Bubbly - Colbie CaillatOutdoor Competitions 2008
13 September 2008 - Greenwood Osterley Autumn Handicap - National round
Now playing:
Bubbly - Colbie Caillat
The annual GOA Autumn handicap is a great shoot, and for once this year was actually really well attended, with 10 full targets, so I'd guess a little over 40 archers turning out. I imagine it was the near perfect weather conditions that brought them to the field! So, a National round for all, plus the Short and Junior versions for the kids, and a chance to just have a bit of fun really, as there's no way I'm ever going to shoot to anywhere near my handicap at the moment.
60 yard dozens were 92, 92, 92, 90 - consistent if nothing else! And looking back in my scores book for this summer, it's the best I've performed at 60 yards, with the exception of Berks County. Quite happy with that. Had it not been for one stupid three in the last dozen, I might have managed 92 for each dozen throughout this section.
Then 50 yards were 90 and 96, giving a final total of 552, which is about 30 points off my PB from this shoot last year, but still below 40 handicap (38) so I'm relatively pleased with that. Could've been better though, and I should be looking at around 100 per dozen at this distance.
It just so happened that I'd also ended on the same number of points as a good friend at the club (not sure about the hits & golds scores), so we decided to do a quick H2H at the last distance to establish who came higher. First arrow, we both scored a 9 and both about the same distance from the centre of the target. Second arrow, we both score an inner red, and again too close to call using just the scope from the line. So a third arrow was called for - mine went straight into the 10 ring, and his hit an outer gold again - YAY!
The only down-side to the day was that with about one dozen arrows to go, I noticed what I thought was a lump of dirt on my long rod - tried to scratch it off with my thumbnail, and it turns out to be a split in one of the carbon rods! Not very happy about that, and I guess it was probably caused when my bow fell on someone else's, or vice versa. So a short trip to Quicks to try out a new rod of the same length, and also one slightly longer. I've opted for the longer one, so we'll see how this performs over time.
7 Sept 2008 - Buckinghamshire County Champs - York
Wire to wire - Razorlight
Couldn’t
really get into this shoot, and I’ve got no real reason as to why. Maybe
tiredness from all the travelling I’ve been doing recently, (Just got back
from
The
usual crack of dawn start saw us trekking up to Aylesbury and driving through
the most horrendous rain showers – and while chatting to junior in the car as
we drove there, we’d decided that if the rain was still coming down when we
got there, then we’d turn round and come home again. Such as it was, the rain
stopped about 10 miles outside the town, and it allowed us to set everything up
in the dry, which I guess was some consolation!
Shooting
on my target with a member of the GB junior recurve squad, a member of the GB
compound team, and another compounder who’s been shooting about 10 years. So
it was clear who was going to come last on this target today then! After having
got some sight marks for the relevant distances yesterday, I was surprised to
see my sighters all hit high and right – rain usually forces the arrows down,
not up! But after 6 shots I was all within the blue, so quite happy with that.
Then the scoring began and although I was hitting the target, everything was
blues and blacks, and a distinct shortage of reds and golds – not quite sure
what to put this down to, but my shot cycle felt good, my arrows were flying
fine and I was even accommodating well for the wind that was blowing them off to
the right – just nowhere near the middle!
So
the dozens at 100yds came in at 60, 49, 48, 47, 60 and 54, making a grand total
of 318 which is about 80 points short of where I was at Berks. To be 13 points
per dozen down is not where I wanted to be! Six misses at this distance didn’t
help, but they don’t amount to 80 points!
Then
80 yards, which looked like: 74, 60, 68, 82. About 30 more points lost on my
Berks score here, and way too many 3’s and 5’s. It was only the last dozen
that made it look respectable!
By
this point I’d given up trying and was just going through the motions to
complete the round now, and as junior was on for a medal and a new county record
for his longbow score on the Bristol 3 I decided to see it through to the end.
60 yards were pretty poor too, with a 98 and 76. Talk about sublime to the
ridiculous! So a final total of 776, (130 points off the Berks score!) it’s a
comfortable First Class score, but only a 42 h’cap which wont do my averages
much good, but over all it was a good shoot, well run, and one that I’ll have
on the calendar again for next year. Sadly we didn’t win the team trophy as we
only took 3 archers, having been let down by one of the team at the last hour
yesterday. C’est la vie!
31 August 2008 - After two Middx Short Metric League matches
Now playing:
All day and all of the night
- The Kinks
Wow, has it really been nearly a month since my last entry here? I cant
believe how quickly the time flies when I’m not doing any shoots! Only done
two shoots this month - Pinner and Harrow Short Metrics, both part of the
Middlesex Short Metric League, and as they were only 6 dozen each, it seemed a
little pointless writing a blog entry for both, so here we are doing two in one!
And to let the reader know just how busy I’ve been over the past few weeks,
I’m actually writing this in the departures lounge in Mumbai airport on my way
back from a week in India – it’s all go at the moment!
So, a fairly crappy 547 at Pinner, which, if I’m honest I couldn’t
really get my heart into shooting. The venue is lovely – a perfectly flat
football pitch which is surrounded on 3 sides by tall leylandeii trees, and
gives a perfectly calm arena to shoot in, but nothing I was shooting was going
anywhere near the middle, at both 50m and 30m and shooting with a junior that
would do no more than barely grunt his scores, never pulled a single arrow out
of the target, and was often late onto the shooting line, and would also walk up
while archers both sides of him were at full draw! Why wont people learn the
etiquette of archery??
We ended up winning that match on actual scores, but lost on handicap
scores, and to be fair, we probably deserved to, as we could barely muster a
strong team of newbies to put up a challenge to Pinner’s beginners – ha!
What a great name for their team! So the upshot of the day was that Pinner are
now level with us on handicap scores, with one more match to play at Harrow next
week, which we must win to take the league. I came away from there thinking we
could so much better at this league thing if we could get more committed members
to play an active part in it all.
So then onto Harrow last weekend – beautiful warm sunshine just after
lunch with barely a breath of wind, and (dare I say it) I’d actually managed
to put together what I thought was a strong team, capable of giving Harrow a
good run for their money on this shoot, both on handicaps and actuals. The first
3 dozen at 50m went scarily well actually, and I found myself calling out quite
a lot of 10’s and 9’s to my target partners as we scored our arrows – and
it transpired that I shot 264, which is a competition PB for me at this distance
– very happy with that!
