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.
most say a good chairman can lead his infantry into battle, delegate instructions and sit back and watch his troops from the command point ie “the tea tent” !!! On a more serious note i would like to thank all those who helped in the weeks up to the field shoot who worked tirelessly in the rain, and obviously all those on the day who kept telling me to take the weight of my feet!!! after all the saturdays we put in!!! although to shoot organiser did struggle with the sheer volume of help and not knowing what to do with us all!!!
By: mr chairman on October 16, 2011
at 10:00 pm
The “troops” wouldn’t have needed to do as much walking on the first Saturday if only Mr Chairman paid attention to me when I was listing what needed to be done instead of partially listening and then making the rest up! A certain crocodile was never said to be out in the wood which could be why they couldn’t find it!
But seriously it was a very good team effort and the number of positive comments I have received from many archers who attended has been brilliant, several saying it was one of the best they had been to, well done all.
By: mike beare on October 17, 2011
at 9:38 am