Yesterday was a club outing sort of as 10 of us were at the shoot mainly longbow with a few others thrown in. R.P.G was not at his best letting mountain man beat him in the morning session, mind you I was definitely not at my best struggling all day. VW man and Coach both had reasonable mornings whilst Bodger and Flower Fairy were both slightly down on their best.

Chairman got some coaching from a much better archer (that could be almost anyone then) in the dinner break and beat his best in the afternoon I’m not sure that’s allowed!

At the start of the afternoon session we discover that Bodger, Flower Fairy and myself are almost on the same score and a dozen later that hasn’t changed as we all scored the same but then I started into terminal decline moving swiftly to last place in the club rankings, Flower Fairy zoomed ahead and Bodger just bodged along. Mountain man faded and R.P.G finally worked out where to aim and got back to form. Just before the end I made a come back creeping up on Bodger until there was just a couple of points in it before the last end when the pressure got too much and Bodger missed twice and got pipped on the post.

VW man ended just 10 points of the winning score very close but not good enough for a medal. Flower fairy took 2 golds, Mountain man and R.P.G both got silvers, and Chairman a bronze whilst our longbow teams were second and third, oops almost forgot mister 3 Clubs got gold as well a pretty good day.

Coach and myself attended the Archery Interchange Ironman competition at Mrs Bling’s other club Frome Valley on the 27th Dec.

Coach seemed to have decided it was all a bit of fun (you all know how serious I take shoots, at least as long as I am not last) and brought his longbow which he has shot only twice in the last couple of years a fact that came home to him when he found the string needed sorting and the rubber band had rotted and last of all finding arrows took some doing.

It was the first shoot for Frome Valley on their new ground at Puddletown Rugby Club and it was being run by Mrs Bling ably assisted by Horsebowman. All of us wooden arrow people carefully avoided the gold on sighters as we all know a gold on sighters is a bad omen, mind you horsebowman avoided the boss altogether which is taking it to extremes, and Mrs Bling thought the idea was to hit the boss whilst avoiding the target face, this was something we all practised during the shoot and by the end we were getting quite good at it!

We were well fed and watered during the day making the shoot quite pleasant despite the chilly wind that came up during the shoot. On one end all of us except coach hit the ten (I even did it twice just to show I can) so of course it required a picture posted to twitter to show how good we could all pretend to be. Coach decided that he wasn’t going to bother with the gold in fact half the time he wasn’t going to bother hitting the target at all! It was probably down to extreme lack of practise as mentioned earlier.

Any way it was a good day and I beat last years score but then again this time it wasn’t sub zero temperatures with snow and ice everywhere like last year.

Below are a few pictures from the day.

Sunday saw the last club field for this year, six of us turned up despite the weather a couple were going to go back home but as the three longbows decided to shoot they did as well. I can only comment on the longbow group as once we started we didn’t see the other group again.

My group was Bodger, Screw and myself and despite being very wet at times we enjoyed ourselves. All through the shoot it was close between Bodger and myself although Bodger tried to help me win by putting an arrow in the tree on only the second target and then on the third we found an arrow of his stuck in the tree from the previous shoot his comment being “Ah that’s where it went” or something like that. On about the sixth target Screw showed us how it should be done putting a really close group in scoring 5,5,4 and then went all to pieces on the across the pond shot.

With just four or five targets to go I took the lead opening out to 5 points ahead, by the penultimate target we were 1 point apart then disaster on the last target I managed to only score 1 and Bodger then rubbed my nose in it with 6,3,1 making it 3-0 in the series and possibly only 3 more shoots to go meaning the best I can get is a draw.

Scores were

Longbow Bodger 128, me 120, Screw 101.

Traditional Coach 125

Barebow Darren 89, Social Bob 91

Well that’s the last club day until after Christmas and new year unless the weather is good enough on a Sunday, I will be going to the Archery Interchange Ironman shoot at Frome Valley on the 27th and I will let you know how it went. Could any club members who have shot rounds this year and not put them in the book please send the scores to Tim by the end of December so he can work out the Handicap improvers medal.

Last night was an end of season club competition which saw 19 members taking part. I was really hopeful that R.P.G. might not come but he did.

Due to the club records officer not being available it was somehow down to yours truly to run the shoot (yet another Blister unilateral descision that gives someone else the work). My version of setting up was long paces and that will do for the shooting line but the others seemed to want it in the right place, I don’t know what is up with them it was near enough for longbow.

Any way the shoot went quite well especially as R.P.G seemed to want to give me a christmas present and let me win, he even went so far as to miss and get a one to make sure I did, really good of him. A short way into the comp Mrs Bling created a lot of noise something about getting X,10,9 so of course photo’s had to be taken (although I haven’t got it so I can’t show you) and just to embarass her I did announce it loudly which seemed to put her off as she was all over the place afterwards but still managed to increase the club record, one of three for the comp in itself a good result.

Afterwards while I sorted the scores Coach organised a knockout competition with a winner for wooden arrows and one for non woods, R.P.G took the woods and Blister the non-woods. Below are some photos from the night

What a quiet day just three of us at start time despite it being a nice sunny day. At least I thought bodger can’t beat me today as he isn’t here, then two targets in who arrives, Bodger! I had a really slow start which picked up as the first round progressed but I was 20 points down at the end of the first circuit, still I felt Ok as Screw was on his first outing with a longbow and Bodger assured me he was having a bad day.

