About the Bale Team

This is about a family of four junior target shooting athletes.  It is two boys and one girl who shoot in both air and small bore rifle, and the other girl shoots air pistol. Their hopes and aspirations are to shoot for their country at the Olympics.

They started shooting with the Scouts. The Scouts ran shooting training once a month on a Sunday. The boys, Jack and Dean started when they were nine years old. The boys joined Braunton Taget Shooting Club in Braunton. The club was very supportive of their juniors and soon both boys entered national Scout competitions, it was not long before they started winning trophies.

Dean was first to be invited into the National Scout Shooting Squad. Dean’s first weekend in the squad was in December and the following February when he was entered in the British Airgun Open competition held at the Lord Roberts Centre which is the National Shooting Centre at Bisley. When he returned home, he received a phone call from Roger Monksummers the Sporter Manager of the Great Britain Junior Rifle Squad. The phone call was an invitation to join the GB Junior Rifle Squad as a Sporter Shooter. That year he was the first of the family to take part in the annual Junior International match in August held at Bisley.

Not that long afterwards Dean’s elder brother Jack was also invited to join the GB Junior Rifle Squad (GBJS). Jack and Dean trained hard to learn the next level of their shooting with monthly training with the GBJS at either West Midlands Shooting Centre at Wolverhampton or National Shooting Centre at Bisley. Between the monthly training with the squad they trained weekly at Braunton Target Shooting club. One coach Chris Attwood from the GB Junior Rifle Squad is a coach at their local club at Braunton.

The two girls Philippa and Emily started shooting at the age of eleven and very quickly got up to speed with their shooting. Philippa started shooting Sporter Rifle but then decided her preference was pistol. Philippa and Emily entered National Scout competitions and did very well.

Emily was invited to join the GB Junior Rifle Squad as a Sporter shooter and followed her two brothers.  Emily, Jack and Dean are also members of Team England National Squad Academy (TENS Academy).

Philippa joined the South West Regional Pistol Squad who hold their training weekends and the Tunnels Shooting Centre at Charmouth. After two years at the SW Regional Pistol Squad her shooting had progressed so well, that the Head Coach Chris Mason recommended Philippa to Tom Redhead of the South East Regional Pistol Squad. South East Regional Pistol Squad is coached by Tom Redhead who also coaches Team England National Squad (TENS).

All of them have competed in the major national competitions and also they have all competed internationally as well. Some competitions do not have junior categories, so in those matches they compete against not only the juniors but the seniors as well.