8th October 2017
One of the problems with running a shoot for the first time, is you are not quite sure what you are doing, or if what you do will work. Well, we did know what we were doing, (sort of) and it did work; mostly thanks to the rest of the club members, Carol, and the lovely Joanna.
The weather was kind and the incredibly complicated setting out seemed to go without a hitch. The entry names got ticked off with great rapidity and before we knew it, the clock said 10.15 and it was time for assembly. In spite of my misgivings a couple of weeks ago, we ended up with a full house of 25 names.
The shoot was explained to all the assembled multitude and I then plucked up the courage to say “Any questions?” What.. only one question, easily answered… had they all actually read and understood the shoot explanation… It seemed so.! Wow…
10.30 and the shoot started. At this point Jo took over and following her “Ready” and the blast on the whistle, chaos reigned…
Very soon we were all happily moving shooting points, collecting arrows, mostly from the grass, and generally getting into the swing of things. Before very long we have reached the end of the 40 second session and it was time to have a well earned soup break…
I almost thought I detected a desire to get back to the shooting; I do know everyone was waiting to start again before the quarter of an hour break was up… Someone must have been enjoying it. At this point Justyn arrived and said a few words about Sam and their association with the club. A real inspiration…
We were soon romping along again, but now at the slightly more demanding 35 seconds. Before long, and much sooner than I expected, that time session was over and once again we were enjoying another mug of soup and a roll. Carol was doing her stuff, producing teas and coffees on demand…
The 30 second spell really sorted the men from the boys (or the politically correct equivalent). Do you shoot three arrows and try and score all three, or do you try snapping off all five and maybe miss them all…. Decisions.. decisions.!
The final whistle blew to a universal sigh of relief. We had been shooting for about four hours. The offer of going on to try 25 seconds was not met with favour, but the idea of a one arrow wand shoot appealed to all.
The wand was set up in the middle of the field and in turn, all archers shot one arrow at it. The first round resulted in no hits, so we kept going. Suddenly Alison got a hit. The remaining archers kept going to try and match her skill. The closest was an arrow that clipped, but refused to stick in. (Life is so unfair)
The tea and yummy cakes produced by Carol were very welcome and the raffle prizes also were exceptional.
All in all, I think a good time was had by all, perhaps a bit more than ‘good’.
Thanks, once again to the lovely Jo, the equally lovely Carol and a particular ‘thank you’ to Justyn from all at the club for doing his stuff as Lord P.
As for the results, if anyone is interested, they are below.
We plan to run this shoot again next year. For all the archers who joined in, please let us know what, if anything, could be improved on. All comments welcome.
Spread the word…
Results
| John Bedford | 6 | |
| Jan Burns | 14 | |
| Dave Churchyard | 5 | |
| Alan Crowe | 10 | |
| Sue Crowe | 18 | |
| Josh Cudworth | 12 | |
| Rachel Dixon | 15 | |
| Neville Freedman | 3 | |
| Ronan Kelly | 15 | |
| Peter King | 28 | |
| Gary Martin | 49 | 1st. |
| Jan O’Keeffe | 12 | |
| John O’Keeffe | 21 | |
| Chris Roberts | 45 | 2nd. |
| Mark Sharratt | 25 | |
| Alison Shearer | 17 | |
| Nick Skegg | 6 | |
| Val Davey | 13 | |
| Adrian Powell | 31 | 5th. |
| Matthew Powell | 19 | |
| Stefan White | 43 | 3rd. |
| Jonathan Semus | 7 | |
| Paul Semus | 34 | 4th. |
The most important RESULT is that we raised £271.00 for Iain Rennie Hospice. Well done All…!
‘Till next year.
Peter