The 2023 Mercia Match
The Mercia match had not been shot since 2019 due to the Covid pandemic. Representatives from the five Counties involved worked hard behind the scenes to ensure the match could be revived and held this year.
The chosen venue was the Derbyshire, Chesterfield, range of Staveley Rifle Club, and the date of 11th June was agreed.
The Nottinghamshire team was chosen from those who had expressed an interest in taking part. The competitors came from Nottingham City RC, Old Nottinghamians RC, and EMRR RC (East Midlands Regional Range).
A pre-match training day was held on 20 May, which enabled some of the county's new athletes to get an experience of smallbore long-range shooting prior to the match, and gave the more experienced a chance to brush off the cobwebs before competing. There was much excitement and anticipation from the team prior to the match. Our six new athletes selected this year experienced some level of trepidation at shooting their first competition representing Nottinghamshire.
The day of the match could not have been better; the sun was out and the temperature ranged between 22C for the 9 o'clock detail up to about 30C by mid-afternoon. It was very bright and during the day a mirage built up. The 100 yard range was relatively benign for most of the day. However, the wind on the 50m range had a tendency to swirl and be quite unpredictable, small changes in the wind made massive differences to athletes final scores.
Unfortunately there were no teams from Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland; but the other three counties were represented. Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire fielded County teams, Ladies teams and Junior teams with a third Ladies team from Lincolnshire.
Derbyshire County team won the Mercia match and the Junior's match, and the Lincolnshire Ladies were also victorious.
Based on the results, A Cooney (EMRR) has been selected to represent Nottinghamshire in the NSRA Champion of Champions match at the National Meeting at Bisley this August, with M Hill (EMRR) as reserve.
The six new County team members were awarded their Nottinghamshire shoulder flashes: A Porter, B Toth, E Cooney, K Stevens, L Walling and T Moreno-Stokoe, (all EMRR).
The 2024 Mercia Match has been provisionally booked for Sunday 9th June.
Results of the Matches
| County teams | Derbyshire | 5711 | |
| Nottinghamshire | 4960 | ||
| County Ladies | Lincolnshire | 1634 | |
| Nottinghamshire | 1084 | ||
| Derbyshire | 466 | ||
| County Juniors | Derbyshire | 477 | |
| Nottinghamshire | 282 |
Highest Indivdual Scores
| 50 yd | A Cooney | Notts | 195 |
| A Pidcock | Derbys | 195 | |
| 50 m | A Pidcock | Derbys | 195 |
| 100 yd | A Cooney | Notts | 190 |
| Top 3 scores | A Pidcock | Derbys | 583 |
| A Cooney | Notts | 580 | |
| B Stubbins | Derbys | 578 | |
| Notts top 3 | A Cooney | EMRR | 580 |
| M Hill | EMRR | 563 | |
| M Blatchly | EMRR | 562 |
Andrew Cooney, SB County Captain.