So after a short break to change distance, we could see storm clouds
gathering on the horizon, and the sky became ominously black overhead, and we
could hear the distant sound of thunder rumbling away – probably the only sort
of weather that would put a stop to the shoot. The first dozen at 30m were
nothing spectacular at 99, but the rain had started by this time, and I shot the
last three arrows in possibly the heaviest rain I’ve ever shot in. It was
monsoon-like! So while we sheltered under tents and umbrellas as the rain
hammered down, the organisers talked and muttered to themselves about the amount
of lightning flashing away, and about how it was becoming increasingly difficult
to continue shooting. So the call went out that we’d stop after we had shot
only one dozen of 30m – shame really, as I reckon I might have been on for
another PB! So after we packed up the soggy gear and totted up the scores
(adding to handicap allowances to the 4 dozen we’d shot) it came out that we
thrashed Harrow in the handicap match, and only lost to them in the actual
scores by around 90 points – so Greenwood Osterley retain the handicap trophy
for the second year running under my control, and we’ve come second in the
actuals competition! A good result really, considering the apathy that was set
into the team earlier in the year!
However, I think now it’s time for me to end my management of the Short
Metric team on a high, and hand over to someone who can perhaps devote a little
more time to things than I currently can. This will hopefully allow me to focus
next year on more ranking shoots which will be further away, and be available
for team selection if the team needs me (and I’m available).
So, only two outdoor shoots left for this summer – the Buckinghamshire
York, and the Double American at Aquarius. It’ll be great to be able to shoot
both of those with no pressure and just enjoy them – maybe even a team trophy
would be good if we all do well enough! Then we'll look to indoors. . .
2 August 2008 - Oxford FITA 70 & H2H
Now playing:
Perfect - Fairground
Attraction
What a lovely location for a shoot! Just an hour up the M40, and tucked away just off the A34, Oxford Archers' ground is shared with Oxford RFC, and, in common with Greenwood Osterley who also share with the local rugby club, the amount of space they have is vast! Today was the last of my ranking shoots, and to be fair it's been so intense for these past few weeks, not just with archery but work as well, I was glad to get to the final shoot. So in essence today was really only about getting one last H2H score, before I can relax and start winding down toward the end of the season. To travel all the way to Oxford just to shoot and score 12 arrows seems a little crazy, and I knew that by the weather I wasn't going to improve on the two FITA 70 scores that I've already got.
So I wont bore the reader with the pre-amble of practice, target allocation and shooting partners (although they were nice enough today, one of which was ranked in the top 10), and, with some level of embarrassment we'll just go straight into the scoring for the morning FITA 70: Dozens were 80, 85, 70, 63, 53, 65. A final total of 416 - how crap is that? Three misses, loads of blacks and whites and generally pretty crap! To only score a Second Class was a little woeful, and although the rain didn't help when it came down after the second dozen, there was no reason to shoot quite this badly! I was rather glad it was all over, and we could go onto the H2H round.
Finishing in a lowly 37th place in the morning (out of 45) meant that my opponent in the first round was going to be someone who had finished somewhere in the top 15 or so (allowing for the top few to get byes), and it was a safe assumption that I was likely to get beaten in the first round. It wasn't helped by the fact that he was telling me that he'd been scoring 50 ends in the morning session and was unhappy with himself! So I relaxed into the shots, tried to calm my nerves a little, and did what I could. After the first end I was 32 - 34 down, but this was clearly not an archer who'd been shooting 50's earlier on! Maybe he was as nervous as I was? After a delay due to a problem in the seeding positions we commenced the second end, and knowing I was already 2 points down, I stepped up to the line, took a deep breath and banged my first arrow straight into the 10 - I needed that! The rest were a mixture of reds and blues, and then my last arrow sailed beautifully into the 9 just next to the one already in the 10. A lovely end of 44 to his 41 saw me go through the next round by 1 point! woohoo!! There is such a feeling of satisfaction in winning your first H2H match!
Then onto the second round match. Against someone I've seen a lot at local shoots recently, and has also been at all the major FITAs and Yorks, and was ranked last year in the top 25 of the UK - no pressure then! And I really think it was the pressure that got to me during the first end of this match, as I put in a terrible 32 (to his 46). Seeing the digital display under our target displaying 46 - 32 was a little embarrassing at this stage of the competition, but I was pleased to see mine wasn't the lowest score! So the second end was just a case of "what the heck" and just shoot. So I rushed my first arrow, and placed it straight into the 9, as my opponent came down off his shot. My second arrow went about an inch to the right of the first, another 9, and my opponent came down again. My third arrow did exactly the same again, another 9, and my opponent came down yet again. I had three 9's in the target and he hadn't even shot an arrow yet! We ended up tying that end on 47 each, but as he already had a lead of 14 points from the first end, he beat me convincingly. But it was a great second end!
So that's it, all my ranking shoots are now done. It's been a tiring six weeks of competitions, and not one that I'd care to repeat in a hurry again. Next year I will definitely try to spread them out more throughout the year. I'm pretty happy with the way things have gone, and with the scores I've got I've exceeded my ambition of 4000 points quite easily, and I reckon it'll place me about 85th in the ranking league - let's see when they're produced later in the year.
27 July 2008 - Andover FITA Star - (Gents FITA)
Now playing:
She makes my day - Robert
Palmer
Yet another ridiculously early start on a Sunday morning had me trekking down the M3 to Andover today, for day 2 of the Andover Double FITA Star. When I arrived I was virtually the first one there and found it a very eerie experience walking along the back of the tent line to my target. I was on target 29, which was only halfway along the line of just over 60 targets, and to see over 200 tents camped in total silence, with the early morning dew just starting to warm up on their tops was quite a strange view. This is by far the largest shoot I've ever been to, and some of the UK's best archers had already staked their claim on the overnight leader board. To see names such as Grant Womack, Mike Peart and James Keogh all having put in scores of way over 1200 for day 1, and very few people with scores of LESS than 1000, I found just a little intimidating.
The sun was already warming the ground up and there was barely a breath of any wind at all, so in theory these were perfect conditions to be shooting in - if anything, a little too warm, but heat never really bothers me. It's the state of mind that matters most.
Shooting with James Keogh, and two Middlesex archers, today was destined to be a combination of trying to have a laugh, and trying to keep up, all at the same time! I then discover that on the target to my right I have Grant Womack, and the target to my left I have Mike Peart - this is like playing kickabout with Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo!
So, after the practice session, which took me all three ends to get near the middle as I was dropping low and right (heat related maybe?), my scoring came in along the following:
90m - 66, 45, 69. Two misses in the middle dozen, but a woeful lack of golds. To start with a 180 was disappointing.
70m - 77, 78, 80. Consistent, if nothing else, but 235 was also disappointing.
50m - 77, 76, 79. Consistency was good here too, just a lack of golds once again. Total of 232 wasn't great.
30m - 100, 99, 104. At least it wasn't like last week, and to end on 303 was some small victory.
So, a final total of 950 was once again very disappointing. My whole state of mind felt wrong at this shoot today, I didn't feel comfortable, the whole thing felt somewhat alien and (dare I it) a little intimidating. I don't think I've ever seen quite so many GBR shirts at one shoot, and listening to them calling out "10, 10, 10" every end was just a little too much. It's a long drive to Andover (over 70 miles) and twice now I've driven there and performed badly in almost perfect shooting conditions. I think I'll stick to shoots in Herts, Essex and around the M25 in future!
