Waking early on Sunday we headed north to Lyme Valley, just outside stoke. The ground is a wooded valley with quite steep sides and we were both hoping it remained dry as it is very ,very slippery when wet.

As luck would have it the weather held, with only a slight shower early on in the day. As for my shoulder it coped for about half the course but was locking up by the afternoon – resulting in a drop of 100 points from the first half. This was really demoralizing as I’d been feeling really good initially. I managed to score 292 in the first 18 targets but only 194 in the second 18, truly terrible!!

Having said I didn’t shoot well, I’m very proud of Sharon who won first place, with 584 and 4 spots. Her face was a picture when she realized she had won.

The course is always challenging and with over 160 archers it was a busy day for all. The morning proved a bit slow, largely due to numbers and a few targets requiring 3^rd arrows. One thing I will say is the we were up and down the sides of the valley. Some really technical shots that you had to judge height etc on By Lunch we had shot 14 targets, which seemed average for most groups.

I’m not a big fan of lunch breaks, much prefer shoot through but not all grounds can accommodate this due to their geography. The advantage Lyme Valley has, is a large field that means there is enough.

In all a good shoot, but has made me wonder about my shoulder and whether I will be able to cope with the flatbow. Chances are I’m going to have to shoot the recurve for the nationals 😦

Lyme Valley website