Philippa Bale

Philippa started shooting when she was eleven years old. The 100th North Devon Scouts were looking to make a team to take to the National Scout competitions and Philippa wanted to follow in her brothers footsteps and wanted to go. Philippa joined Braunton Target Shooting Club and started shooting both Sporter air rifle and air pistol. She quickly got the hang of it and her shooting progressed at a fast rate.

Her preference was to be air pistol over rifle and that was to be her concentration on training. Soon she was entering the Scout Nationals and other shoulder to shoulder competitions like the Devon County competition and the Welsh Airgun Open in Cardiff.

After a short while she was to join the South West Regional Pistol Squad (SWRPS). South West Regional Pistol Squad trained at the Tunnel Target Sports Centre at Charmouth, Dorset. Philippa was trained by Chris Mason of SWRPS for two years and entered many competitions. Her shooting skills went from strength to strength and she was recommended by Chris Mason to Tom Redhead the Head Coach of the South East Regional Pistol Squad (SERPS).

South East Regional Pistol Squad (SERPS) is the next step as Tom Redhead is also the Coach for Team England National Squad (TENS). In 2013 Philippa entered the Junior International as a England athlete and was to win a medal. Since joining SERPS she had her first competition abroad at Intershoot in The Hague, Netherlands. Philippa went to Intershoot with her fellow ESSU members as part of the Englad Team.

At the end of 2013 her coach Tom, decided after some discussions with her that he thought that though she started shooting left handed, she would be better changing to right handed.  She is now training right handed shooting and progressing well.

Philippa’s second discipline in shooting is Sport Pistol; this is the Olympic discipline for women. It requires a five shot pistol and is shot at 25 metres.  This is also shot under ISSF rules.

Philippa’s goal is to represent her country and both the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth  Games.

Philippa is very grateful for the help and sponsorship that she has received. She is hoping that she can get further help with costs in the future.