Proof That I Am An Idiot!

A strange title perhaps? I didn't even realise what an idiot I was until after I'd got home some time later.

Anyway, lets start at the beginning. This morning at archery we had a novelty American shoot. The weather was not good and only 6 turned up to shoot, five of whom shot this round. The American bit is easy enough - 2½ dozen arrows at each of 60, 50 and 40 yards - the novelty bit was that the winner was the nearest person to scoring 627 rather than the highest score. Also misses count as 10 not 0, otherwise scoring is as normal 9, 7, 5, 3 & 1. The best way to get it is apparently 88x7, 1x1 and a miss. 7s were the tie break if needed.

So at 60 yards I shot as normal. Shooting in a rainjacket isn't helpful and the weather was a factor in me scoring just 166 at that distance with only two 9s. At 50 yards it all became much more fun as we were trying to get our scores 'on par' by having a few misses. With two bosses set up, after one particular end one of them had every arrow in it (except one in the green) whilst the other was completely empty.

40 yards was strange, I was cursing myself after the first end which were all in the gold bar one 7. Perhaps I should aim for the 7 in future? I'd got my score into odd values by having an odd number of misses, so I just had to keep an eye on my scoring now to get as close as possible to 627. With a dozen to go I needed 84, so all 7s would do it for me. Two golds didn't help, but I did equalise that by putting two in the blue as well as actually hitting two 7s so in the final end I still needed 7s all the way.

My first two arrows of the final end were gold. Damn! But, the third I scored just a 1 (although aiming at 3). As the second detail shot their first three arrows I worked out that I was going to try and finish with 9,7,7 to hit the target score. With 23 needed the first of my final three arrows went low into the 3. I was really annoyed. Even two golds now would leave me two short. Pleasingly though I did hit those two golds, so finished on 625. Roy and Fliss both finished on 627 and took the spoils. It was something different and despite the poor weather was great fun.

So have you spotted why I am an idiot? I didn't till I was telling my Henry and Fran about it when I got home. For those who haven't, the three I scored with my fourth arrow of the final end left me needing 20. Two misses with the final two arrows would have seen me reach the target score exactly. D'oh! For the record I would still not have won as Roy hit 38 7s to my 28, but still very annoying.

It's Been A Long Time

It's been a very long time since I posted anything to my blog and plently has happened in the meantime. My computer has died, West Ham have continued to struggle, the entire indoor archery season has come and gone and I even got my camera out a few times.

The good weather this weekend though seemed to bring good fortune with it, it was a good weekend.

Saturday was the next installment in the West Ham's relegation scrap. Having been dismal in the three home games previously I was hoping for something better. The draw at Everton gave us hope and in the end three welcome and deserved points came our way against a niggly Sunderland team. The referee was poor (for both teams), in fact as poor as I can remember a ref being for quite some time, and Sunderland were very sly with lots of tugs of shirts and arms putting players off balance, and getting away with it. A win against Wigan in our next home match should, I hope, be enough to ensure survival.

Sunday morning I went to our archery club for my first outdoor shoot of the season, a Western. It took a bit longer than I had thought it might to shoot 8 dozen arrows. The first four dozen at 60 yards and the remainder at 50 yards. My gear can just about cope with this distance although others were shooting up to 100 yards. The sun was out but there was a chilly breeze. Without really having anything to compare it with I had no great feeling of achievement nor of disappointment at my final score of 577, but I'm told it is a good score for someone in their first year.

Straight afterwards I had to whizz off to Newport Pagnell, via home, to photograph the MK Dons ladies team in their final match of the season against Norwich City. I managed to get there just after kick off, about 10 minutes late. I found myself a spot behind the goal at the edge of the penalty area. Conditions were not ideal as the sunlight and the Dons white shirts can cause metering problems. I decided to shoot with the camera on manual to try and get around that. The Dons took the lead around midway through the first half, and although I did get a shot of the player shooting, it wasn't great and the ball wasn't in shot. Norwich equalised a few minutes later, but at the other end of the pitch, so no shots of that!

The second half saw three more goals, but all for Norwich who won comfortably in the end. A shame for me that I didn't get the chance for more goal shots at my end. My Canon 70-200mm f2.8 really isn't quite long enough for football, even with the 1.4x extender, but I just can't afford the 300mm or 400mm f2.8 prime lenses that you really need for those sports with a bigger pitch. Nevertheless, if you can anticipate the action you can still get some decent shots with this kit. You can also get away with a fair bit of cropping when they are viewed on the web too, making them look better than they really are. I am looking forward to getting my new computer next week though, as my old one died in early November and it's almost impossible to do anything worthwhile with photos on my netbook. Photoshop will be a welcome sight after months making do with the GIMP. A few of the best shots from the match are shown here. I hope to get the chance to shoot more photos for them next season.

So a good weekend all round, apart from the sunburnt head that I got for my troubles on Sunday. When the sun is out and there is a cool wind you just don't notice it's strength.

Competition Time

Yesterday was our archery club's final outdoor shoot of the season. To finish the season off it was a barebow (no sight allowed) competition shooting a Portsmouth round (5 dozen arrows over 20 yards with a 60cm target face).

Yet more firsts for me - first Portsmouth, first barebow attempt and first club competition. Also a first for Henry who joined in and shot his first 'proper' round.

