Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 24th April 2011

Given that Fleet was going to be my second shoot of the year I was hoping that I would improve on the Avalon score from last week but today was not going to be my finest hour(s). As the scores below, 4 broken arrows and 2 lost show I was slightly off form. Oh well at least Fred (from Westcott) has a few more arrows as he tend to shorten my broken ones.

I suspect, having thought about it, my problem started because I did not have the traditional Bacon Butty and a cup of tea (I'll remember that for South Wilts next week) but we live an learn but at least I did not break my bow like the FreeStyle archer who snapped his limbs whist shooting on the practice targets or whoever owned the broken longbow I spotted at lunch.

Having said all of that today's shoot at Fleet Ibex was an extremely enjoyable day out, as usual at Fleet, with another day of glorious sun and a course laid to Fleets usual, high, standards. Having missed the Bacon Butty, partly because John was sick again, it was off to Target 39 to start the day. Here I met my shoot partners for the day Simon and Matthew where we exchanged cards and decided who was scoring and who was searching.

Avalon Shoot Report 10th April 2011

Avalon was going to be my first field shoot of 2011 and I had been looking forward to it for sometime. Having not shot much over the winter and just arriving back from a trip the Washington it was also going to an entertaining day. As usual the Avalon guys had set an extremely entertaining course that combined fun and difficulty to make the one of the most enjoyable for a while. In addition to a well laid course we had exceptional weather for early April with clear blue skies, as seen below, and temperatures in the 20s (I'm glad we were under cover for most of it or the factor 30 would not have been enough).

As events would happen John was not feeling up to shooting today so it was going to be one of those odd days shooting without his banter but at least he would not out shoot me as he usually does. As it turned out I was going to be shooting Debbie, Wayne and Steve from Invicta HT archers so I had the honors of the Longbow Archers on my shoulders to prove we can score just the same as they can.

With a good chatty friendly group today's shooting was going to be fun but first a bacon butty and a cup of tea.

We we due to start on Target 6 "The Bees Nest" and following a warning by Clive we avoided the taped area near the Red peg and awaited the sound of the horn to start the shooting. The first target of the day was a Bedded Deer and it was with some trepidation that I took to the Red peg. The first field shot in, ooooooo, months. But as it was a 16 was on the cards and I was off to a good start and shooting coming back to me like falling off a bike.