first Pink -(see appended list of D.U.R.C. Pinks) -was made a Vice
.President of t}le club In honour of hls services and achievements.
Over the years the club has had its quota of accidents and mis-haps.
one of the earliest Is hinted at In a comment from 1966 when "it was
decided to glue together the broken Remmlngton." Other such Incidents
which should not go un-recorded Include Ian Elliott's wrtting off of a Fiat
Ritmo In 1985 and Albert Jordan's demonstration of how not to un-block an
air rifle using knitting needles In 1987.
At the 1966 A.G.M. It was reported thet the club had four rifles. That
year the club competed against D.R.C. R.R.P .C., and Q.U.B. -winning the
colours match and also beatIng Trinity College Hartford (U.S.A.) In a postal
match. In that year Alexander McCartney -Chief Steward -was made a Vice
President.
By the end of 1966 the club had a membership of over 100 and a ladder
system of the challenge type was Introduced. By May '67 a system
.akin to our present ladder was Introduced with constantly revised averages
being posted.
On the competitions front annual matches against O.U.B. were the norm
and the club entered the U.S.R.A. and N.I.R.A. leagues and In 1967 the
Brittish Universities Top XX for the first time. With the Increase in the
number of competitions a match secretary was thought desirable and David
Agnew was appointed to this post.
One of the most "romantic" comments I found concerned the early
termination of a committee meeting In '69; "Commons bell rang and the
meeting adjourned.".
In May '69 It was discovered that the club had for some time been
authorlsed by the Gardal to use pistols and revolvers up to .45 calibre even
though our range was suitable only for calibres up to .22. This new
discipline had'nt much time to gather momentum as by October of that year
the Northern political situation resulted In a tightening ofsecurity and the
present system of access to rifles was Introduced.
.The first recorded Lady on --committee was a Miss J Johnston who was
elected at the 1969 A.G.M.. In early 1970 the club bought Its first Anschutz
rifle and by that time plans for the range at 186 Park lane had been drawn-
ur.Not long afterwards the committee was Increased to e'ght members as
a present. In October 1970 Captain John Martin became a Vice President
and the move to the new Park Lane range was completed later that year. It
was agreed at that time that honorary membership was allowable.
In Janurary 1972 D.U.R.C. lost its main colours oponents as Q.U.B. were
no longer permitted to shoot durIng the "unrest" -henceforth the club
would have to look further afield for Intervarsity matches.
The ups and downs. of enthuslesm In the club were highlighted with the
falling off of Interest In early '72 when It was decided to reduce the hours
of range opening to 7 until 8:30 nIghtly, because of "lack of. Interest"
1972 sadly saw tile desth of David Gault -committee member. In that
year too one of the rifles was malfunctioning, the problem was with the
ejector clips
(It was rifle No. 6
fa B.S.A.) Ironically the present day No.6 is
similarly Inc ined. The Vlckers r fIe (No.5) was acquired In 1973.
The 1974-5 season began badly. At the '74 A.G.M. only a Captain and
Treasurer were elected; there were no other officers or committee. As a
result an E.G.M. was called In Februrary '75 by which time the Captain had
left College. It was also noted that there had been no shooting. ~etw.een the
two meetings as the "authorities had misplaced the ammunitiOn. .As a
result of the E.G.M. the officers posts were filled but there was still no
committee. It would appear that the club functioned without a full
comrTllttoe for the entire year -not verry effectively It would appear as at
the end of tllat year It was decided that no colours were to be awarded fof
.22 shooting as "the standard had been too low."four were awarded for
fullbore.
The following season saw a crackdown on enforcing safety rule's it
being prohibited for anyone to fire unless the Range Officer was present in
the seat on the firing point; If for any reason (s)he had to leave shooting
must Immediately cease.
At about that time the first Olsclpllnary Committee Meeting was
called under article 19A of the constitution to deal with a breach of the
~egulatio-ns .and gene,ral miscon~uct by a member. He subsequently failed to