20 July 2008 - Surrey FITA Star - (Gents FITA)
Now playing:
Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
I was right - there's no respite this month! Another early start, although a shorter drive to Esher this time, and the anticipation of trying to achieve the same as what I'd done yesterday.
A bad start to the day when I arrived though - when I got to my position on the tent line, lined up with my target, I discover that I've got a "cross-hatched" area marked on the grass as a walkway next to me. No problem there, quite happy with the extra bit of room it afforded me. But then I notice that the people on the target next to mine had set their tent up HALF a tent's width away from the walkway! Leaving insufficient space for anyone to get a tent in the gap! Why do people do this? Can't they see the space they've left? It's like taking up two spaces in a car park!! GRRR! So I set my tent up partly obscuring the doorway to their tent - and let's see if they moan at me!! So not a good start to the day.
So with the usual three ends of practice, and with the cool timing lights with a countdown timer, rather than just traffic lights, I got all my practice arrows on the boss, scoring blue or better, and was fairly happy with my start. Then scoring begins, which came in along the following:
90m - 72, 68, 77 two misses at this distance again but a final figure of 217 was much the same as yesterday. Happy with that again.
70m - 79, 82, 88. No misses here today, and much better than yesterday. Total of 249.
50m - 85, 86, 75 a couple of stupid 4's here. Total of 246
30m - 93, 88, 106. Possibly my worst ever 30m for a long time. Total 287
So a final total of 999. Quite disappointed with that, and to have been 12 points up on yesterday after 50m and then throw away 20 points at 30m was very galling. I think this was down to fatigue, and to be honest I was totally knackered when it came to start the final distance today. I wasn't following through very well, I was sending way too many shots left into the blue and scoring stupid 6's instead of 8's and 9's as I was yesterday. I think I'll spread my FITAs out next year, and not do any doubles.
Still, if I average out the two FITAs from this weekend, it gives me 2004 for the double and an average of 1002 each so it's on track for achieving the 4000 I want to get for a ranking position. I just need to do it one more time at Andover next weekend (60 targets on the target list there, eek!) and one more H2H at Oxford in August.
I know someone who'll laugh at this, but I've done some analysis on my FITA results over the past couple of years, as they're the easiest to break down, and it makes interesting reading. It's on the form page if you're interested.
19 July 2008 - Beds FITA Star - (Gents FITA)
Now playing:
Love of my life - Santana
This weekend was destined to be a tiring one - two FITA Stars back-to-back, a long drive to Bedfordshire for today (which means a 6.30am start!) and a real test of archery stamina. Driving up the M1 back to Ampthill again, we were hit with a massive rain shower and rather worrying crosswinds, and I started thinking to myself that this is not ideal conditions for shooting in! When I saw my target number on the list, I was fearful of being down at the exposed end of the line too (based upon how they'd numbered the targets for the FITA Fest), but I was surprised to see that the numbers went in the opposite direction, so I got the sheltered end of the line - which was very pleasing! The wind was gusting from behind all day though, and proved troublesome during the longer distances.
My goal for today was 1000, and that elusive FITA Star, an EAF Cross of some colour (950 for white, or 1050 for black, not bothered which), and to break my rather shabby PB of 929. What was interesting though, was chatting to my target partner during the day who is the Records Officer for a Surrey club, that shooting to handicap for a long round such as a FITA or a York is almost impossible to do, and he's right - it's relatively easy to get somewhere near handicap for the shorter rounds, but the consistency needed for the longer rounds tends to wreck any handicap score. Just an interesting factlet!
I've also got the "free practice" thing sussed now too - it tends to be three ends of four minutes at most shoots. So I'm using the first two ends to get as many arrows in as possible to get decent sightmarks. Typically I can get about 9-10 arrows per end. Then the third end I'm shooting just six arrows to see where I am in the four minute shooting time. Usually I'm completing the six with around a minute to spare, so I know it's fairly comfortable with the time. It's interesting to watch others take it right to the last few seconds though.
So, the scores came in at
90m - 56, 75, 87 two misses at this distance due to the wind but a final figure of 218 at this distance was a new PB. Happy with that.
70m - 87, 65 with 1 miss, 80. Could've done without the miss here. Total of 232.
50m - 82, 81, 87 a new PB in competition at this distance. Total of 250
30m - 94, 108, 103 A bad start, but recovered well. Total 307
So a final total of 1005, a new PB, my first FITA Star and a white EAF Cross! VERY very happy with that!
It was a great day, and watching some of the pro's like Chris White and Michael Peart shooting in the wind was very inspiring. They just simply don't get affected by it at all! Now onto another one of these tomorrow at Surrey!
13 July 2008 - Berkshire County Champs - York
Now playing:
Wonderful World - Louis
Armstrong
What a perfect day for archery! I woke this morning and the sun was streaming in through the blinds and there was barely a cloud in the sky – today, I thought to myself, was going to be a good day!
There’s something about shooting at Windsor – on the past two occasions I’ve been here the sun has always shone, and today was no exception – warm balmy sunshine, barely a breath of wind, and perfect conditions for shooting. I had two main objectives today – attempting to beat my York PB and hopefully get a white rose for a score of 800 or more.
Shooting with a complete newbie from another club, in his first ever competition, and was shooting longbow scores (with a recurve bow), I was left to try and find my own inspiration and challenge from the day.
So we step up for sighters and my first arrow goes straight into the grass underneath the target – cosmic! I cant blame the weather for a bad performance today, and I don’t need a bad start to the day like this! The remaining sighters all found their target, and I was very pleased to see them in the blue or better. Bearing in mind this is 100 yards, I’m usually grateful to get them scoring at all, let alone near the middle!
Then the marathon starts of six dozen at 100 yards, and they come in at 72, 68, 78, 72, 57 and 52. The last two dozen were pretty awful, and clearly a result of fatigue setting in – I was in need of sustenance! Still, with the good couple of dozen earlier in the session, to finish the session on 399 was 99 more than I was hoping for! With only one miss at this distance, I was very happy indeed.
After a long lunch break and some great words of advice from people who had shot here before, I was looking forward to the 80 yard section, with a view of consolidating my standing of 3rd place as Gents Visitor. I was 50 or so points ahead of him, but I know he’s a far better archer than me and quite capable of making those points up, so I needed to make sure that things went well here. The dozens here came in at 68, 90, 86 and 72. Fairly happy with those, although again fatigue played a part, as I started to fade away for the last dozen. To finish 10 dozen on 715 was very nice, and I knew that 800 was fairly safe.
