Nov 6 2014

Shoot report – spooky night down at the wood

Spooky club house

Bit of a different shoot report this week as it is for a spooky night shoot. As opposed to the normal club shoot in August, this year SVYF decided to organise a themed Halloween shoot which was open to all members and guests.
Starting shortly after 6pm it would be a 20 target round with special scoring on each target ranging from a positive 20 points to a negative 20.

Entrance to the wood as dusk falls

Being close to Halloween all the targets were suitably themed as were some of the archers costumes.

ghost target

Another interesting shot was the ghost shot where you shoot your two arrows but didn’t know until you got the boss whether your arrows scored positive or negative.

ghost target description

Rules were simple; you were allowed to use torches to find your way from one shooting peg to the target or along the course but couldn’t shine it on the target when you were shooting.

target 20 – vampire or zombie

An old oil lantern was set by the shooting peg and there were a couple of night light candles set in a trench in front of the target to provide some illumination.
You could shoot from anywhere within a yard of the peg and distances varied from 3 yards up to about 20 yards, which seems a lot further at night.

The grim reaper with a few arrows

All proceeds would go to charity (bowel cancer research ) with club members bringing a variety of hot food in forms of chilli, vegetable soup and Sharon had made some of her spicy pumpkin soup too. In all we had about 45 archers on the night and we were very fortunate to have good weather that was warm for November, with the rain holding off until after we had finished.

Sharon in her costume

Sharon and I had never been to a night shoot so it was a new experience and we were joined by Nadeem and Cliff. By the way my thanks to Nadeem for the pictures.

Normally you can see the flight of your arrow but at night you have to go by instinct and hope to hear the thud as the arrow gets to the boss.
Trying to judge distances at night proved challenging for all as was testified by the number of arrows we found the following morning when tidying up.
In all it was a great laugh and we managed to raise just over £150 for the charity. Big thanks to Nigel, Debbie, Jason and Bernie for all the hard work for setting it up.

Thanks for reading.

Oct 22 2014

Shoot report – Severn Valley – October 2014

Archers waiting to start

Last weekend saw us even busier than normal as we prepared for the club shoot. Saturday we were at the wood early to sort through the targets, stake them in position, finalise shots, re-felt some of the bridges and generally put finishing touches to the course in readiness for the Sunday shoot. When I say finishing touches it still took from 8 am until gone 4:30pm. I’d like to thank those in the club who helped on Saturday and in the run up.
Sunday was shoot day and at the beginning of the week the forecasts had predicted rain and wind but we got lucky. The day was dry and sunny.

Target 5 – brown bear 3d

So Sunday would see SVYF host their autumn shoot with approximately 170 archers of different classes descend on our wood. The club runs two shoots a year one in spring and one in autumn with the entire course being reset between each shoot.

Target 4 – 3D Ram

This was the second course we had put our names to officially in the past five the club had set since we joined. Though we had helped out on the others we hadn’t been the primary course layers.
Despite having over thirty people drop out over concerns about the weather we had glorious late autumn sunshine all day. Though in fairness it was a little windy in the more exposed parts of the wood. Think the one downside was the noise from the local shotgun club which were hosting an event the same day.

One of the long shots 3D Ram

The course itself comprised of 36 targets mainly 3ds with a half dozen paper faces spread out over the course. Sharon and I had helped Nigel, Birnie and Jason lay targets 1-18 so we were keen to see what people thought. As always SVYF members marshall the club shoot helping archers search for lost arrows etc.

Raising boar 3D

In all the day appeared to flow well with only a few hold ups which may simply have been caused by some archers naturally shooting more slowly than others.
Feedback has been positive with archers enjoying the challenge of the course.
Thanks for reading.

Sep 27 2014

Shoot report – NFAS National Championships – part 2

B course – Archers mustering

Day two of the championships dawned and we wondered whether staying in the premier inn had been a good plan. We had had a very disturbed night having been woken by a fan humming noise which we’d thought was the aircon or heating but neither of these were on and it seemed to come from the corridor. The annoying thing was it would stop only to restart a few minutes later.

B course – Archers mustering

So bleary eyed we checked out and headed to Catton park. I’d taken some Lemsip tablets so I was hoping my head would be a little better.

B course – views across the fields

The mid point placings were out showing Sharon in first place and me way down at 19th.
Sunday was brighter day with clear skies and a slight autumnal nip in the air. Shooting group would be different on each day so I wondered what to expect.

Sunday Shooting group

To say my possible concerns were ill founded would be an understatement as we never stopped laughing all day. Thanks to Julie and others in the group we had a great laugh often at our own expense.

Catton Park

I think we were fortunate on Sunday as unlike other groups we weren’t held up by the previous groups. I was speaking to one fellow SVYF member who was waiting over 10 minutes to shoot each target with a 45 minutes delay after food stop. When faced with these delays it is very hard to remain focused. I’m not sure of the cause but a possible solution for the future might be to allow groups to jump slow groups at food stops. This would mean that targets could not be taken down until much later though. (Normally the target you finish on, on the last day is brought in by your shooting group to help the organisers to break down the course. If you allow jumping them you might not be the last group to shoot the target.)

View on B course

Think B course had the best grounds in my opinion with two separate pieces of woodland and a few open ground shots and a couple over water making for a good mix for all.

B course – 3D Crocodile

They also set up some interesting shots down the side of the woods or out of the woods into the fields, making distance judgement challenging.

B Course shot after food stop

Julie Shooting paper face on B Course

Thank you

At this point I would like to say a huge thanks to all the people who gave up there time to not only lay the courses but find the ground initially and thanks to the administration staff for all the work behind the scenes.

Outcome

The full results are available here.
Despite feeling rough I managed to climb 9 places on Sunday from 19 to just get in the top 10. Not too bad I suppose. Sharon did wonderfully well winning ladies hunting tackle making her not only 3D champion from earlier this year but now also the national champion for 2014.

2014 NFAS Nationals – Sharon (thanks Alex Tyler for photos)

Svyf came away with the team hunting tackle trophy.

2014 NFAS Nationals – Hunting Tackle team (from left to right, Nigel, Johnny, Sharon and me) thanks Alex Tyler for photos

With Colin capturing a bronze in crossbow. Sharon and I also came away with the Nearest and Dearest trophy.

2014 NFAS Nationals – Nearest and Dearest (thanks Alex Tyler for photos)

So not a bad weekend considering I was feeling rough.
As always thanks for reading.

My Archery Experiences

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Shoot report – spooky night down at the wood

Shoot report – Severn Valley – October 2014

Shoot report – NFAS National Championships – part 2

Thank you

Outcome

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Outcome

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