a contact to your Start screen, the live tile lights up with real-time notifications about new photos, comments, and tweets.
- In control – you decide what you share with whom across your home, work, and social networks. And of course, those networks decide what information is shared and connected, respecting their policies and customer privacy.
Here's a short video illustrating these principles in the People app:
Download this video to view it in your favorite media player:
High quality MP4 | Lower quality MP4
Complete & Connected
We've talked before about how people should be able to connect the services they already use, without needing to re-spam their friends with invitations. For many years, one of the primary ways that you got contact data into an email account or a social network was to import your contacts (and in some cases, import, and then re-invite them) from another account. This even holds true for mobile phones—how many people do you know who have delayed buying a new phone just to avoid the crazy hassle of "transferring" the contacts from the old phone to the new one?
Many of us have had this problem at least partially solved with smart phones that sync our email accounts—but it should just work for everyone, with one easy place for all our contacts and all our accounts.
So, the People app does this. It uses Exchange ActiveSync, as well as the secure, standards-based APIs (OAuth, REST, etc.) exposed by our partners like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to sync a copy of your contact list from the cloud. It's always up to date with new friends you add (and respects deletions if you un-friend them :-)), so you don't have the problems of a brittle one-time import.
Connecting accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and Exchange
Once your contacts are in the People app, we give you a beautifully tailored experience where you can see and comment on their social activities and photos, view their contact details, or send them a message via whatever service you and that contact have in common. Whether you're browsing the summary of "What's new" across your contacts and networks, or just looking at a specific contact, it's easy to catch up and stay connected.
Main contact list view features large tiles for your favorite contacts
Windows 8 "semantic zoom" lets you quickly pinch to navigate your contact list
Looking at a single contact gets you their contact info and what they're up to
Tap "What's new" for an at-a-glance summary from your social networks
Looking at a single social update lets you see all the comments and add to them
One challenge that any modern address book like the People app needs to handle is duplicates—we all tend to be friends with and have info on a given person from many different accounts. For example, I have contacts for my friend Omar Shahine in Exchange and Hotmail, we're friends on Facebook and colleagues on LinkedIn, and of course I follow him on Twitter.
The People app – just like Windows Phone and Hotmail – automatically detects that all of these contacts are the same human being (my friend Omar), and presents them to me as a single "linked" contact with all the data together in one place, on one tile, etc. And very importantly, it does this without messing with any of the underlying source data.
We do our best to get this "right" automatically, but recognizing that we can't be perfect, we want users to be able to edit and add/remove their own links. We already provide this on Hotmail and Windows Phone, and we'll be adding that to the Windows 8 version over time.
By connecting multiple accounts and linking your duplicate contacts, we're able to create a contact card for everyone in your address book, regardless of how you're connected to them. So, at a glance I can see a quick summary, and then I'm one click away from common tasks – sending an email, starting a chat, getting map information, finding a phone number or address, or just browsing through their recent activity.
Designed for Windows 8
A second principle we followed was to design the app to take advantage of the power of Windows 8. Unlike other systems, in Windows 8, apps can connect to other apps and to the OS itself through APIs that we call contracts. This means not only are the built-in applications like Mail and Messaging powered by People's contact list – so are the other apps you install on your Windows 8 device.
One of the highlights of the Metro style Start screen are all the tiles that are alive with activity and provide one-touch access to the apps and content you're interested in. The People app takes advantage of the secondary tiles feature, which lets you have additional tiles that immediately link to that part of the underlying app. So, when I pin contacts like TechMeme, Top Chef, my wife, and my friend Omar to my Start screen, it's just one tap to get right to their contact info and activity, and one more touch to send them mail or look at their latest photos.
Also new since the Consumer Preview is that the People app now supports the Share contract, allowing you to post to Facebook or Twitter from any Windows 8 app, including Internet Explorer. So, just by connecting your accounts to the People app, with a few quick touches you can share your latest favorite article with your friends and followers.
Any Windows 8 app (like IE) can use the Share charm to let you post to Facebook and Twitter
Lastly, another great feature is the People picker contract—with this, any Windows 8 app can speed up simple tasks like sending a package from a website or emailing a list of friends by letting you quickly select contacts from the People app. And unlike a silent, full-access API, this never happens without bringing up the system-brokered user experience that you're in control of.
