The EGG Club - EGG vs Ay Nik and EGG vs Army Competitions – A Brief History
2012 heralds the start of another great shooting year and also training and preparations for the annual EGG Club competitions against Ay Nik Gun Club and the British Army. Both competitions this year will be held in the month of May and this year, Ay Nik will be held at their grounds on the 5th May. The competition against the army will be held at The EGG Club on the 26th May. The venues for both competitions are alternated each year.
Ay Nik Gun Club is a shooting club of similar set up and size to the EGG Club with a mix of entitled and non entitled members. From records held, the first recorded event between the EGG Club and Ay Nik (short for Ayias Nikolaos) Gun Club took place in 1989 and was held in the month of October at the Ay Nik Gun Club. There were two major trophies in the competition, The EGG Club Trophy and Ay Nik’s Nissan Bowl.
Historically this was an all weekend event so when it was held at Ay Nik the EGG Club would travel over on the Saturday morning, check in to accommodation made available to us at a Community Centre run there for the military (a kind of motel with rooms, a dining room and a bar). The club would organise a local restaurant for lunch and we would then shoot the Skeet layout in the afternoon.
Retiring to the Centre for the evening there would be supper, lots of bar time and a convivial atmosphere in which to chat and "bond" as they say these days! One of the EGG Club’s long term members , Howard Walker recalls how there were a few times he actually took his caravan to Ay Nik to use as accommodation but stopped after the guys decided to try and move it, with him inside, one dark night after the bar keeper threw them out. Methinks the local amber nectar may have to claim some of the responsibility here!
After breakfast next morning it was back to the ranges for the Sporting Layout which always included some form of High Tower, which the EGG Club lacked and therefore put us at a disadvantage!! There would then be a prize giving session, accompanied by more beers from the on-range club house before we set off back to Episkopi, with frequent stops en-route to off-load the beer!
It was decided early on that the event would be held twice a year, around May and again in October, when we would alternate locations and the EGG Club would arrange accommodation for the ANGC, usually at a rooming facility based at Akrotiri which meant we would all go to a restaurant on the Akrotiri strip for an evening get-together, always with lots of beer, of course! You may notice a pattern forming here!!
Over the years things have changed; Peter van de Pol at Ay Nic was replaced by Gordon Dixon in the early 90's, the Community Centre at Ay Nik became uneconomical and then defunct and accommodation was therefore no longer available to us. The accommodation at Akrotiri suffered a similar problem and it became necessary for the teams to travel to the host club early, shoot skeet in the morning, have a local lunch, shoot sporting in the afternoon, give the prizes and leave to get home at a reasonable time. Hence it became a one day event.
Unfortunately as the years went on there was less interest in the long journey, and the very long day. EGG Club members would gather in the Limassol Orphanides car park at 0730, having been to the club to collect guns already, to be at Ay Nik by the 0900 start time. ANGC membership suffered, too, there were sometimes not enough people to make up the teams (The Nissan Bowl requires a team of 9), interest waned and it became the norm to meet only once a year, alternating locations as we do now.
The hosting club is responsible to disseminate the Op Order for the day's events - Rules, Disciplines, Classification and Prizes to be awarded, sort the layout, provide trappers (it was all manual in those days!), organise lunch and refreshments during the day, provide the trophies and generally run the day.
And that is where we are today. This is always an excellent day with lots of banter and competitive fun going on so it’s worth making the effort to attend and compete and enjoy the atmosphere. The Ay Nic team are friendly and like the EGG Club have competitors at all level of skills so it makes for a good balanced competition. It would be a great shame if this tradition were to end, so come on EGG Club Members put this date in your diary and make sure you enter. The disciplines shot are 25 Skeet, 25 DTL and 50 Sporting.
EGG vs The Army will be held this year on the 26th May at the EGG Shooting Ground so there’s no excuse for lots of Members to compete and attend in support .
The first shoot against the Army Target Shooting Club – Clay Target Section was in October 2009 and then again in September 2010 and of course in May 2011. The match score is currently EGG 2 ATSC 1 so there’s everything to play for and our reputation to retain. Again the Army guys and girls are a great crowd, fiercely competitive but with bucket loads of humour and it’s well worth while competing for the experience it gives you and also all the tips you can pick up along the way.
So lets keep the competitions going, it’s only 2 days in the year and it’s good to learn the rules and disciplines in competition, meet fellow shooters from other clubs and generally have a wonderful day and we want to win those cups AGAIN so let the force be with you!!!
