David Seabrook - Shooting

Now we welcome David Seabrook another well known local sportsman mainly in the shooting field, so David you were born in Rushden were you?
Yes, I was born at number 19 Sartoris Road, lived there for twelve years and then we moved up to the Hayway but I started shooting at about six years old and we used to go to a farm at St. Neots and the man who ran the farm he was a champion rifle shot and he taught me to shoot and he used to give me, used to get three pence if I could hit an egg at twenty five yards.
Was that with a 22?
Yes, a 22 rifle that was shooting at targets. Then I used to go down the fair a lot and of course with what money we got in them days used to go down the fair with, about £1 or thirty bob for a night and I only used to go on one stall and that was the shooting stall, put it all down and then just shoot. And I got to know the man who ran the shooting stall very well and then I used to go away with the fair up to Nottingham Goose Fair and over to Peterborough, then during the school holidays and when it was a bit slack on the stall, to draw people he used to get me shooting, doing a bit of exhibition shooting on the stall you see, shooting targets side on or back on so that I cut them in half or shot the bull out from the back and then he'd like hold a sixpence.
He'd hold a sixpence?
Yes, he'd hold a sixpence in his fingers and I'd shoot that out of his fingers and I was only about thirteen, fourteen at the time and then I joined a rifle club and shot rifle. I was East Midlands champion when I was fourteen, in my age group, yes, yes I was actually but rifle shooting was, well shooting always came so easily. Dancing, I went three years learning to dance and I still didn't know which foot to start off with at the end of the three years but rifle shooting it was so easy, it was natural. My mother or my father, when we'd got the nurseries, they'd throw halfpennies or pennies up and I'd shoot them with a 22 rifle and I've still got some of them actually that my mother found when she was doing the gardening because when you hit them they used to go thirty, forty or fifty yards away. I used to shoot them, no problem, I found it very easy. Or I used to balance a halfpenny on the end of the rifle barrel and throw it up and then shoot it.
So you 've obviously got very good co-ordination?
Yes, it's just natural, I couldn't go wrong.
Did you have any other sports you were interested in other than shooting?
Not really, fishing and amateur radio that's about the only other things that I'm interested in as far as it goes. But of course when I got to about twenty I got a bit fed up with shooting at static targets you know even four-bore shooting at a thousand yards bored me and I went clay pigeon shooting and from there on I went with that. And now I shoot about forty thousand a year. To start with I had to learn it all myself course there weren't no such things as instructors, other people used to tell you what to do but then when I did get good I got into the British Team and with one thing and another I did actually go to Russian, I was trained by a Russian called Danov who was the coach for the Russian shooting teams.
How did you get in touch with him?
Well, no through meeting him abroad and that you know because I used to shoot abroad about six or seven times a year.
Why did you choose a Russian to teach you how to shoot?
Well, because at that time they were the best there were and Danov he was an excellent coach. He was a massive man he weighed about twenty stones and he handled a twelve bore like a four-ten, he was the first man ever to shoot two hundred straight.
Two hundred straight - that means ....?
He never missed one target in two hundred and he won the Olympics in Cairo in, I think it was, or the World Championships in Cairo in about 1950.
Does that mean he spoke English or you spoke Russian?
A bit of both, I could say 'dosvedanya' which was goodbye and that was about it, but no we got on quite well and he was a very good instructor and I went to him and Petrov, who was the captain of the Russian shooting team and I still know them and then of course it just went on from there until I retired from shooting really in 1975 and just play around at it now. Now I go instructing myself.
You do?
Yes, I instruct now, I've just been down to Marbella instructing at the Marbella Gun and Country Club.
Are you training the British team?
No, no I don't shoot in England or instruct much at all. I do a bit of instructing at various clubs but no I don't instruct them, they've got their own coaches. I just do it privately, you know when somebody wants it I go and do it and I enjoy it. I enjoy teaching youngsters because I've had my day and it's just for youngsters now.
Have you got any children?
I've got a daughter, she's forty and a son who's thirty six. Well, my daughter used to be an excellent shot but of course when children come along, get married and one thing and another or married and then children come along I should say, she just didn't bother anymore you know but she was an excellent shot and so was my wife. I still go out every week now, I shoot about three times during the week and Saturdays and Sundays. I'm shooting tomorrow at Bisley, going down to Bisley tomorrow and then next week I'm up at Nottingham. Bisley, Bisley to me means four-bore shooting. They do everything, you can do everything at Bisley from air pistol right through to four-bore rifle shooting, clay pigeon shooting, pistol shooting, the lot.
How do the new regulations with regard to guns affect you in the sport?
They haven't affected me a lot because they haven't affected twelve bores which I use. Pistol shooting they've wiped it out completely which was a complete and utter waste of time. You know for what they did gun crime has gone up 47%. They actually destroyed it. They destroyed it, they've destroyed pistol shooting completely and yet if you take shooting - it's won ... More medals have been won in shooting in World Championships, Olympic Games, European Championships or whatever than all the other sports put together.
For this country?
For this country, yes and ninety nine percent of the people who shoot anyway they're all law abiding citizens because you can't get a gun licence if you've been, in fact you can lose your gun licence for being drunk
I think you told us earlier but what gun did you shoot?
Well, the gun I use mostly is a Browning Ultra, it's valued at about sixteen hundred pounds.
And it's made in?
It's made in Japan I think for Browning of Belgium but my best gun which I use occasionally just for the fun of it that's worth thirty thousand.
Thirty thousand?
Yes.
You must be a good greengrocer to afford that.

David and his wife outside the shop at 103 High Street, shortly before it closed in 2008

No, I haven't got a lot but you know what I mean, I haven't got that all through greengrocery you know one thing and another. I've always shot guns since I was little, what I could afford, the maximum, you know which was an average gun and when I packed up I decided when I got to sixty I was going to have the best gun I could afford, so I did.
We were Just talking about the guns that you had.
Well I used to have sixteen at one time but I've only got two now.
Sixteen guns?
Yes because you win them and you have them given to you and I used to shoot for????, a company who make guns, and they used to give you a new gun every eighteen months you see or something like that but I cleared them all out and now I've only got two, the one I shoot with and the one I bought myself for a birthday present.
I know that some people actually load their own guns.
I used to, yes I used to because you couldn't afford, the trouble is you see without ??? I think when you're younger and you can do the sport, you can't afford to do what you want to do specially at shooting because it's dearer than golf. Golf is comparatively cheap compared to shooting but when you're old enough to be able to afford to do it like I am now, I mean I can afford to do it when I like, shooting, I can't do it because your eyesight goes, your reactions go and all things like that so when you're younger you can do it but you haven't got the money to do it and when you're old you've got the money to do it but you can't do it anyway but I enjoy it. I can still shoot ninety seven, ninety eight plus that's not too bad, I shoot between three and five hundred every week.
Marvellous. Well, it's been a joy to speak to you, thank you very much indeed for sharing your memories with us and wish you every success in continuing.
Well, I just play around now and enjoy it, as long as I still enjoy it that's the main thing.
Well, thank you very much indeed, thanks.

The rifle range at the fair - we have no date

Sports Personalities Interviewed 2003