Any app can invoke the People Picker, letting you choose contacts to use
None of the features we've talked about so far would be possible if the app and your device weren't cloud-powered, so we can sync data from your various accounts and display it within the app. But if all of your data and settings were solely managed by the "client" app itself (like a traditional mobile phone or email app), then you'd have a few problems: (1) once you set this up on one device like your phone, you'd have to do it all over again when you got a new PC at home or at work, (2) you wouldn't get any of the benefits of this unified experience when you were at someone else's machine just using a web browser, and (3) when services like Facebook or LinkedIn evolve their APIs you'd have to upgrade to a new version of the app before things would work right again.
Our approach is to use your Microsoft account and the cloud to safely cache your settings, so that when you go to a new device or even access your contact list from the web , things will still "just work" as you'd expect. Additionally, we make many of the API calls to networks like Facebook and Twitter from the cloud, so that we can often adjust to how those APIs evolve without making everyone update to a new version of the app.
A great example of how you benefit from the cloud is that the People app remembers your connection to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, no matter what device you sign in from. Over 50 million people have already connected social networks to their Microsoft account through their use of social features in Windows 8, Windows Phone, Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive. Every one of those people, when they sign in to a new Windows 8 PC for the very first time, will automatically have their People app populated with their complete, connected, cloud-powered address book.
Being cloud-powered means that not only do you have an always up-to-date copy of your contact list on your device, but that your People app tile and tiles for your pinned contacts automatically light up with the latest notifications from your social networks. For example, when someone comments on the photos you just posted, the People app tile (and the "Me" Notifications tab in the app itself) will animate with that update and encourage you to take a look. Similarly, each time one of your pinned contacts does something new, their tile will show that activity.
In control
Of course, we respect the policies of each data source we connect to – for example, the People app doesn't currently sync any Exchange data to the cloud. This ensures that data that is governed by your employer's policies aren't even temporarily cached in a third-party data center, even though it also means you have to set up your Exchange accounts separately on each device and you can't get to them from contacts.live.com. Similarly, Facebook has different policies for syncing contacts' email addresses and phone numbers on specific mobile apps vs. other devices and the web. So, to get Facebook contacts on your Windows Phone you connect it separately in order to have that additional data available to you in the People app on Windows Phone. Twitter also has smart, specific policies regarding how tweets are displayed, which are important to get right.
We also recognize that each person uses their address book and networks in slightly different ways. So we put you in control of what you share with which network and individuals on the network. For example, when you connect Facebook you can decide to connect just the address book, or additional features like instant messaging.
Moving forward
We're excited to see the initial response to our point of view that modern devices should come with a complete, connected, and cloud-powered address book that you're in control of. We hope you enjoy the key additions we've been able to add so far since the Consumer Preview, such as Semantic Zoom and letting you share to people you know on Facebook and Twitter from any Windows 8 app that uses the Share contract.
--Jeff Kunins


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Ten-Man Fenerbahçe Beat Galatasaray Lions in GermanyNews • Author: Mehmet Pozam • Thursday, July 22, 2010
Despite playing with one man down for 75 minutes, Fenerbahçe beat archrivals Galatasaray 1-0 at the Borussia Park Stadium in Mönchengladbach, Germany on Wednesday evening to lift the Spor Toto Friendly Cup. The only goal of the match came from Brazilian left back/winger André Santos who hit the back of the net in the 30th minute.
After completing their pre-season training camps in Belgium and Holland, Turkey's top two clubs Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray met at the Borussia Park Stadium in Mönchengladbach, Germany on Wednesday evening. The one-match exhibition game called the Spor Toto Friendly Cup was organized so that supporters abroad, namely in Germany, could feast their eyes on the World's Greatest Derby.
One expects to see a lot of action on and off the field, every time Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray play, be it a friendly or a championship-decider. Wednesday night's game was no different. The action kicked-off with a fourth minute free-kick by Lions' captain Arda Turan, which Volkan Demirel beautifully tipped over for a corner-kick.
Tensions rose ten minutes later, when Fenerbahçe defensive midfielder Selçuk Şahin was sent off after receiving a double booking. Selçuk saw his first yellow card for pulling Ali Turan in the 14th minute, a fair booking for a fair charge. However his second card was an altogether extraordinary case, as German referee Thorsten Kinhöfer sent Selçuk off the field with another yellow card for supposedly trying to trip him over.
