Members of North Watford Air Rifle and Pistol Club fired their last pellets on the club’s range at Christchurch Hall, in St Albans Road, Watford, on Wednesday last week before closing the club for good.

At the beginning of the year the club was reduced to just four members who continued to meet in the hope that the inclusion of air-rifle and air-pistol events in the London Olympics would stimulate interest, but this failed to happen.

The club has shot at Christchurch for 32 years and had enjoyed a high level of success in county and national competitions. The greatest of these achievements was in 2003 and 2004, when Phillip Goff won the British Open Junior Men’s Air Pistol Championship.

In 2004, Phillip also set a British Junior Men’s record score in the sport pistol competition, which is shot against a target which only appears for three seconds.