I start by saying that I hope you, your family, your friends and your colleagues are all safe and well.
It has been 6 weeks since we closed the Shooting School and the country entered into “lockdown”. Before looking ahead, please allow me to briefly look back and thank the RB team who, in the days leading up to lockdown, brilliantly and calmly adapted how we operated, so as to allow us to safely keep our doors open.
Since we closed, we have been touched by the warmth, generosity and resilience of our clients. As you can imagine, the many pages of our diary have taken quite some juggling and yet so often, clients have committed to postponing their event, lesson or shoot day rather than cancel. Time after time, we have heard the words “We can’t wait to come and see you” or something similar. Trust me when I say, of behalf of all of us here at The RBSS, we can’t wait to see you!
So, what of the future? We were set to have a fantastic spring and summer. The Handicap Challenge (which has been postponed) was building to an exciting conclusion and the events' diary was filling, rapidly. We had teams booked for Really Wild Days on all our estates and the Gun Room and Country Store were as busy as they had ever been. Just as exciting was the huge demand we were witnessing for game shooting. The Sporting Agency team were still hosting days in Spain and, with several months to go, we had the most numbers of days booked, ever. So, in short, there was much to look forward to… and there still is!
Whilst nobody knows when or how we will be allowed to open, I do know that, eventually, we will open. Having worked in the shooting world for twenty years, I have always been struck by, and cherished, its sense of community. Specifically, the way in which the people in the shooting community care for each other and their determination to have fun and enjoy life. So, when that opening day comes, we look forward to welcoming old and new faces alike to the grounds, to an estate, or to an event, and to share with them the fun that lies at the heart of shooting. Until then I hope you will enjoy reading this month's bulletin and the advice and opinions of the team.
Until then I, like all of us, thank those who are working tirelessly on the frontline and hope that everybody stays safe and well.
Jonathan