Shooting star Martyn joins team

A shooting star from Staffordshire has been selected to represent the England team competing at the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships in Gibraltar this weekend.

Martyn Buttery, of Burntwood, has been shooting small-bore rifle for more than seven years and has recently been called up to represent his country in Team England National Squad Academy.

His recent performance and development has earned him his selection to compete in the 50m 3-Positions Rifle and 10m Air Rifle events in the European Division of the Championships which starts on Friday.

The event is held three years out of every four, the exception being Commonwealth Games year, and up to four individuals per country compete in different shooting disciplines. The European division of the championships includes Cyprus, England, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Martyn, aged 34, said: "I'm really looking forward to competing in my first Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships.

"Over the past four months I have upped my training, not just shooting I have built on physical and mental training in preparation for Gibraltar.

"This will be the fourth competition in which I have represented England and hope to add many more caps in the build up to my ultimate dream of competing at London 2012." Martyn lives and breathes shooting. Not only is he county chairman for Staffordshire and rifle captain at Rugeley Rifle Club, he also works at ELEY Ltd, manufacturers of .22 cartridges for target shooting, in its customer range which offers shooters the facility to test batches of ammunition to best match their barrels.

He assists both club shooters and international Olympic shooters to select their ammunition.

ELEY's commercial manager Clive Scrivens said: "We are extremely proud of Martyn's achievement in being selected for the championships and that ELEY has an England shooter on board, something the company had in abundance back in the 1920s when we employed national champions for many years."