ALTHOUGH countback agonisingly cost Nick Mace (pictured) a place in shooting’s history books in hot and sweaty Surrey in July, he still achieved more than any Channel Islander before him.

The three leading contenders for the Bisley Grand Aggregate – Mace, David Calvert and Nigel Ball – all finished with exactly the same score after the final competition, the Prince of Wales at 600 yards.

But by virtue of central V-bullseyes scored over six days of shooting, the Sarnian was pushed into second place behind Ball, but ahead of Calvert, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist.

In more than a hundred years of island shooting at Bisley, no Channel Islands shot has ever achieved such a high ranking in the Grand Aggregate. So while bitterly disappointed to miss out, the name Nick Mace is now writ large in the annals of Bisley Common.

Winning the Grand Aggregate Silver Cross dictates that in any official National Rifle Association literature, the letters ‘SC’ must follow his name.