With Selçuk Şahin out of the game, Fenerbahçe were down to ten men and the Yellow Canaries had another good seventy-five minutes against their archrivals ahead of them. Although the odds looked against Fenerbahçe, it was the Yellow Canaries that broke the deadlock in the half-hour mark.
In the 30th minute, Cristian Baroni sent a through ball to the left wing to set André Santos up with a perfect opportunity against Galatasaray keeper Ufuk Ceylan. After a brilliant twist and turn, the Brazilian winger did well to smash the ball above the shotstopper to send the ball safely behind the net: 1-0.
Fenerbahçe's goal was received joyfully in the stands of the Borussia Park Stadium and supporters lit celebratory flares which quickly filled the air with smoke. German referee Thorsten Kinhöfer was not amused when a flare was thrown on the field and he and his assistants gathered together, leaving the field in the 32nd minute. Only after team captains Volkan Demirel and Arda Turan spoke on the stadium microphone telling supporters to calm down, the match was resumed after a nine-minute break.
Shortly after the pause, Galatasaray's new striker Mehmet Batdal struck a decent shot only to be saved by Volkan Demirel after two attempts. Fenerbahçe's new attacking midfielder Miroslav Stoch also tested Galatasaray in the 42nd minute, striking from outside the box. The Slovakian winger's shot was parried by Ufuk Ceylan out for a corner-kick. Half-time score: 1-0.
Galatasaray manager Frank Rijkaard began the second forty-five with multiple substitutions, fielding Sabri, Hakan, Barış and Ayhan. With a fresh and improved eleven, Galatasaray started pushing towards Fenerbahçe who were already used to playing one man down. After a few dismal attemps, Galatasaray came close to equalizing in the 61st minute.
Sabri sent a cross from the left wing, but when Volkan fumbled the ball Hakan Balta laid the ball to Mehmet Batdal who had an open position to score. However, Fener keeper Volkan Demirel made amends for his critical error and did well to hold on to the ball.
That Mehmet Batdal was replaced one minute later by Emre Çolak. Fenerbahçe manager Aykut Kocaman also went for a double substitution on 63 minutes, taking Colin Kazım-Richards and Alex de Souza out and replacing them with Caner Erkin and Deivid de Souza.
The Lions could have equalized once again in the 69th minute, when Galatasaray captain sent another pinpoint free-kick. This time the ball hit the post and went out for a goal kick. With the clock ticking down, Galatasaray players became furious as they were unable to make that decisive attempt on goal.
Arda Turan was under the spotlight yet again, in the dying moments of the game. Sabri Sarıoğlu crossed once again from the right wing and the Galatasaray captain safely headed inside the Fenerbahçe box, only to see his shot go over the crossbar. Final result: 1-0.
This result enables Fenerbahçe players to boost their morales and regain their confidence ahead of next week's crucial UEFA Champions League third qualifying round first leg match against Young Boys, Wednesday night at the Stade de Suisse in Bern, Switzerland.
STADIUM: Borussia Park Stadium
REFEREES: Thorsten Kinhöfer, Mark Borsch, Kai Voss (Germany)
GALATASARAY: Ufuk Ceylan, Ali Turan (46th, Sabri Sarıoğlu), Servet Çetin, Gökhan Zan, Serkan Kurtuluş (46th, Hakan Balta), Musa Çağıran (46th, Barış Özbek), Lorik Cana (46th, Ayhan Akman), Mustafa Sarp (81st, Cumhur Yılmaztürk), Serdar Özkan (88th, Caner Öztel), Arda Turan, Mehmet Batdal (63rd, Emre Çolak)
FENERBAHÇE: Volkan Demirel, İlhan Eker, Bekir İrtegün (88th, Önder Turacı), Fabio Bilica, André Santos, Colin Kazım-Richards (63rd, Caner Erkin), Selçuk Şahin, Alex de Souza (63rd, Deivid de Souza), Cristian Baroni, Miroslav Stoch (88th, Semih Şentürk), Gökhan Ünal (82nd, Gökay İravul)
GOAL: 30th - André Santos (Fenerbahçe)
RED CARD: 14th - Selçuk Şahin (Fenerbahçe)
(Photo courtesy of Fenerbahce.org)
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Sept. 24, 2006
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The MIT men's water polo squad didn't get off to the best of starts in its mini-invitational this past weekend, but proved that it's not how a team starts, but rather how it finishes that really matters. Following a tough 7-6 loss to Fordham to open their schedule, the Engineers rattled off three consecutive victories over Dartmouth, Navy (B Team) and Queens College to improve to 5-9 on the season.