Then the last two dozen were rather bizarre – I hit 9,9,9,9,7,5 four times in a row! Making two sets of 96, and totally busting my target of 800. Then when the score was added up, I realise to myself that I’ve hit 907!! I really wasn’t expecting that today! Finally I’ve earned a York Rose, a black one at that, and guess what? Yet another new PB! I really love shooting at Windsor, and a shoot I’ll definitely be doing again! I also finished in 3rd place as Gents Visitor, and it's only 6 points off a Bowman score. . . . If it hadn't been for those last two dozen at 100!
So the target of the rose this year has been achieved - now onto three FITAs over the next two weekends - no respite this month!
12 July 2008 - Clophill FITA Fest (FITA 70 & H2H)
Now playing:
Live with me - Rolling Stones
It's been a while since my last entry - the last two shoots I wasn't able to attend, either due to family commitments or bad weather. (The Herts York last week was a total washout, so I didn't go) So although I haven't shot competitively for a while, I've been practising almost nothing but 70m for the past couple of weeks with today in mind.
The first time I saw the target list for this shoot it made me nervous just reading it! Seeing names on the target list like Simon Terry, Michael Peart and Naomi Folkard, who will be going off to Beijing in a couple of weeks to represent GB at the Olympics, and this shoot was seen as one of their "warm up" shoots in preparation for it! And shooting on my target was Rikki Bingham, also a GB archer in the compound team. This was pretty scary competition! It's also my first ever Head to Head competition, and I was keen not to let myself down. I did find the "international archers" posing about in their GB shirts though, and talking of "hitting 700" a little bit unnecessary. Maybe it comes with being that good, but I've never been a fan of such arrogant boasting. Today I wanted to put into practice the lessons I learned at Rivernook, and also take something from today's experience, in terms of how a Head to Head (H2H) works, and to watch some of the best archers in the country do their stuff.
Shooting again with traffic lights (see the Rivernook write up for details), although this time without the countdown timer on the display, we just had the series of bleeps to let us know when to shoot, and when not to. Practice started promptly at 8:45am, and I was determined to get as many arrows in as possible in two of the ends, and then do a "dry run scoring end" for the last end. What was nice too, was that as there was only one detail of three archers, and no A / B detail, so not only did the whole thing run very quickly, but practice was at least 4, maybe 5 ends - to be fair I lost count! So I got 9-10 arrows off in each of my practice ends, in the allotted 4 minutes, and felt very comfortable about dealing with the swirling wind that had picked up.
The scoring started, and the first three dozen came in at 80, 89, 79. Hmm, that's nothing particularly spectacular - and only 248 for the first three dozen! We then had a short break, and I tried getting hold of my "advisor" for some words of encouragement, only to discover that they'd gone shopping! So the next three dozen were a stark difference at 93, 91, 101 - that's more like it! 285 for the last three dozen, and a final total of 533 (36 h'cap) was very pleasing indeed. And guess what? Another new PB!
Then onto the afternoon's H2H. The result from the morning had me seeded 36th (out of about 60), so because of that, it was nice to be up against someone of a similar ability as me (the seeding works as follows - first place shoots against last place, second place against second last, and so on. Meaning that those in the middle are drawn against someone of a similar seeding). When I got to my target, I discover that my opponent was one of my target partners from the morning session! It was the first time of doing a H2H for both of us, and it was nice to see a friendly face to shoot against. At this stage you only get 12 arrows, so they all have to count. My first end was a 36 (implying a 72 dozen), which, quite frankly was total pants! My nerves at this point were jangling, and the blood was banging hard in my veins - I've never shot under this pressure before! I had to make amends in the second half dozen, which thankfully came in at 45 (meaning I could have shot a 90), giving me 81 for the dozen. My opponent scored 83. . . . Never mind, it was a great experience, and I'll definitely do more of these again!
I then stuck around for the rest of the afternoon to watch the GB team slowly destroy the rest of the field, and boil themselves down to the final two. What was very amusing though, was to watch the expression on Simon Terry's face when he realised he'd missed the first end in one of his matches, and was only able to shoot six arrows in the second end, and although he scored 56 in that end, he was easily eliminated! Even the best make mistakes sometimes!
22 June 2008 - Greenwood Osterley Short Metric Match (Gents FITA)
Now playing:
Something so right - Annie Lennox
Our one and only home match for the Middlesex Short Metric League (I deliberately arrange to try and only have one home fixture, so that it's less to organise, and we then only have to get one set of archers together!). Today were were shooting against Spelthorne, Pinner and Aquarius - the round is a Short Metric, which is essentially the afternoon half of a full FITA, so we invited those that wanted to, to shoot a full FITA with us for the morning session too.
I have to say though, that I was extremely surprised by how much the wind affected everything at the longer distances today - we were shooting virtually up against the club house, on the Grasshoppers first team pitch, so we were sheltered from the wind on the shooting line, and the arrows were sheltered for about the first 50m. Once they got to the targets at 90m and 70m though, they were tank slapping all over the place, and veering off left, right and high! Today's conditions were really deceptive, and I learned a lot about shooting in the wind - especially from one of our team members who broke his 90m PB today, and scored 268!!
Sighters were ok, with all arrows on the target, so I was quite hopeful of breaking my FITA PB today. Then the dozens came in at:
90m - 61, 36 (with one end of just 8 points!), 55 with 7 misses in total, and a final figure of 152 at this distance
70m - 65, 83, 85 with 1 miss. Total of 233
50m - 86, 78, 73 a new PB in competition. Total of 237
30m - 103, 97, 107 This distance felt good today. Total 307
So a final total 929 (43 h'cap 1st Class, and a new PB for the FITA), with the Short Metric score of 544 (40 h'cap). I'm only going to enter the Short Metric as my score for the day, but I'm very happy with getting into the 900's for the FITA, and for my new PB at 50m. Bearing in mind the windy conditions, I know only too well that I should safely be able to add another 80 points to that figure if conditions had been better. I'll hopefully be doing just that when I do the three FITA Star shoots next month! (Bedfordshire, Surrey, and Andover). What's also encouraging is that I can shoot a 12 dozen round with almost no stiffness at all in my back afterwards, and I was merrily shooting again the day after in the back garden. My shoulder aches have all but gone away, and (dare I say it?) I'd almost consider looking at getting heavier limbs, or winding the poundage on the bow up a little, to try and combat windy conditions like today.
I enjoyed running the shoot this afternoon, the team shot exceptionally well, and we beat all three of the other teams on both handicap scores and actual scores - so a good start to the SM League for us with a clean sweep of home results. Well done team!
14 June 2008 - Rivernook Double FITA 70
Now playing:
Still - Foo Fighters
What a fantastic ground to shoot at! Secluded around the back of the Metropolitan Police sports & social club in Esher, with football, cricket and equestrian areas, and the archery field is a very sheltered field with trees along the sides and a huge leylandii wall along the back of the targets, so it was extremely sheltered and we had virtually no wind all day long. This was the first ever "FITA Premier Status" and World Record Status even I've ever shot at, and I have to admit to being rather nervous as I set off at the crack of dawn for an 8:30 start. When I arrived at a little after 7:30, there were already people setting up tents, who were clearly even earlier risers than me - some had even camped overnight.
