AN amazing half-century of shooting success is has recently been celebrated by one of Okehampton's top marksmen. This year has seen Okehampton shooter Bernard Rendle complete 50 years of shooting for the Okehampton Smallbore Rifle Club, competing in the Devon County Winter League. The feat is made even more remarkable because across the 50 years Bernard has not missed a round, completing a total of 900 matches with the vast majority of them for the club's A team. Bernard, 75, was born in Cornwall but has lived in and around Okehampton since 1945. He said: 'Through the winter I shoot two or three times a week and in the summer I still do a lot of outdoor shooting. I'm still entering the national championships in Bisley and go to an open meeting in Scotland every year. 'I'm going to carry on as long as I can but it's starting to become harder wok than it used to be, especially shooting outdoors when you have to concentrate harder!' Taking all 900 cards into consideration, his average for the 50 years works out as 97.81 with his best season coming in 1986/87 when he scored 1787 out of a possible 1800, an average of 99.28. In the 1979/80 season, scoring only four points less than in his best season, Bernard became the Devon Winter League champion. Bernard started shooting with Okehampton SC at the Drill Hall in 1956 and by 1958 he was part of the club's A team in the Devon County Winter League. In his first season he shot 11 cards for the B team and since then has always shot for the A team. He started out using a club rifle, a BSA Martini which cost £40, he now uses an Anschutz, costing about 50 times as much! Bernard's success extended to county level where he has been shooting for Devon since 1960, representing the A team until 2006 and even now still shooting for the county reserves. Since 1979 he has attended national shooting meetings at Bisley and in Scotland without a break and has been chosen to represent England in the Home Countries match on four occasions. In 1989 he was also a reserve for the Great Britain team who were competing against America for the Roberts Trophy. Margaret Thomson, from the Devon Smallbore Rifle Association, said: 'Not many shooters can boast an unbroken record such as Bernard's and certainly very few will have achieved the consistently high standard that he has maintained. In addition to his personal shooting achievements, Bernard has put an immense amount of time and effort into administration for both club and country. 'He has been club treasurer for 40 years and county treasure for 15 years as well as running numerous events for Okehampton and Devon together with his wife Yvonne.' Both Bernard and Yvonne have received recognition for their hard work over the years - they have both been presented with National Smallbore Rifle Association medals for services to shooting. Bernard is keeping his sight firmly set on the target and has no intention of laying his rifle down just yet. He has just bought a new shooting jacket to take him into the years ahead.
