A mid-Norfolk agriculturalist will be seeing in the New Year in New Zealand with the Great Britain fullbore rifle team.Nigel Stangroom is a 44 year old farmer from Whissonsett.

A mid-Norfolk agriculturalist will be seeing in the New Year in New Zealand with the Great Britain fullbore rifle team.

Nigel Stangroom is a 44 year old farmer from Whissonsett. He is on a three-week tour of New Zealand.

Stangroom started shooting 30 years ago at Gresham's School and was one of the group of pupils under then shooting master John Rowley that brought the school's rifle team to the level of national prominence that it still enjoys today.

Not long after leaving school, he was involved in the longest tie shoot in Bisley history to win the 500 yard Century competition.

Having fired a perfect 10 bullseyes in the match proper, Stangroom then had to fire another 44 straight bulls to break the tie and claim the trophy.

While he has had other notable individual victories, Stangroom's main achieve-ments have come with the Norfolk county team.

He has been a regular shooter and coach for them since school and enjoyed many wins with Norfolk in the various county contests.

He captained Norfolk for 10 years from 1988, and it was on his watch that the county's team became the major force in regional shooting that it still remains.

At the national level, Stangroom has captained England to victory in the Combined Services match.

He has also shot twice for his country, having toured the West Indies with Great Britain in 1996, as well as shooting in the Channel Islands with the National Rifle Association team, and Europe and South Africa with the London and Middlesex Rifle Association's Team - his Bisley club.

Of his selection and the upcoming tour, he said: 'I was in a bit of a purple patch when I applied for the team. I'm still ticking along nicely and really ready for it.'