So 8:30 comes around, and there's no assembly, no whistle, just a "Dalek-like" beep from the timers at either side of the field. The lights had turned green, and the field was open for practice. Shooting in our AB and CD details, I stupidly thought that we were allowed to only shoot 6 arrows per end during practice, but in actual fact you get 4 minutes per detail to shoot as many as you want - all 12 if you can get them in in time! My first end of practice arrows all went high and right, one even went over the top into the grass. Now bearing in mind I'd spent nearly two hours shooting 70m on Friday evening, and regularly getting 40+ ends, I was rather disappointed to see my practice arrows so far from the gold when I hadn't altered my sight at all. Still, after 45 minutes of practice (3 ends), I was back on the gold again. I wish GNAS shoots could do this!
Then everything stopped for assembly and equipment inspection... A bit weird this, I thought - why not do it before everything starts? Still, this was another new experience for me, having my bow and gear inspected before you're allowed to shoot. The judges are looking for illegal sighting mechanisms on your bow (like marks on your string, or a lens in your sight ring), your arrows have to be individually identifiable with your initials or name, and each have to be numbered, and they inspect your tab for anything that make a sight of some sort too. There was a moment when one of the judges thought the centre serving on my string might be a little too high, in case I could line my eye up on the end of it, so made me draw the bow up to full draw, but it was fine - thankfully!
So with a 5 minute warning, we commenced shooting. No whistle, just the beep of the traffic lights, and the timer counting down from 4 minutes each end. This was the bit I was most nervous about, as I couldn't bear to be beeped off the line for taking too long. I've practised timed shooting at the club, and I've never even got close to 4 minutes for 6 arrows, but under competition conditions always makes things seem more intense. For those that haven't done it before, it's actually quite simple, and there really is loads of time - the sequence is:
First beep (1 beep) – You have 20 seconds to walk onto the line, and nock an arrow, (but not shoot it!) the light stays red until the 20 seconds elapsed.
Second beep (2 beeps) – The light goes green and the countdown timer will count backwards from 240 seconds. You have this time to shoot all 6 arrows in one single detail. With 30 seconds to go till the end of 4 minutes, the light will go amber. You can still carry on shooting.
Third beep (3 bleeps) – Stop shooting. The light will go red, and you better hope you've shot all your arrows by this time! If you haven't, and you shoot an arrow on the red light, your highest scoring arrow will be deducted from that end.
There really is loads of time to get all your shots away, but I found myself coming down on one or two shots through the day, and as soon as you do, you look over at the timer and immediately start panicking and rush the next shot. Then you get to the end of your 6 arrows and you see you've still got 30 seconds to kill! I'll remember next time I shoot with lights not to panic so easily.
So, the morning session came in at 89, 83, 84, 76, 86 and 85. The 76 was pitiful, and I had so many 3's and 4's that it was only the one single 10 that brought up the average on this dozen. Still, ended the morning with 503, which was only 6 points off my PB, so I wasn't too unhappy with that as I knew I was capable of a lot more. Still, I was very happy to get over the 500 mark as this is the first score needed for a FITA target award (white), and slightly over the halfway mark for 1000 for the day, which was my primary objective.
8 June 2008 - Windsor at Windsor
Now playing:
The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra
I think the Windsor at Windsor is fast becoming my favourite tournament on the circuit! It's a beautiful setting, in a fantastic location, and Her Maj always seems to be in residence when it's on!
Shooting on a target with a couple of juniors (one of whom I shot with last year here too) and a newbie from Richmond, I was quite confident that I'd be the highest scoring archer on our target - little things like that always make me feel better about my shooting! (It'll be a completely different story next week, when I shoot at my first Premier Event of the year at Rivernook!) Today was the culmination of a wonderful 3 day weekend - a fantastic time with some friends on Friday afternoon, followed by the Foo Fighters in concert at Wembley Stadium in the evening, then the GOA club barbeque Saturday, (where I burned my fingers, like a stupid boy!) and rounded off with today at Windsor in glorious sunshine and perfect shooting conditions. Shooting with a few good friends from AIUK on nearby targets, the whole competition was a very pleasant way to spend a sunny Sunday.
What was even more amusing was a certain archer, renowned for taking his time on the line, and for coming down from his shots at least 3 times per end, was actually slow clapped off the line today! He's become the talking point of many archers in the region now, and you can guarantee that if he's in the competition then he'll be the last on the line, almost every end. Someone said that we think he comes down off his shots more in one end than most people do in an entire competition! I think we counted that he came down from one of his shots 5 times before he finally released it, to the slow clapping of everyone else - he was most annoyed, but it was very amusing! He finally received a warning from the judges at that point, and his antics then miraculously stopped!
So, onto the shooting: 60 yards were 90, 94, 98. A couple of bad 5's here, but otherwise everything was red or better. 50 yards came in at 94, 96, 90. Yes, those mathematicians reading this will see that this is actually 2 points worse than my 60 yard score. . . . Again, a few bad 5's was the major factor here, and I probably lost about 15 points at this distance. 40 yards ended on 96, 102, 96. About average, but even at this distance there was no six gold end! Still, a final total of 856 (38 h'cap) and a new PB by 14 points, which I'm very happy about. I'd set myself a mental target of 850 for the day, so was very pleased to beat it.
All in all a great way to end a wonderful three days, and I'm feeling a lot better about my shooting once again. Now onto the serious stuff next weekend. . . .
1 June 2008 - Greenwood Osterley Junior Open - Albion
Now playing:
Tailor Made - Colbie Caillat
Greenwood Osterley's Junior Open is always a fairly laid back affair, and is predominantly aimed at juniors competing against one another, but adults can shoot providing they have a sprogg in tow. Adults shoot an Albion round, and then the junior's score is added to make a combined score for the overall total. A great way to encourage the kids and to form a "team" related score with your kid.
So, an Albion round - not done one of these since Richmond back in April, when I shot appallingly badly, so I was keen to make sure those particular ghosts were buried, and to prove to myself that I can shoot an Albion and get a reasonable score from it again. Shooting with two fantastic ladies from Mayflower and Aquarius, and Colin P. from our club, I was keen to make sure that today went well. The weather was perfect (not too hot, no wind at all, and perfect shooting conditions really).
80 yards came in at 82, 84 and 70 - two stupid 3's in the last dozen knocked the average down a little bit, but otherwise fairly pleased with this level of scoring. Then at this point a leader board went up, and I was shocked to see that I was leading the Gents recurve, and (predictably, because she never thinks she's any good, but in fact she's a bit special) my target partner from Mayflower was leading the ladies! Those of you that have been reading this journal for a while will know that my opinion of leader boards in none too high, and I tend to ignore them - I think they are the work of the Devil!