Tech played tough against Fordham in its first game on Saturday afternoon, but was unable to overcome the Rams, who scored three unanswered goals on two separate occasions. The Engineers, who trailed by three entering the fourth quarter, pulled to within one on back-to-back goals by Mark Artz, but their rally was cut short by the clock, ultimately falling, 7-6.
The loss didn't get the Cardinal and Gray down, however, and it quickly bounced back to record a 14-11 victory over Dartmouth just hours later. Tech took the momentum created from that victory into its Sunday matches, and it helped propel them to a 10-3 victory over Navy (B Team) and a 13-6 triumph over Queens College.
Leading the way offensively for the Engineers was freshman Devin Lewis, who recorded eight goals in the three victories. Fellow freshmen Artz and Rob Kalwarowsky added six goals apiece, while other top scorers included sophomore Mike Smith Bronstein (five goals) and senior Oliver Venn (four goals).
Freshman Nick Souza continued his stellar play between the pipes, recording a total of 36 saves over the course of the weekend.
"I felt comfortable with the way our defense was playing," noted Souza. "They made my job easy by playing so tenuous and really not giving the other teams good looks at the cage."
The Engineers look to build upon their three game winning streak when they travel to Providence, R.I. on Thursday, Sept. 28 to take on Brown University in a match that will take place at 8:00 p.m.


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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In its final competition of the regular season, the MIT rifle team traveled to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and suffered a pair of narrow set-backs in both the smallbore and air rifle portions of the meet. The Engineers finished just 25 points behind the hosts in smallbore, 2114-2091, and were defeated 2194-2135 in air. Elizabeth Phillips led the way for Tech in both guns and had the second highest air rifle score in the meet.
Phillips scored better than 90 on all six air rifle targets on her way to a total of 562, just four points behind the leading shooter on the day. Giulia Pantalone had a solid effort, posting a score of 527. Michael Batista (525) and Rebecca Gould (521) rounded out the air rifle scoring for the Cardinal and Gray.
In smallbore, Phillips (539) and Lionel Sotomayor (526) helped Tech account for two of the three highest scores. However, Coast Guard displayed just a bit more depth with its remaining shooters to come away with the victory by a slim margin.
Tech will compete in the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship in two weeks. The Championship will take place on Saturday, February 26 and is hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy.


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Tony Gambee needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 17 designs submitted by 9 freelance designers.
We need a site designed for a boat/jet ski repair shop. I am attaching jpg scans of printed flyers with logos, etc. (Click here for scans)
Lakeside Marine Repair (.com)
This is a repair shop serving a large community with many lakes. The design should feature images (not line art) use istockphoto or manufacturers web sites. try to convey, good weather, fun, realizability, cost value, speed.
Main Navigation- About us
- Location
- News
- History
- Contact Us
- Services
- +Jet Ski Repair
- +Boat Repair
- +Snowmobile Repair
- +Dock/Hoist Sales and installation
- +Winterization
- +Storage
- Vector Art
- restrictive design (for later addition of shopping cart)


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Seren Langley
Please allow me to introduce myself...
I'm Seren, and have been the CBA's Assistant Information Officer since April 2005. I am mostly responsible for updating the webpages on this Britarch domain, and others we host. I also produce 'Briefing' for the magazine and keep the online versions current...or rather try to.
I originally trained as an archaeologist. My main focus was prehistory; I find human evolution the most fascinating of all. Other research interests are Gender Archaeology, disability (in both the archaeological record and profession), scientific analyses in general and the Late Iron Age to Roman of Mid & East Anglia, where I grew up. I discovered during my training excavation that I really wasn't cut out for digging, so I switched to being a desky. Now I get to do both, playing every day and being able to legitimately call it work!
I do the daily commute from Sheffield to York by train...just to give you an idea of how much I love my job. I've come a long way from the Miss Lazy-Studentitis of my undergraduate days.
