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.

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.