60 yards were 88, 86 and 82 - again let myself down in the last dozen here, and even managed to score a 1! At least it wasn't a miss. The leader board still had both me and my target partner at the top at the end of this section too.... Frankly I'd rather not know!
The 50 yards were finished off with 98, 90, and 100. The worst shot in this section was one 5, but otherwise I was quite happy with this distance today. Ending on a final total of 780.
It wasn't until I'd added up my score that I realised that this is in fact a new PB! Blimey, I wasn't expecting that today! A full 8 points on top of my Albion PB from last year, a comfortable First Class score, and most importantly a 39 h'cap - finally we're back into the 30's again! My mate from Mayflower also hit a new PB, maintained her First Class status for this year (pretty damn brilliant really, considering she's shooting at 4 months pregnant!) and she won the ladies Albion quite comfortably too. What was also great was that my score, combined with junior's gave us a final total of 1330 and first place in the Parent & Guardian category! So, two trophies from the day, and a great day's shooting all in all! What's even nicer is that my back and shoulder feel great after today's 9 dozen, and I'm feeling a bit more confident in my abilities once again.
18 May 2008 - Laleham FITA
Now playing:
Something About Us - Clay
Aiken
I do enjoy the Laleham FITA! It's a fairly sizeable shoot (nearly 30 targets), and attended by about 150 archers mostly from west London clubs, but also many from further afield like Essex and Sussex. This is the first FITA I've shot since last summer, so as it's a 12 dozen round I'm keen to keep these shoots coming so I can work on my stamina for later in the year when the FITA's become more serious. This was a non-record status shoot, so really just a practice day for the SCAS FITA next weekend. The weather decided to play the major part in the day though, and although we stayed dry all day long, the wind was a battle right from the first arrows shot. Blowing from left to right all day long, and constantly keeping the target flags horizontal, I had to wind the windage on my sights in a full 6 turns to get on to the target at 90m, and even then I was aiming at the black at 9 o'clock! Arrows were flying down the range almost sideways, and by the time the longest distances were over the left side of all the targets were virtually untouched!
After a delayed start, as all the juniors' targets (Metric 1 to 4) were all positioned 10m too short (doh!!) and they only discovered the hard way when their sighters all sailed over the top. Thankfully they were allowed to shoot them again once the targets had been moved back to the correct distances.
90m came in at 28, 50 and 55. (133). 4 misses here, all in the first dozen, and that was purely down to trying to get the hang of the windy conditions.
70m were 67, 77 and 79. (223). Nothing spectacular here. 2 points short of my PB, but with two stupid misses where the string came off my fingers when I simply wasn't ready to release the shot.
50m was 86, 60, and 73 (219). The middle dozen was just awful and I had six 3's here - just bad shooting and struggling with the wind.
30m was 99, 98 and 97 (294). Fairly happy with that, considering the wind, but I was hoping for a 300 to finish on, and had it not been for a stupid 2 (again due to a bad release) then I would have achieved it.
So, a final total of 869 (a 45 h'cap) which is nothing to shout about, and 4 points off my (crap) PB. Given the conditions, and having seen the results list, I'm not too unhappy with that. It was interesting to see that only one archer scored 144 hits today. Looking at my morning scores compared to the afternoon scores, my Long Metric score of 356 (46 h'cap) is a little worse than my Short Metric score of 513 (44 h'cap), and this was after a tiring morning shooting against the wind too. Proof, if it were needed, that I really need more practice at the longer distances.
Still, the team finished in first place for the overall team trophy (sadly without my score), and it was a good day out, but a bad day's shooting. Although I have learned a lot about how to shoot in the wind!
On a slightly sad note to end this entry though, my nemesis, who I've been shooting against since I started (Nick T) has decided to semi-retire from archery this season due to personal circumstances and an illness in his family, so I'll no longer have his scores to compare mine against. I wish him and his family well, and look forward to shooting against him again when he returns.
11 May 2008 - Whiteleaf Invitational (Hereford)
Now playing:
I'll still love you more -
Tricia Yearwood
I've not done this shoot before, and was keen to be "part of the team" when it was announced, as personal scores don't count here and all points go towards the team total. After the shoulder problems I've been having recently, and managing to find a way of drawing the bow without any pain, I was very interested to see how it would stand up to a 12 dozen round.
So the setting was idyllic - in the middle of the Chiltern Hills, we had wildlife all around us, including a hovering pair of red kites, bluebells in the shade of the trees, horses in a nearby field, and because of how high the field is, views to die for! We even had a fly-past from a WWII Lancaster and Spitfire at one point! The English countryside really is lovely when you're outside London.
Oh yes, the shooting - in blazing heat, and a troublesome wind blowing into our faces from the right, the 80 yard section was a challenge to say the least. I was shooting on a very lovely Danage foam boss, (not shot one of these before, and you can appreciate why they use them at all the top tournaments) it was extremely kind to the arrows, and made pulling them out, even the compound arrows, a joy. The wind was driving everything low, and we were having to aim at 2 o'clock blue to hit the gold. There was little consistency in the scoring arrows at this distance, but a very interesting pattern emerged with the dozen scores - 60, 76, 67 (with a miss) 76, 67 (with a miss) and 60. Fair to middling, I think. the two 76s were nice, the two 67s both had misses and the two 60s were just the wrong frame of mind I think. I was shooting with Gary R from Spelthorne today, who's of a similar ability to me and I was determined to beat him, and we were about 10 points apart after 80 yards, so 60 yards required some concentration. Dozens here came in at 94, 84, 96 and 96 - very happy with those, and on a par with my last Hereford at Woking last year. Then 50 yards were a dream to shoot, coming in at 98 and 100, again very comparable with last year. So a final total of 974, a comfortable First Class, and a 40 handicap. I'm quite happy with that, compared to how we were two weeks ago at Andover. Looking back at my scores from Woking though, I ended up 100 points down on my PB, all of which I lost at 80 yards - must work harder on that, as that is where most of the points are to be had. However, taking the scores in isolation the afternoon session represented a National round, and my score for this would have been 568 - a 35 h'cap and well into Bowman territory!
Still, I'm very pleased with how my form feels at the moment - I'm following through really well, (clipping my earlobe with my thumb), the shots feel powerful, stable and very consistent (especially at the shorter distances), and I'm able to feel the difference between a good shot and a mediocre one . What I find interesting though, was that as we were drawing towards the end of the shoot, Gary and several others were clearly feeling the fatigue beginning to kick in, and there was a lot of shaking of heads and dropping of bow arms as the heat was taking its toll. Tiredness plays a major factor in a 12 dozen round, and for the first time in ages I felt strong and perfectly happy to keep on shooting - I could quite happily have shot another 4 or 5 dozen more! I think a lot of that is down to practice though, and this week I've shot every night, a minimum of 4 dozen each day and since last Sunday I think I've probably shot around 50-60 dozen arrows. My shoulder feels good, my back feels great - just need to keep this up now.
