The Ashburton Shield is an historic trophy for target rifle shooting in the

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. It is awarded annually to the winning team of VIII at the Schools' Meeting (previously the Public Schools' Meeting), held at Bisley by the

National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...

. The competition is open to teams of cadets from, predominantly,

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units based in

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and

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History

The Ashburton Shield was presented by Lord Ashburton in 1861 for competition between the Junior

Officers' Training Corps The University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), also known as the Officers' Training Corps (OTC), are British Army reserve units, under the command of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which recruit exclusively from universities and focus on ...

that were run within public schools. This remained the case until the 1948 merger of school cadet units into the

. The shield was first contested at the National Rifle Association's second

Imperial Meeting The Imperial Meeting is a target shooting competition organised by the National Rifle Association (United Kingdom), National Rifle Association annually at the National Shooting Centre, Bisley Ranges in England. It is the oldest fullbore target ...

. It was mentioned by

Edward Walford Edward Walford (1823–1897) was an England, English magazine editor and a compiler of educational, biographical, genealogical and touristic works, perhaps best known for the final four volumes of ''Old and New London'' (Cassell (publisher), Cas ...

in 1878 when he wrote of the Meeting, then at Wimbledon: The runner-up team is awarded the Montague-Jones Challenge Trophy, which was first presented in 1947 by the OTC Officers Club in memory of Major Montague-Jones OBE TD, and eight NRA bronze medals. The third place team are awarded eight NRA bronze medals. The Allhallows Salver, presented in 1987 by

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, is awarded to the coach of the winning school. The Public Schools' Meeting is considered the pinnacle of inter-school shooting in the UK, and

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featured the event in multiple newsreels. It has been held annually, with the exception of 1915–18 and 1940–45 due to the outbreak of war, and 2020–21 when the meeting was placed in abeyance due to the

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hold the record for the most wins, at 15. Notable winners include 2018 ISSF World Champion Seonaid McIntosh, who was a member of the 2013 winning team from

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. McIntosh individually won the Schools Hundred competition.

Results by year

Scores in bold indicate a record for that competition format.

Performances

Schools in bold competed for the Ashburton Shield at the 2024 Schools' Meeting.

References

Notes

Citations

{{Reflist Rifle shooting sports Shooting competitions in the United Kingdom Recurring events established in 1861 National Rifle Association (United Kingdom) Target shooting trophies and awards Awards established in 1861