It was with some relief that, following last years Foot and Mouth fiasco, we were able to confirm that our spring open shoot was able to go ahead. Archers who had booked for the October shoot had been contacted and were automatically transferred to this one and, along with all the rest who it seems had been waiting patiently for our ground to re-open, made an impressive entry of 106 pre-booked archers on the day.
It is a tribute, I hope, to our growing reputation for ‘interesting’ (some call them ‘challenging’) courses, friendly faces and good food that people had travelled some considerable distances to get here including all round the South East coast, Oxford, down into Dorset and even as far as Mongolia – although it should be pointed out that Yi was already in the area so I suppose that doesn’t count!

The course setters headed by Roger had planned yet another devious and sneaky course of 40 – mostly 3D or cut-outs, all in cunningly placed situations which although not at any great distance, proved able to fool most of the people for most of the time.  This, coupled with shooting to wound lines, kept the top scores in the mid 500/600’s – no mean achievement considering the layout and topography of our ground and cries of “How did I miss that!” seemed to be the most common comment of the day. ‘Robo Duck’ made his usual appearance – albeit in a supporting, not scoring, role and the clang of spent arrows (including a flint tip!) resounded at intervals throughout the day.

However, this did not detract from peoples’ enjoyment and the weather, which had been really wet the day before, was kind with clear skies and sun developing as the day wore on.

Catering was of the usual high standard with food provided by Claire and Paul ably assisted by the rest of the Porter clan whilst Anne’s fruit cake was being bought in lots of three or more in case it ran out before the end of the day! Thanks must also go to the unsung hero’s in the club who turned out on work parties or who performed other duties on the day. You know who you are – “Thank You!”

The results for the shoot can be found here.

All in all our first shoot of the year was a great success and bodes well for the remaining five as many archers have already booked ahead for some if not all the others.

C. K. Walker