Robin Rickhi, manager of the newly minted Alpha Angels, insists that the team’s focus for the new year is solely on bringing more traction to the female Practical Pistol Shooting outfit, rather than dwelling on any perceived tiff and semantics regarding the right of use and ownership of the Super Six brand.

In fact, Rickhi pointed out that the outfit, which initially started with six female shooters — Renee Rickhi, Yeonie Campbell, Constable Shayon Francis, Detective Corporal Sasha-gay Mullings, Corporal Kayla Keane, and Sheresa Solan — has now well and truly outgrown the Super Six, which caused a slight spat after Superintendent Steve Brown claimed its ownership.

According to Rickhi, Shevanese Session has since replaced Solan in the original six with members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and Jamaica Customs Agency now making up the 12-member Alpha Angels.

“We have now moved to Alpha Angels and we are promoting ourselves as Alpha Angels because the reality of it is that there are no longer six ladies. The JDF came on board from before the PanAm (Handgun Championship) and they started sending four ladies to train with us, so we had already intended to go for a name change,” Rickhi told the Jamaica Observer.

“So apart from the six ladies, we have four from the JDF and we have a few coming on board from the Contraband Enforcement team. We plan to have different things doing, in terms of trying to get other female licensed firearm holders on board if they are interested in the sport, so the group will continue to grow,” he added.

Rickhi acknowledged that Brown was the creator of the Super Six movement in 2021 when he pooled the four female officers and two members of the Jamaica Rifle Association (JRA) for the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF’s) Swat Round Up, where veteran shooters and instructors Anthony “TJ” Johnson and Andrew Yap were asked to whip the ladies into competitive shape.

Rickhi, a former competitor and active instructor, said they decided on a management structure ahead of the début appearance at the Pan American Handgun Championship in Florida late last year, where the ladies placed a commendable third behind the United States and Brazil.

“We decided that I would be a manager and Alrice Palmer would be like a group manager and Superintendent Steve Brown would deal with the marketing, and stuff like that,” Rickhi shared.

“But just before PanAm there started to be some little problems as Superintendent Steve Brown wrote to us and said he couldn’t continue in his capacity due to personal reasons. So we thanked him for his service and stated that we would continue.

“However, a few days later he [Brown] wrote to us and said that he had formally registered a company named Super Six All Female Elite Shooting Team Limited and our first question was why was there a need to do that,” Rickhi said.

To date, Rickhi, husband of the Alpha Angels’ most versatile shooter Renee, said they have no clue as to the change of climate, but declared that they are now more concerned about maintaining a competitive and thriving atmosphere for the shooters this year.

The ladies are down to contest the Caribbean Open in Puerto Rico and the Florida Open, both in February.

When contacted, Brown admitted that he had registered a company using the words “Super Six” as part of its name. He said the company is registered in “Jamaica, two other Caribbean countries and Canada”.

“Again, I have no intention to get into a public war of words on this issue. Like any other sport, athletes come and athletes go. Super Six Sport shooting club will be launched very soon [and] proposals to the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of National Security, as well as the FLA (Firearm Licensing Authority), are at an advanced stage,” Brown told the Observer on Monday.

The senior cop said in the interest of protecting the image of the JCF he has avoided being drawn into a public debate on the matter.

“The fact that most members of the Alpha Angels are members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, of which I am also a member, going public with this issue would certainly bring the organisation into disrepute. We are also members of the same club and both organisations are bigger than a spat among a few people,” Brown stated.