Month: September 2017

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Sunday was the club annual Longbow day. The shooting consisted of a National round in the morning, followed by the notorious mini Pope and Young round in the afternoon, topped off by a wand shoot. All very light-hearted and definitely not to be taken too seriously.

A rather suspicious looking start of the day, weather-wise, was ignored by all who turned up. As it turned out we were treated to almost perfect archery weather conditions. Bright, but without the glare of direct sun; still and dry. You would have thought the scores might have reflected those conditions. Not a bit of it; that would have meant serious concentration… and we didn’t want any of that nonsense.

The numbers may have been lacking, but the atmosphere was not. Ronan turned up looking slightly bewildered until the day’s programme was explained to him. In true Irish style, he shrugged, grinned and was game to join in. He was presented with a bow and arrows and the grin got wider.
The National was just the warm up. The insults and abuse were subdued, no doubt being stored up for the afternoon.

The Pope and Young proved to be it’s usual chaotic, entertaining, frustrating round. (I still can’t believe the number of times I missed that damn boar !!!)

Alan, on the other hand got the measure of the bear, his bête noire from last year.

Ronan surprise us all, himself included, by chucking down numerous kills, and Val, following her ‘on form’ shooting the previous Sunday was repeatedly in the scoring zone. Sue and Barry turned up; Sue to shoot, and Barry to go to sleep. (Yes, it was that exciting.)

During scoring, the comment about ‘someone must be trying’ was laughed out of court, and the banter continued.

Thanks to Roger, who turned up, early, to do the P&Y scoring; I technical marvel in itself.

To top off the day we all lined up to have a go at splitting the wand. Sue led us off, as she is the recognised expert, but this time failed to hit. Dave Churchy however not only hit the ‘wand’ with his first arrow, but, for the first time since I’ve known it, actually split the wood, his arrow remaining stuck half way through it for all to see.

As the numbers were relatively low this year, we decided to rock straight on with the shoots, rather than have a lunch break after the National, which we had finished by 11.30.

A great day, as the Longbow day always is.

We will be moving indoors now, but remember you can shoot at the field anytime.

Thanks to all the helpers who set up the field and took it all down again.

Peter

Results

Lady o/a Champion	Val Davey. (told you she was on form…)
Gent o/a Champion	Peter King. (when is he not on form… ups!)
Highest score unrewarded	Alun Pugh. (still snapping at me heals..)
Split the Wand	Dave Churchy. (put us all to shame, first arrow.)
Pope and Young Winner	Peter King. (no comment; I got enough on the day)
George Thayer Trophy (Most hits unrewarded)	John O’Keeffe. (only 2 points in it..)

The third annual H2H shoot took place under cloudy skies, a light breeze and no sun to speak of. Thanks to Mark and Paul who had already set the field up when I arrived and a slow trickle of archers arrived, before 12 of us took aim for the National round to sort out rankings for the afternoon. Honours in the morning went to Roger and Jim who both shot better than handicap.

Unfortunately only 7 of the archers shooting in the morning could take part in the afternoon and we were joined by Abby and Matt for the H2H. The ranking for the afternoon was:

1st James
2nd Val
3rd John
4th Mark
5th Susan
6th Paul
7th Gary
8th Abby
9th Matt

The first match was Abby v Matt and as Matt had only had six arrows in sighters to work out where to aim his Barebow, Abby with her recurve (and a sight mark) came through this round with a 6 – 2 victory

Onto the quarter finals and in the battle of the juniors Abby beat James 6 – 4.
The next match was last year’s runner-up Mark, against Susan. The H2H experience of Mark saw him through 6 – 0.
Up next was a battle of longbows with John and Paul both having equal handicap allowance. With both archers taking it in turns to shoot well if finally finished 6 – 4 to Paul.
The final quarter final was also all longbow with the inform Val proving too good for Gary trying longbow rather than his usual recurve.

The first semi-final pitted master against pupil in what turned out to be a very tight match. It went to the master, as Mark came back from losing the first end to beat Abby 6 – 2.
The other semi also finished 6 – 2 with Val beating Paul.

The final, recurve v longbow, Mark v Val, handicap allowance of 2 v handicap allowance of 12. The first end saw the highest score of the day as Val scored 35 to Mark’s 25 (yes they were level of made score). The second saw Mark step up a gear with a 28 (his best of the day) to beat Val’s 23. Third end also went to Mark winning 26 to 22 to put him 4 – 2 up.

What proved to be the final end also went to Mark and the club had a new champion, Mark winning 6 – 2.

Other than his first end, Mark had a score between 24 and 28 for every end showing that consistent good scoring is the way to the title.
A big thank you also to Barry our field captain for the day, Mark and Paul for setting up and all those who helped pack away.

John

None of you have any idea how difficult it is organising a club shoot with a bunch of reprobates like you lot. (Except perhaps the previous tournament officers…)
Sunday proved to be no exception

First, I let it be known that, as the shoot would be starting at 10.00am, there was no need for the field party to turn up before about 9.15. In spite of this invaluable advice, Kevin was there at dawn closely followed by Neil and Alan, closely followed by several other insomniacs who, not surprisingly, found they had nothing to do; the field had already been set up…

Full of enthusiasm and trepidation, yours truly turns up soon after 9.00am to find a bunch of bored archers demanding coffee and cakes please, as they had been there for several hours.

On a more serious note, although not much more serious. The days shooting started on a note of warning. The forecast had predicted rain moving in towards us by about 4.00pm. As we all know, there is nothing worse than shooting the last end in a downpour, so I encouraged everybody to keep the shoot ticking along. I was delighted and surprised to find my request acted upon. We romped along, completing the longer distance by about mid-day, and were finishing the round by about 3.30. The rain had in fact caught up with us a tad earlier than expected but not seriously enough to cause any complaints. (But just enough for some to use it as an excuse for questionable shooting… (I think that’s excuse no. 23.)

We were quite a small, but select gathering; and it was a shame to see only one junior, but those of us who did come all seemed to enjoy themselves, which is the whole idea.

As most of you know, we have several dedicated longbow archers in the club. Because the club has its own longbow tournament day (NOTE:- 17th September.) the Club Champs is for recurve, barebow and compound archers. Some of those longbowers turned up on Sunday and joined the rest of us, well aware they wouldn’t be winning any awards, but equally aware they would be the target of banter and mirth. I like their attitude.!

Carol and Pauline excelled themselves, producing a splendid tea after the shoot. Very many thanks.
Also, thanks to John, the numbers man, who worked out the handicap results and helped with the results.
I am obliged to thank the field party who waved their magic wand by creating and then disappearing the targets. (Some dodgy English there…)

Well done everybody who turned up. Now, at last, I can put that damn recurve back in the roof for another year….!

NEXT SHOOTS:-
Club Longbow Day. 17th Sept.
The Sam Fowler memorial shoot. 8th October.

Results:-

1st lady Recurve Champion	Julie Morling
1st Gent Recurve Champion	Andy Clark
2nd Gent Recurve	Kevin Jones
3rd Gent Recurve	Gary Martin
1st Lady Barebow Champion	Sue Cook
1st Gent Barebow Champion	Tim Griffiths
2nd Gent Barebow	Chris Roberts
3rd Gent Barebow	John O’Keeffe
Highest Adjusted Score (Handicap)	Kevin Jones
Most Golds unrewarded	Peter King
Gehler Greening Trophy (most 3’s)	Tim Griffiths
Best Score Mid-distance	Gary Martin
Best Gold	Julie Morling
Worst White	Chris Roberts