Red Shirt News – October 2026
Hello Colleagues,
So, it’s been a while since the last Red Shirt News, but as our competition year starts to draw to a close, I thought it was time to do a round-up of the latest news.
As RM of the last two L3 Shotgun matches in Wales and Humberside, I want to thank those of you who came to work at them for delivering the matches to our usual high standards. As always, your efforts across the entire year in what has been a higher than usual number of L2 and above matches has been immense, and I am grateful for your contributions.
It’s important for us to note the effort the Match Directors put in to making all our matches happen has been huge and I’d like to thank them as well.
Remaining L2/L3 Matches
As I write, there are only four matches remaining in our 2026 calendar with 16 completed. The following matches remain:
23/24 October – Sterling L2 Mini Rifle/Rifle
24/25 October – North Cotes L3 HG
31 Oct/1 Nov – XPSC L2 AA
20/21 November – Sterling L2 AA
Rules changes/Major International Matches
The IPSC Congress met in Greece alongside the Shotgun World Shoot and voted on several Rules issues. More on those once they are promulgated officially, but an amendment proposed by the GB region requiring calibration for Action Air targets was voted in – so there’ll be some work on that and other matters for us.
In addition, there were some new matches announced for the L4/5 Calendar for the coming years in addition to some changes to dates announced. Most notably a L4 MR/PCC match in Hungary (at the same range as the L5 MR/PCC World Shoot in 2028) and a date change for the Rifle World Shoot in Mongolia from 2027 to 2028. See below for details. I’ll circulate specific dates once they are confirmed.
If any NROI members wish to try for selection to these matches, please let me know on nroi@ukpsa.org and I’ll do my best to assist.
Shotgun World Shoot
Six of our NROI members represented GB at the recently concluded Shotgun World Shoot in Greece. GB’s expertise in Shotgun was definitely a sought after commodity for this event. Indeed, I had been asked to find more GB ROs for the match – many of you will have seen those requests and I know some of you were very keen to come but for unfortunate circumstances preventing it. You did miss a great event and an opportunity to accumulate useful experience. The pace of work was challenging at times with 140-odd competitors per day at each stage for 6 days straight. Plus, all the resetting was done by the ROs - I’m probably not selling it very well!
The senior management team included Martyn Spence as an Area CRO and the other GB officials were Lee Elliott, Russ Hicks, Julia Hilger-Ellis, James Nixon and me. Our team received very positive feedback from the Range Master and his colleagues.
Upcoming Seminars
The NROI are planning (subject to funding) on running 1 L1 (new RO) NROI Seminar and 1 L2 (CRO) Seminar in 2027. We are hoping to run both in the Midlands (having run the L1 this year in Scotland). Both courses will be advertised widely once confirmed. The L1 will likely be in the first half of the year and the L2 towards the end of the year in November.
Minimum Requirements for the L1 Seminar:
Must have held a UKPSA competition licence for at least 12 months and have accumulated at least 6 points in competition (1 pt for a L1 match etc.)
Minimum Requirements for a L2 Seminar:
Must be a qualified RO and have accumulated at least 28 points as a match official (only 6 of those 28 can be gained from working L1 matches). Passing the seminar does not mean that promotion will be automatic.
We are also in the early stages of devising a formal Statistics Officer seminar that will lead to a qualification if passed. We hope to deliver this later in 2027.
ESS System
IPSC have mandated that the IPSC ESS (Electronic Scoring System) must be used for all L3 matches from 1/1/27. There’s a link below for more information about the system.
Our current hardware that we run Practiscore on is not generally compatible with the new system. NROI have put together specifications for a UKPSA-funded hardware package that can be transported in secure containers between our L3 matches, so there will be no financial burden on Clubs to implement this. There will clearly be a training requirement, and of course relevant courses will be held for all that need them, be they Match Directors or front-end users such as ROs.
Having used the system myself extensively overseas from the RO perspective, I can confirm that the user interface is very similar to Practiscore (with some enhancements) and is very straightforward to use.
Matches themselves will need to be advertised on a new platform (ECM) where competitors must also register – any of you that have competed at L4/5 matches will be familiar with that process. Again, information will be made available as we move forward.
The system can be run offline (our intention when we roll it out) and also fully online, but this second option requires that we have WIFI enabled across whatever range we are using it on. Not always straightforward…
This will be an adjustment, but not a significant one. L2 and below matches can continue to use whatever scoring system they wish.
Next Year’s L2/L3 Match Calendar
Vanessa (our AD Competitions) is already working on compiling next year’s competition calendar. This is not yet complete and will be advertised as soon as it is.
NROI Merchandise
I get the occasional enquiry regarding new NROI kit. If you need to buy anything to update your wardrobe, the links are below. Please allow 6 weeks as each item is made to order.
Please note these items may only be purchased by qualified, current NROI members.
Staying ‘Current’
Don’t forget that you need to work at least one Great Britain Level 2 or 3 match every two Competition Years to maintain your NROI membership.
We will identify your GB matches worked from Range Master reports but if you want the NROI Committee to record any Level 1 or overseas IPSC matches (for promotion purposes only) then please do complete and send us your match points record card at NROI@UKPSA.ORG after the end of December. You will have all been sent one of these at the beginning of the year or when you qualified as a match official.
Best Regards,
Jason Clarke
NROI PRESIDENT
Comments