Club

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

You can find the Winter-Spring 2017-18 Tournament Calendar here

Download Indoor Calendar 2017 – 2018

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

You can see that latest Autumn / Winter 2017-2018 Tournament Calendar here…

 

Date: Sunday 10th September 2017

Assembly: 10:00

Morning Round: National (or for beginners/juniors Short, Junior or Short Junior versions)

Afternoon Round: Head 2 Head Handicap Shoot shooting at 30m (or shorter if you can’t reach)

Open to archers of all abilities and any bow type, this is like the matches from the Olympics but with a big difference. With the allocation of an allowance, every archer now has as much chance of winning as the next. Shoot well on the day and you can beat the best archers in the club even if you have just completed your beginners lessons. This is a fun shoot just for club members so hopefully see you there.
Bring your own lunch and help setting up the field beforehand would be appreciated

John O’Keeffe
Records Officer