Tag Archives: Pride Park Archers

Jun 6 2012

Shoot report – NFAS 3D Championships 2012

Announcements on B course - Pride Park - Saturday
Pride Park – Saturday

Home and after a hot bath along with some sleep and then some more sleep, we are nearly unpacked following a weekend long archery competition.  It was the annual NFAS 3D championships and it proved to be a really great weekend, despite the best efforts of the British weather to drown us all. For those of you reading this and don’t know the 3D champs are one of 3 championships the NFAS run throughout the year. It is normally well attended with over 700 archers,this year there were a few less though, probably due to the economic climate.

Sorry but having re-read this, it is really long post

We’d decided to camp for the weekend rather than driving up each day, so headed to just outside Osmaston Park, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire on Friday night to pitch tent and meet up with everyone. We joined up with the Artemis guys in their marquee and had  some food and a few drinks. Thanks guys.

This year there were 4 courses in total A&B for wooden arrows, X&Y course for metal / carbon arrows. By splitting it in this way courses can be tailored to suit class.

Before I go any further can I say a big  thanks to Hanson club who provided the catering at Admin and Y course, it was great to have hot food and not just burgers, but steaks, cakes, and fantastic apple pie. They started at 7:30 am and went on until gone 7 pm. Thank you so much.

Over the course of the weekend archers shoot 2 courses 1 on Saturday and 1 Sunday. Each course consists of 40 3D targets of varying sizes shot over a range of unmarked distances and elevations. The 2 courses I shoot were, course A laid by Cheshire Oak and Course B was done by Pride Park.
Think A course was fortunate enough to have the better terrain to work with as the problem B course had been a large fenced off area which was off-limits. This limited long shots so they worked on using dead ground and foliage to trick archers and frame shots.
One of the hardest shots is shown here. Wendy is taking her second go at it, but you can just make out the brown bear in the trees. I was really happy to just hit this one
Brown bear in trees B course - Pride Park - Saturday

Brown bear in the trees

I went up to a few target and thought this was easy and then needed a second arrow or third.

long elk on B course Pride Park - only

Long elk this was the only target I blanked all weekend

The course was designed so you passed catering twice so you could grab some food. After our first break the target below was what greeted us, a velociraptor 3D at an angle. I later found out it was over 50 yards away, so I was really happy when I got it with the first arrow. Below you can see Mark about to shoot it with his longbow.

B course - Pride Park - Saturday

First shot after lunch

The only problem with the venue was the sheer distance from the camp site to the courses. Archers once they had finished had to walk over a mile to get back to Admin to hand cards in. Made for a couple of long days as you had to register by 9:30 and walking out at 10 am,  Sharon didn’t get back to Admin until nearly 7 pm both days

The walk back on Saturday - not in the rain

The walk back on Saturday – not in the rain thankfully

Sunday was wet, very very wet, quite a few people retired due to the weather and this is why there are no photos of Sunday, wanted to try to keep phone dry. I would have liked to shoot the Cheshire oak course in the dry as Sunday resembled a monsoon at times. Glad I took a large brolly.

I lost quite  a few arrows in the rhododendron bushes which was a bit of a pain but really enjoyed the 2 days. I heard that a few people retired early from the competition due to a combination of the very poor weather  and losing too many arrows

Quiet a few  people who were camping stuck around on Sunday night rather than trying to take their tent or caravan down in the rain. So saw quite a few sore heads on Monday.  We’d decided to stay so that on Monday we could give the organisers a hand to take stuff down and walk one of the courses  (x course laid by Yorick archers) to check for any lost arrows, clear signs etc Glad I took the metal detector as found a load of crossbow bolts and arrows.
So how did I get on ?
30th in AFB and considering my lack of practise time I’m more than happy with that. Only blanked 1 target over the whole weekend too.
B Course - Score card

B Course – Score card only 1 blank

Very wet score card from Sunday

Very wet score card from Sunday

Sharon won bronze (3rd place) in ladies BareBow which I am very proud of since she has been shooting this new bow (Andy Soars Black Brook bows)  for a bout 5 months. Congrats to Andy Soars too who won Gents Barebow.
May 15 2012

Shoot report – Lyme Valley May 2012

Sunday saw another early start and long drive, this time stopping off to collect Ben on route a fellow Black Arrow member who we were acting as shoot guardian for. Thankfully it was dry and sunny day, a rare combination recently. Our destination was to be the Lyme Valley  grounds just north of Stoke on Trent who were hosting this NFAS shoot.
We like Lyme Valley shoots and try to get to them whenever possible, so the early start is normally more than worthwhile.
It is a lovely wood situated on the sometimes steep sides of a valley, with a stream at the bottom.
See previous shoot write-up.
Renowned for being a course where you will be going up and down the valley sides and crossing the countless foot bridges you work up a good appetite. I’m not a fan of having lunch breaks at shoots, I rather shoot through where you stop off and grab a bite to it between pegs. However due to the layout of the wood it’s not practical for Lyme Valley to run as it as a shoot through. This Sunday would see 160+ archers joining us for a day shooting a mix of  3D targets and paper faces.
We had a great group with Sharon, Ben and I being joined by Jill and David Haynes from the Pride Park club, 2 very good compound archers and great company laughing and joking all the way round the course. Jill is also a coach trainer and had been one my assessors when I was taking my coaching course.
The Lyme Valleys course itself had been extensively modified since the last time we shot it, providing a mix of short medium and long shoots, going up, down and across the hillsides. Add to this the careful use of dead ground and trees to frame shots all made for a real challenge.
I’m still amazed to have hit the long turkey shot after the lunch break. Especially with the audience watching, themselves waiting to shoot the target. I’m sure the marshal had jinxed us when he’d said just before we were about to shoot “everyone gets it first arrow” – thanks Tom. We’d seen the group before lunch shoot the target and not all hit with their first arrow.
Amazingly we proved Tom right and did all hit it with our first arrow, though I did feel the pressure when I went up to shoot. I was the last adult to shoot and Jill, David and Sharon had all nailed it with their recurve and compound bows. There was me with my little flat bow and wooden arrows, I’d only finished making and marking up the day before.

Sharon did really well scoring 628 and winning ladies barebow. In fact I think she was only 2 points behind the third placed gents. All in the group did well with all of us getting placed. Yes that means I won my first ever medal in American Flatbow, only a third place but still a medal and placing 🙂
After all my concerns about target panic and reading on the subject and not forgetting the support from followers of this blog and fellow archers I’m more convinced than ever that you have to persist and work at it.

Big thanks to all at Lyme for a great day, already booked for your next shoot.
Thanks for your time in reading this.