4 May 2008 - Greenwood Osterley Archers' Spring Handicap (Western)
Now playing:
You make loving fun -
Fleetwood Mac
The annual spring handicap shoot at GOA, Western rounds (of ones' own choosing) and a good opportunity for me to use this as practice to ascertain what's going on with my archery at the moment. As I've been shooting so badly lately, I opted for a standard Western rather than the Long or New variant, at least that way the chances of missing the target are minimised!
At various shoots lately and in practice yesterday for this shoot, I'd still been experiencing a great deal of pain in my drawing shoulder when I came up to full draw, and I hadn't really paid much attention to it until the pain became intolerable even after 2-3 days after a shoot. What I'd also noticed was that just as I was getting to the full draw position, my drawing shoulder would 'pop' slightly out of it's socket. This is something that I've referred to in earlier journal entries, and I'd always paid no attention to it. Like I said, I've never really paid any heed to the pain, and just worked around it, and shot through it. It's only now that I've been noticing my scores gradually worsening over the past few months that I've connected the bad run of form with my shoulder issues. Then yesterday came a revolution - I managed to start getting the bow to full draw by aligning the shoulder slightly differently, and without the socket popping out at all. Whoosh! This feels good! So I shot a another three dozen at 80 yards, and about a further four at 60 and 50 yards to get sightmarks for today. The most noticeable difference in this draw style is that my sightmarks are 4-5 points lower than they used to be. Might have to spend one afternoon soon getting a new set of marks to accommodate this style. But what I noticed yesterday was even after having shot about seven dozen arrows, there was no pain at all - this is good! My shooting style and accuracy have gone out of the window, but I can work on those over the coming months if it means I can shoot without spending 3 days following a shoot in pain and stiffnes, and having to contemplate Pilates classes!
So I fear that my scores will take a while before they'll improve again, until I figure out the best way to shoot like this, but I'm getting a good follow-through, the bow is rolling fine after each shot, and I now just need to work on shot consistency once again.
For the record, today was an improvement on last weekend, and my dozens at 60 yards were 76, 90, 84, and 86, and the 50 yard section came in at 94, 88, 84, and 92. Making a final total of 694, which is a distinctly average 43 handicap. (scary to think I was shooting 88's at 80 yards last year) but I can live with that, as it's an improvement on my previous handicap score and as long as I now work on getting through a shoot with no pain I'll be happy. The rest should follow...
27 April 2008 - Andover Saxon Shoot (York)
Now playing:
A Kiss from a Rose - Seal
This journal is beginning to sound like a lament now, for which I make no apology. It's intended as a record of my own progress in this sport, and only writing about happy things and positive results will simply be an unbalanced record of happenings. So, for every up there has to be a down, and this is a big down! Therefore you can probably guess where this entry is going to go, so if you're looking for some good news or a sign of how things are improving, then I suggest you go read something else.
The Andover Saxon shoot is the first 12 dozen round I've shot since about last September, so today was going to be a test of whether I can get through a full York round, and also to see how competitive my shooting is over the longest distance. I was pleased to be drawn on the target that I got, with some mere mortals as only two targets down was Julian Piper (ranked No.25 in the UK), showing most of us how things should be done. There were only a handful of GOA archers at the shoot, so it was nice to make some new friends and at the same time focus on nothing but the shooting. The weather was almost dead calm, and with the exception a huge downpour during the first dozen which soaked everything, it was almost perfect shooting conditions. So we can't blame anything on the weather either.
Sighters were about average - couple of reds, couple of blues and a couple of blacks - fairly happy with a 30, which would give me an average of 60 per dozen at that rate. If I can keep to that level or slightly better I'll be very happy indeed. Considering that during practice earlier in the week I was hitting 60-70 per dozen I was on good form that I might get somewhere close to 800 for a white rose, which was my target for the day. Then the rain came, which spoiled things a little, and I knew that this would not only lower the arrows, but potentially lower the scores too. So the 100 yard section dozens came in the form of 32, 45, 52, 30, 46, and 40. An average of just over 40 per dozen. To say I was disappointed with this was an understatement! To be in with a chance of 800 for the rose, we should be somewhere near 300 at this point, and 245 was woefully inadequate. Only 53 hits at this stage too, out of 72 arrows...
Then after lunch the 80 yard section was no better - 42, 56, 72, and 65. Not only was it all incredibly inconsistent, but the whole distance felt uncomfortable, tense and just all wrong. I wouldn't mind if it was ALL bad, but to go from 42 to 72 and with an average of 58 per dozen, I just couldn't figure out where I was going wrong. I was missing (among other things) high, low, left and right, and chasing the arrows all over the target with sightmarks. It was actually very disheartening to be shooting today, to be fair. The lure of a compound bow is still there.
Then the 60 yard section came, and by this time I was beyond caring what I scored, and simply went through the motions of shooting as well as I could just to get to the end. I knew that there was going to be no rose, no First Class, no PB, and no h'cap improvement, so I was simply in the frame of mind of "wtf" and just shoot rather than retire. These two dozen were 90 and 84 - with a 52 in the first dozen! Just goes to show that I haven't quite lost it, and indeed the 60 yard section average of 87 is almost Bowman level! Go figure...! So a final total of 654, a lousy Second Class and a pitiful handicap of 46. I'm just glad it's all over!
One slightly sobering thought though - I shot better in the pouring rain at last years Middlesex Championships, which was my first ever York, and with fewer misses. That puts today into context of how truly bad it was! Still, there'll be other rose award shoots throughout the year, so things can only get better (I hope!) But right now I'm wondering to myself where it's all going wrong, and where do I start to put things right again?
20 April 2008 - Greenwood Osterley Archers' St George / Albion
Now playing:
Patience - Guns 'n' Roses
At last, a shoot in springtime that actually had "some" springtime weather! (well, we had no rain, snow or hail anyway!) And it just had to be a Greenwood Osterley shoot! Pah! These other clubs just don't know how to go about ordering the weather for their shoots do they? So, the GOA St George invite shoot, in which Greenwood Osterley invites its many friends to a shoot and then a spot of tea afterwards - all very convivial really! So we had all the regulars from Laleham, Spelthorne, Whiteleaf, Aquarius and a few others, including some new guests from Mayflower in Essex. GOA's "friends list" is widening, and I dare say some of us will be venturing to the other side of the M25 before long!
