Star of Shooting Award 2020
As we prepare to open nominations for this year’s Ladies Star of Shooting Award, I look back on BASC’s successes and where we are heading next…
The history of BASC’s Ladies Star of Shooting Award
Since 2015, BASC has been supporting and promoting events for women throughout the UK. Through the Ladies Shooting division, we have been encouraging and enabling more women to shoot and provided new opportunities for them to try the sport.
Back in 2017, we first invited nominations from the public for our very first Ladies Star of Shooting Award. We were totally overwhelmed by the response and it was so hard to choose just one winner!
We decided to base our criteria on women who have created opportunities for other women to try shooting and who further continued to improve their own shooting in a safe and friendly manner.
A winning streak
Our first winner was Lydia Abdelaoui, one of the founding members of the Femmes Fatales and one of the forerunners in organising fun and inclusive ladies-only shooting events.
The following year, Louise Alford, founder of the Fillies, won our award. She had started with the Yorkshire Fillies which continued to grow throughout the northern shires with the Derbyshire and Cheshire branches, giving countless women opportunities to go shooting.
The 2019 Ladies Star of Shooting Award went to Emma Norbury-Perrot, founder of the Ladies Rifle Club. Without her opening the world of rifle shooting to UK women, many would have found it extremely difficult to get into the sport.
As well as a crystal star award, the past winners received a prize bag with gifts from HiHo Silver and Jewellery and Sporting Hares.
BASC chief executive Ian Bell presented the awards in an informal setting at our head office in North Wales – that is until 2019/20 when the world was thrown into lockdown, preventing us from meeting Emma personally. Luckily, BASC’s head of pathways to shooting Curtis Mossop managed to present Emma with her prizes in a socially-distanced way in July.
2020 equals the new normal
We have seen a noticeable absence on social media of happy smiley selfies and group pictures from ladies getting together to smash clays, achieve personal bests or bag their first bird.
Our diaries have been empty too. For most, guns have stayed locked in the cabinet with some only being brought out for a clean and polish or for some mounting practice every now and then.
Despite this, the show must go on! We plan to continue recognising the outstanding contributions UK women have made to shooting throughout 2020 and have adapted our criteria accordingly to reflect the challenging times we find ourselves in.
More chance of winning
This year, we have added three categories to BASC’s Ladies Star of Shooting Award to capture all aspects of shooting:
Target Shooting Star
This award includes clay and air rifle shooting, coaching and any other work done to help women get into target shooting. Nominations should include women who has made an impact, whether it is with her gun or in a support role – we want to hear about them all.
Field to Fork Star
This is the category that represents all those creative and resourceful game cooks who utilise game meat to create tantalizing Nominees don’t need to be huge ‘influencers’ – we want to recognise passion and innovation more than the number of followers.
Game and Gamekeeping Star
It’s not an award just for game shooters. We want to recognise and reward the hard work that goes on ‘behind the scenes’. You may want to nominate a beater or a picker up who always goes the extra mile, the lady who provides the very best lunch/elevenses or the gamekeeper/support who works tirelessly throughout the year to make your shoot day successful, safe and fun.
2020 sponsors
This year, we are absolutely thrilled to announce that our sponsors are The Sporting Lodge and Barbour. As BASC Trade Members, they are huge supporters of our aim to introduce more women to shooting.
Each Star of Shooting Award winner will receive a Barbour women’s Beadnell jacket. This classic original waxed jacket won’t look out of place at Glastonbury or a game shoot!
How to nominate
Nominations can be made via our contact form here.
You can nominate one lady per category and have until 31 January 2021 to submit your entry.
Winners will be chosen based on merit rather than the number of nominations received, so please take your time to describe the reasons behind your nomination.
The results will be announced in mid-February 2021, so watch this space!
“It really is both a surprise and an honour to be chosen for this award, particularly as the other fantastic nominees are so deserving of recognition.
Thank you to BASC and thank you to those who nominated me!”
Emma Norbury-Perrot
BASC Ladies’ Star of Shooting award winner 2019