As you can see from the picture above, the woodland was looking great for the Long Eaton Field Archers open shoot. Unfortunately, the only camera I had with me was my on my iPhone so the picture really doesn’t do the scene justice. Still, it gave me something to do to pass the time we spent waiting to shoot.
Yes, we really did spend that much time stood around waiting to shoot each target. I’m not entirely sure of the reason for it either. There were a couple of predator prey shots on the course and we did start getting held up there, but usually once you’ve shot it the groups spread out again. Not this time, we were waiting all day long, every target, so I can only assume there was a very slow group somewhere out on the course. Anyone that knows me or has shot with me knows how much I hate waiting around and how much it affects my shooting. If I’m being completely honest it didn’t affect me all that much this particular time, maybe on 3 or 4 targets in the afternoon. I’d already had some problems with judging distances in the morning and made a mess of a couple of targets before we started getting held up.
I don’t normally take photos of any of my shots any more, but my shot of the day was the one opposite. This was a lioness, the first part of a predator prey shot. The prey was a small, and I do mean small rabbit. The target was about 25-30 yards away, not really that far but I was still very happy to see my arrow plumb center of the pro spot. I did however manage to cock up the prey shot and miss the rabbit that was only 15-20 yards away. (The other wooden arrow in the pro spot belongs to Kay).
On the whole, I was pleased with how I shot. Looking back, there were 6 or 7 targets that I should have done better on but there were some tricky targets on the course that I was just happy to hit.
At the end of the day, my score card reflected my performance. I’d just managed to hit 700 points from 42 targets. (There were 40 targets on the course with two predator prey shots giving the chance for two extra scores). This gave me a target average of 16.6 per target. To be competitive I really need to average around 17 points per target an the final results bore this out. Steve, who’s shooting very well at the moment finished the day with a score of 754, an amazing score that works out at an average of just under 18 per target.
So another second place for me, although based on the scores it was still a better performance than last week and a step in the right direction and I was 114 points in front of 3rd place. I still need to do more practice if I’m to get a top 3 place at the National 3D competition in a few weeks time, and that’s what I’m aiming for.
Until next time…..