I was advised beforehand that instead of pulling the bowstring back to a point under the chin I should draw it to my cheek so that I could look along the arrow to aim. A couple of misses with my sighters showed me how different, and hard, this was going to be.

Then we got underway and every one of the first dozen scored, which was pleasing, and there was even a nine in amongst my score 54. My second dozen was slightly better (55) and included a 10, but also a couple of misses. The final three dozen were better still (64, 73 & 68) and included three more 10s and only the one more miss. My final score then was 314 (with 57 hits out of 60). This placed me second of 4 on my target, but I have no idea how the scores were on the others - much better I suspect.

Henry didn't fare so well. He struggled a lot with drawing to his cheek and after the first two dozen (with no hits) reverted to his usual draw and was rewarded with two scoring arrows in the next set of 3. The smaller target face and no sight made it much harder than he was used to, but he enjoyed himself which is the main thing.

Afterwards we decided to stick around for a bit to practice. Another club member offered me his flatbow to try (45lb to pull compared to the 28lb I'm currently using on the recurve). Obviously there were a good number of misses in the dozen arrows I shot, but also a 10 amongst them!

Adding the sight back to the recurve to practice in preparation for the indoor season took a bit of getting used to. The mornings habit of drawing to the cheek was hard to shake, but after half a dozen completely useless arrows I managed to shoot a dozen that were reasonably well grouped, leaving me looking forward to the indoor season. It had been a glorious morning weatherwise, and a great finish to the outdoor season, even though for us it only started a couple of months ago.

Going for Gold

Back in the summer, at the local carnival, Henry and I had a go at Archery. It was a stand that Henry kept wanting to go back to, and the members of the club running it were quite impressed with him, for a 7 year old.

As he had enjoyed himself so much I thought I'd look for a club that we could go to. Due to the nature of the sport, and it's potential for danger if you don't know safety procedures, etc. you have to do a 'beginner's course' before you can join a club. To cut a long story short this is an 8 hour course (usually over a period of weeks) where you are taught the basics of both safety and technique.

It is quite difficult to find a club that will start anyone under 9 years old, so although there are clubs nearer to home we ended up having to travel about 40 minutes to find one that would allow Henry to take part. Anyone wishing to take up the sport in the UK should look at the GNAS website to find an affiliated club.

We did our beginners course throughout August and joined our chosen club 3 weeks ago on completing the course. We have been to club shoots on each of the three weekends since we joined, although only practicing at shorter distances to those shooting recognised rounds. We are both using club equipment and will continue to do so for a while yet, although I have to say I'm itching to get my own!

Anyway, on Sunday morning there was a good turnout of around 20 or so. Whilst I asked for a boss (a target for the uninitiated) to be set out at 20 yards for Henry to shoot at, I felt that with so many there I should join in and shoot my first proper round rather than ask for another boss to be set out for me to practice on.

As I said I'm using a club bow, which comprises of a wooden Samick handle and Samick Polaris limbs which are 28lb to pull the bowstring back. Also I'd never shot more than 40 yards before (and only then for a couple of hours). Oh, well. "In for a penny...." I thought and decided to shoot a Short National round (4 dozen arrows at 50 yards followed by 2 dozen at 40 yards). I was pleased to be hitting the boss with my sighters and when one of them landed in the gold (the centre of the target face), I thought perhaps it wouldn't be as hard as I thought to hit a reasonable (yes I know that's relative) score at 50 yards.

Being my first 'proper' club shoot and my first time (other than the beginners course) sharing a boss I didn't think to keep my own score for reference, but wish now I had. I do know, though, that my final score was 356 and was the highest on my boss, which I shared with two other newcomers and someone shooting longbow after not shooting for some time. At 50 yards I hit a handful of golds (about 4 I think, worth 9 points each), although also as many whites (1 point)! I hit more 5s (the blue ring) than anything and the fact that my average score per arrow was 5 suggests that I hit as many blacks (3 points) as reds (7 points), but I don't remember it that way! I guess it's the same as cricket in that you remember the good shots.

I was disappointed when the distance dropped to 40 yards not to hit any more golds, but I did have quite a lot of near misses which landed in the red at 12 o'clock. My grouping was also much better at the shorter distance, but then again I suppose it should be! I was pleased that I only missed with 2 arrows (both at 50 yards). Those came when a more experienced archer gave me some tips about my release which, when I tried to put into practice in the next end (set of 6 arrows), resulted in the misses. But still I'd rather be doing it right early and getting better from there.

Archery is similar to golf in that it is essentially an individual sport where you try to improve your own ability. Competition against others can be 'levelled' by a handicap system (like golf again). I suppose most club members would regard 356 (equating to a handicap of 62) as a poor score, but we all have to start somewhere, and it gives me a benchmark from which to measure myself in the future.

As the outdoor season draws to a close I'll probably run out of time to get a handicap for this year (you have to shoot three recognised rounds), but I hope that having the whole indoor season ahead I can attain a half decent handicap by the end of that. I aim to build up my poundage (the weight of bowstring I can pull back comfortably) on club kit over the next month or two before getting some of my own. By then I hope to have a reasonable idea of what will/might suit me, as well as giving me time to learn what some of the things I've seen in catalogues actually do!