I have my own, currently minimal, website at www.serendippy.me.uk∞, which I have grand plans for. I hope to be expanding it shortly. On a random note...my name means 'star' in Welsh.
| CBA, St Mary's House, 66 Bootham, York YO30 7BZ.
tel: +(44) (0)1904 671417 | fax: +(44) (0)1904 671384 | email:


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Honors: Outdoor All-ACC (2011, 2012, 2014)...Indoor All-ACC (2014)...IC4A Champion (High Jump - 2011)...U.S. Olympic Team Trials Participant (2012)...NCAA East First Round Participant (High Jump - 2012, 2013, 2014)...Indoor School Record Holder (High Jump)...Outdoor School Record Holder (HIgh Jump)...Indoor All-ACC Academic (2012, 2013, 2014)...Outdoor All-ACC Academic (2013, 2014)...ACC Academic Honor Roll (2011, 2012, 2014)
2013-14: Indoors, qualified for the ACC Indoor Championships (2/28) and garnered All-ACC honors for a second-place finish after clearing a season-best 7-3.00 (2.21)…placed first at the Virginia Tech Challenge (2/22) with a mark of 6-11.75 (2.13)…earned a third-place finish at the Armory Collegiate Invitational (2/7) after posting a height of 6-9.00 (2.06)…Outdoors, qualified for the ACC Outdoor Championships (4/18), placing third overall with a season-best clearance of 6-11.75 (2.13)…also qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet (5/31), placing 14th with a clearance of 6-10.75 (2.10)…posted the highest mark of the competition, 6-10.75 (2.10), at the Wolfpack Last Chance meet (5/16)…cleared 6-9.75 (2.08) and placed fifth at the prestigious Penn Relays (4/25).
2012-13: Indoors, earned a season-best mark of 7-3.25 (2.22) in the men's high jump to win the Virginia Tech Challenge…finished fourth at the ACC Indoor Championships with a clearance of 7-1.5 (2.17)…earned All-ACC Indoor Academic honors for the second time in his career…Outdoors, qualified for the NCAA East First Round with a season-best mark of 7-2.25 (2.19) earned at the Penn Relays where he claimed the collegiate division title…finished tenth at the ACC Outdoor championships with a mark of 6-8 (2.03)…claimed a first place finish at the HPU Vertklasse Meeting by clearing 7-1 (2.16).
2011-12: Indoors, cleared a season-best 7-1 (2.16) at the Millrose Collegiate meet to finish in first place...finished sixth at the ACC Indoor Championships with a mark of 6-10.25(2.09)...outdoors, earned a season best mark 7-3 (2.21) at the Duke Invitational...cleared 7-2.50 (2.20) to finish second at the ACC Outdoor Championships and earn All-ACC honors...finished 16th at his first NCAA First Round competition...earned All-ACC Academic team recognition indoors as well as a spot on the ACC Academic Honor Roll...competed in the 2012 Olympic Trials held in Eugene, Ore., where he finished 22nd.
2010-11: Had a standout season, clearing 7-0.25 in the high jump at his first meet as a Blue Devil, the first Duke athlete to ever break the 7' barrier...won the Armory Collegiate Invitational with a 7-1.5 effort...took fifth at the ACC Indoor Championships with a leap of 6-10.75...qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships at the VT Last Chance with a jump of 7-2.5...fought through injuries and slow start to the outdoor season to get back to the 7' mark at the Duke Twilight...won the IC4A Championship, posting the fifth best mark in the nation at 7-4.25...injuries kept him from competing in the NCAA First Round.
Prior to Duke: Lettered four years at East Burke...holds the North Carolina state record in the high jump (7-3.5)...two-time North Carolina State Champion...holds high jump record (7-2.5) for the All-Classification NC state meet...2009 outdoor state runner-up...finished second at the 2009 Junior Olympics Regional Qualifier...came in second at the 2010 Indoor Nike Nationals in Boston, Mass....also lettered in basketball...served as student body president and National Honor Society president...graduated as class salutatorian.
Personal: Son of Christopher Anderson and Lee Ann Singleton...born May 4, 1992...has two brothers - Drew Anderson and Colton Singleton - and one sister, Hillary Rudicill...great-uncle, Irwin McNeely, and great-grandfather, Lester McNeely, both graduated from Duke.
Indoor PR
High Jump- 7-3.25 (2.22)* (2/16/2013)
Outdoor PR
High Jump- 7-4.25 (2.24)* (5/13/2011)