I hadn't realised until just before the weekend though, that the last time I'd shot 100 yards was at the GOA Club Championships last August - which was also a St George round. So a quick couple of evenings' practice was needed last week to get some sight marks and try and get the hang of shooting that far again. I'm very pleased that I did, as there's a lot of difference between shooting 80 yards and 100 yards, and all my proper competitions this year are either 100 yards (or 90m).
In windy conditions, the first three dozen came in at 50, 62 and 60 - only 4 points behind where I was at the same stage last week at Richmond, and this was shooting 100 yards rather than 80! I was fairly happy with that. Then the 80 yards started abysmally with a 48, 64 and then 80. (the 80 was where I was shooting last summer, so it proves it can still be done). The first half dozen were scarily bad though - I put one arrow 3 feet to the left of the target, and another 3 feet to the right! Then another one in the X ring! I'm still not confident I have a proper sight mark for 80 yards yet, but it got better as we went on, so hopefully things will improve through the year. Then 60 yards were fairly unspectacular at 82, 88 and 80 - all about 10 points down on where I should be, but at least consistent. So a final total of 614 - a First Class score and a better handicap rating than last week at 43. I'm pleased it's a First, but not so pleased it's above 40 - let's hope things improve, fast!
I think a lot of my approach to my shooting is my mental game, rather than my physical. It's the simple belief that I "CAN" shoot well when I want to, and I "CAN" shoot badly when I don't! Get myself in the correct frame of mind, and the rest should follow. I was shooting with Gary W on my target today (former Middlesex Champion) and he had the unfortunate problem of snapping his riser only a week ago. So earlier this week he went out and bought a new W&W Inno, spent about two hours getting it roughly set up at the shop, and turned up today with only rough guesses for sight marks. He ended the day in second place on 753! Now that's belief in your ability!
All in all it was a lovely day's shooting, the company was excellent, and all our friends have said how much they enjoyed the day - GOA's hospitality is legendary!
13 April 2008 - Richmond Pagoda (Albion)
Now playing:
The Distance Between Us - Sophie
Ellis Bextor
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! The highs and lows of archery... After shooting in Arctic-like conditions a couple of weeks ago at Spelthorne, today we had downpours that resembled the monsoons of India! The judges even suspended shooting for 15 minutes when a particularly heavy shower dumped itself upon us. Unfortunately the shooting wasn't much better either. After practicing 80 yards for the past week or so at the club, I've been struggling to get anything like the groups I should be happy with, and over the recent few days my sight marks have been gradually climbing higher and higher up my sight scale - to the point now where they are about 4 points higher than usual. My draw weight hasn't changed, my clicker hasn't moved position, and (I think) my form is more or less the same. I have no idea why my sightmarks should have gained so much though. Suffice to say though, that my first end at 80 yards in practice during last week, nearly every arrow went sailing over the top. Then everything went 2 feet to the left. And so the problems continued. It wasn't until I'd shot 4 dozen arrows that I got all 6 inside the red.
So I started this morning picking up a fellow club mate, and whilst waiting for him in the car feeling more and more nervous about how today was going to go - I just had a horrible feeling it was all going to go so badly. Still - positive mental attitude and all that, and as long as I don't finish last on the results list we can use today as a test to see what's going wrong.
So we start with 80 yards, and promptly stick two into the grass to the right of the target. Fantastic - yesterday at the club they were all going left, and after adjusting the windage to compensate, today we start by going to the right instead - see what I mean? The dozens for this distance were 46 (with two misses), 62 and 68. First class scores at this distance should be averaging 64. Pretty bloody awful really. The weather wasn't helping, but this really was bad - at least we had no more misses. Then came 60 yards - now bear in mind that an average 1st Class score should be about 81 per dozen at this distance, mine came in at 72, 76, and 82. Woeful! By the 50 yards distance, apathy had set in and I just stood on the shooting line hoping that it would all end very soon and I could go home - I was cold, wet, and thoroughly hacked off with the whole shoot. I managed to scrape 90, 82 and 80 out of the last section and by the time the judge had blown for the end of the shoot I was virtually all packed away! A ridiculous 658, Second Class score and a 47 handicap - I haven't shot this badly since Feb 2007, and I feel thoroughly fed up with the whole thing. In fact, to the point of which, I even discussed taking up the compound bow with a club mate. I wonder what the Helix and the Extremes will fetch on EBay?
Still, on the bright side, Wendie, a new friend from Mayflower stormed to win the ladies competition with a crazy score of 870-something, which was incredible shooting, and several other friends scored new PB's so I'm really pleased for them all.
Writing this the day after the shoot, the stiffness in my shoulder feels non-existent, so that's a good sign, and we now move slightly up a gear with the competitions, with the first Rose award shoot in two weeks' time - *shudder* - I hope things improve a bit before then!
And here we all are!
24 March 2008 - Spelthorne Opening Shoot
Now playing:
She Is Love - Oasis
Wow, what a difference a year makes! This time last year I came away from this shoot feeling dejected and thoroughly hacked off with my shooting - today was a totally different matter. With one exception - the weather!
Again, this is the first outdoor shoot for me this "summer" and a chance to try to remember the etiquette of shooting outdoors - shooting ends of 6 arrows in 3 + 3 stints, stepping off the line but not putting your bow down as you'll be back in about 2 minutes to shoot again, and shooting in windy conditions. None of which I've done since about last October! This shoot is all a bit light-hearted, and none of it was taken too seriously, hence the reason the shoot is done over strange distances, 70 yards and 45 yards, but it's a great opening to the outdoor season.
Shooting with Jenny C from Harrow, and a few people from other clubs that I haven't met before, it was nice to be able to get away from all the hassles of indoors, and have nothing to focus on other than my shooting. At least they got the distances right this year when they set the field up, and we were all very pleased to hit the target with our sighters - which mine thankfully landed in the gold and red. Fairly happy with that. Then we stepped up to the line for the first end of scoring arrows, and the field just turned white! The snow was coming down right into our faces, and it was a type of snow that seemed to be a cross between hail and sleet - hard little lumps of ice that settled onto your face AND made you wet and cold in the process - NOT good shooting conditions at all! At one point we could barely make out the targets at the end of the field, and could certainly not see the arrows flying to their destination. Hoping for the dull thud at the end of the range was the only indicator that the target had been hit. I can safely say that I have never shot in conditions like this before, but everyone was still smiling, lobbing chunks of ice at each other, and just getting on with it - all a very happy occasion really!
My dozen scores came in at 72, 82 and 76 for the 70 yards distance (a clear sign that I'm still not hitting my full form yet, despite the weather), and for 45 yards they were 96, 98, and 102 (ending on a 6 gold end, just as I did last year). So a final total of 526 for the six dozen, which is about 110 points higher than last year. So I definitely wont be propping up the bottom of the results sheet this year (in fact I finished up 3rd place), and even though I'm nowhere near shooting to my potential just yet, I'm happy that the outdoor season has started on such a positive note. Roll on the summer!