Second circuit started with a novelty of a dog in front the target, this not being a 3D shoot we knew it wasn’t the target, we eventually managed to call the owners across to collect it and off we went again. First target improvement, second target hilarity as Screw puts two arrows in the tree instead of the target-

Screw was slightly off target

I was quite happy until I went behind the target to find my miss-

Seems like I copied Screw but went one better and split the branch

At target three we spent ages looking for one of Screw’s arrows until Coach spotted it hiding under a log at least it didn’t stick in this time. Much later and just two targets to go and Bodger catches up and drops the bombshell he is two points up on me and that is how it finishes. So far this winter- outings two, Bodger two me nil I really must improve.

Results

Coach freestyle 273, Bodger longbow 92, Me longbow 90, Screw longbow 80.

Yesterday saw the first club Fita Field of the winter season, very few there I hope the numbers pick up as we go along. All round it was very close between Bodger and myself and until the last target I still could have won but somehow I just could not hit the target so it pains me to say Bodger won round 1 and he even scored a new club record things go from bad to worse! Don’t know how Coach and Blister got on but one thing was the same as usual 5 minutes before start time get a phone call from Blister asking what time does it start as he is sure it is 11 but as usual he is wrong and once again he is late, nothing new there then.

Results.

Me a good 121, Bodger a far too good 132 and Screw 122. Coach comp bb 208, Blister cu 178

This last weekend has seen some more club achievements, the main one being Michelle is now the Ladies compound national clout champion! Now on to us lesser mortals, Mark has added Regional compound barebow champion to his County compound barebow champion. Just so you know I am taking part as well I was second at Ashcombe last week and third for the two days at the weekend regional Fita field championships I’m just not as good as the other two only noisier.

As most of the readers will know September 25th was our open NFAS field shoot day, many club members and a few non members arrived early and set about the tasks of the day, putting up the gazebo, preparing the refreshments, parking people as they arrived etc. eventually all 86 archers were there and I gave my welcome speech and we got them out on the course and the shoot under way.

It was not long before the mark of the day, people laughing could be heard around the course the whole point of this shoot being a fun shoot. Almost all the members worked hard during the day one possible exception being blister (chairman had been renamed by Tim as he always seems to show up when the work has been done) who seemed to think all he had to do was sit in the tea tent talking and selling the occasional raffle ticket if someone came and asked for one. We did try and point out that he should be going out and pushing sales but he was having none of it so Dave ended up doing the job properly.

Another rarity was I had no cause to quit as everyone enjoyed the day and there were no complaints, most unusual.All in all a good day even the weather which started out with some rain improved and turned to our usual sunny day.

The following weekend 12 club members shot the course splitting into three groups, guess who turned up without a quiver and had to go home and get it, that’s right you guessed it, blister! Being as I was leading the last group out I ended up with blister in my group still for most of the day I was beating him despite him using a compound with sights and me just a longbow. I was also accompanied by RPG (Roger) who went and cancelled his golf just so he could come and wind me up whatever next, and a couple of the Osprey social club completed the group.

There seemed to be a determined effort to keep me off balance, at least that’s my excuse for keeping forgetting my bow as we moved to the next target, it even came to the point where they would take it on with them and leave me looking for it until they put me out of my misery. I have to say I was doing really well until the crocs on the second circuit where I managed to hit the wrong target twice so scoring -20 which I then followed with a -10 and then a zero and that was it blister was off and gone his score going way  ahead of mine.

We are growing a new species of tree, an arrow tree which may well sprout more fruit over the years.

many broken arrows made their way to this new tree

The day was finished off in a most unusual fashion, the whole course was cleared and packed away something we always plan to do but never happens this was a first. That’s it for the animal course for now the winter months will be FITA field in the other woods until March when the animals will be back out.

 

I don’t know where the time goes but it is already mid September and our busy time, over the last two weekends we have been rearranging the field course ready for next weekend nearly done now thirteen targets down only seven to go! I wonder how long it will be before I resign next weekend?

Last Sunday also saw our handicap championships, it was just a bit windy and slightly damp, at least between the downpours it was slightly damp and we could stand up in the wind with only swaying slightly. Even so there was fourteen of us stupid enough to take part and we all completed the Western round albeit much quicker than we usually do, probably something to do with wanting to get home and dry out. The full results are in the results section of the website unfortunately Chairman won, he always goes and spoils the day, no doubt we will be reminded of this many times over the coming months.

Just had news that our one and only collector of bling, Lucy, has just gone and won the NFAS national championships in the primitive class and here’s a picture to prove it.Finally just a reminder that the indoor season starts this Friday (23rd) see you there.

Last Sunday (31/7) was the club field day and we had a very big group comprising of 3 clubs including our own. We were blessed with great weather and everyone seems to have had a good day, the best bit being petticoat man and Roger weren’t there so at least I didn’t get beaten. I didn’t actually belong to any group as I was intent on trying to get a picture of everyone and did manage to get all bar Paul on the various pegs.

No I'm not in the picture, someone had to take it.

Please use the club field day link alongside for more photos.

 

Results

Bournemouth

Longbow- Brian 226, John 144, Carole 120, Tim (12 targets only) 94. Barebow Tina 182

Frome Valley

HT – Alan 284, Mark 256, Lucy 172, Barry 102. Longbow – John 172. Barebow Mike 250

Osprey social club (12 targets only)

Flatbow – Simon 64. HT – John 86. Freestyle – Peter 108. BB – Bob 84

Osprey A team

Compound BB – Mark 370. Unlimited – Colin 330. Longbow – Me 244 ( I win!).

Well that’s it for that course, time to move it all about for the September NFAS shoot.

Total for Bournemouth 766

Total for Frome Valley 1236

Total for Osprey 1286 we win! Ok so there was more of us but most only went round once so it is fair, of course had we not won some only going round once would have been the excuse.