Thanks go to Richard Hoole and Howard Walker for supplying the history to these events.
2012 heralds the start of another great shooting year and also training and preparations for the annual EGG Club competitions against Ay Nik Gun Club and the British Army. Both competitions this year will be held in the month of May and this year, Ay Nik will be held at their grounds on the 5th May. The competition against the army will be held at The EGG Club on the 26th May. The venues for both competitions are alternated each year.
Ay Nik Gun Club is a shooting club of similar set up and size to the EGG Club with a mix of entitled and non entitled members. From records held, the first recorded event between the EGG Club and Ay Nik (short for Ayias Nikolaos) Gun Club took place in 1989 and was held in the month of October at the Ay Nik Gun Club. There were two major trophies in the competition, The EGG Club Trophy and Ay Nik’s Nissan Bowl.
Historically this was an all weekend event so when it was held at Ay Nik the EGG Club would travel over on the Saturday morning, check in to accommodation made available to us at a Community Centre run there for the military (a kind of motel with rooms, a dining room and a bar). The club would organise a local restaurant for lunch and we would then shoot the Skeet layout in the afternoon.
Retiring to the Centre for the evening there would be supper, lots of bar time and a convivial atmosphere in which to chat and "bond" as they say these days! One of the EGG Club’s long term members , Howard Walker recalls how there were a few times he actually took his caravan to Ay Nik to use as accommodation but stopped after the guys decided to try and move it, with him inside, one dark night after the bar keeper threw them out. Methinks the local amber nectar may have to claim some of the responsibility here!
After breakfast next morning it was back to the ranges for the Sporting Layout which always included some form of High Tower, which the EGG Club lacked and therefore put us at a disadvantage!! There would then be a prize giving session, accompanied by more beers from the on-range club house before we set off back to Episkopi, with frequent stops en-route to off-load the beer!
It was decided early on that the event would be held twice a year, around May and again in October, when we would alternate locations and the EGG Club would arrange accommodation for the ANGC, usually at a rooming facility based at Akrotiri which meant we would all go to a restaurant on the Akrotiri strip for an evening get-together, always with lots of beer, of course! You may notice a pattern forming here!!
Over the years things have changed; Peter van de Pol at Ay Nic was replaced by Gordon Dixon in the early 90's, the Community Centre at Ay Nik became uneconomical and then defunct and accommodation was therefore no longer available to us. The accommodation at Akrotiri suffered a similar problem and it became necessary for the teams to travel to the host club early, shoot skeet in the morning, have a local lunch, shoot sporting in the afternoon, give the prizes and leave to get home at a reasonable time. Hence it became a one day event.
Unfortunately as the years went on there was less interest in the long journey, and the very long day. EGG Club members would gather in the Limassol Orphanides car park at 0730, having been to the club to collect guns already, to be at Ay Nik by the 0900 start time. ANGC membership suffered, too, there were sometimes not enough people to make up the teams (The Nissan Bowl requires a team of 9), interest waned and it became the norm to meet only once a year, alternating locations as we do now.
The hosting club is responsible to disseminate the Op Order for the day's events - Rules, Disciplines, Classification and Prizes to be awarded, sort the layout, provide trappers (it was all manual in those days!), organise lunch and refreshments during the day, provide the trophies and generally run the day.
And that is where we are today. This is always an excellent day with lots of banter and competitive fun going on so it’s worth making the effort to attend and compete and enjoy the atmosphere. The Ay Nic team are friendly and like the EGG Club have competitors at all level of skills so it makes for a good balanced competition. It would be a great shame if this tradition were to end, so come on EGG Club Members put this date in your diary and make sure you enter. The disciplines shot are 25 Skeet, 25 DTL and 50 Sporting.
EGG vs The Army will be held this year on the 26th May at the EGG Shooting Ground so there’s no excuse for lots of Members to compete and attend in support .
The first shoot against the Army Target Shooting Club – Clay Target Section was in October 2009 and then again in September 2010 and of course in May 2011. The match score is currently EGG 2 ATSC 1 so there’s everything to play for and our reputation to retain. Again the Army guys and girls are a great crowd, fiercely competitive but with bucket loads of humour and it’s well worth while competing for the experience it gives you and also all the tips you can pick up along the way.
So lets keep the competitions going, it’s only 2 days in the year and it’s good to learn the rules and disciplines in competition, meet fellow shooters from other clubs and generally have a wonderful day and we want to win those cups AGAIN so let the force be with you!!!
Thanks go to Richard Hoole and Howard Walker for supplying the history to these events.