I have been so excited about this comp! As mentioned previously, this would be the ultimate archery triathlon: Target, Field and Clout archery all in one day!
Upon arrival I was asked to be the Lady P for the day, which is a great honour with it being a GNAS shoot! This also meant that I had to be on my best behaviour (not likely!). This was also my first comp wearing my new SWAC Burgundy fox tail! Two other archers from my club were also there: Billy with his longbow and Peter with his recurve. Hopefully between us we could all try and bring home a few medals!
Discipline 1: Target Archery
3 Dozen @ 70m
I was feeling quietly confident with this one as I had felt I’d improved my form, but alas we were to shoot ends of three arrows at a time which meant that as I was shooting barebow, I couldn’t get into a rhythm. I really struggled to get over the 100 points boundary and only averaged about 3 points per arrow, which is pretty poor for me!
Chris Baigent from Southampton Archers wears my original fox tail!
Discipline 2: Field Archery
Woodsman round over 12 targets
I was really looking forwards to this part of the day – not only was I about to shoot the discipline that I felt most comfortable with (I do consider myself a field archer over all the others), but I was going to be shooting with the rather marvellous Denys Barrett from Harlequin Bowmen. It was funny watching non NFAS field archers trying to navigate their way around the woods and complaining of having ‘trees in the way’ (although, I did notice that Osprey had kindly tied a few branches back in places!). Nevertheless, myself and Denys had a very good session and so did the two longbow guys (eventually!). I managed to score a respectable 220 points for the 12 target Woodsman round (30 for first arrow kill, 20 for second arrow kill, 10 for a third arrow kill and 5 for a wound with any arrow – you shoot the target with upto 3 arrows until you scored a kill!).
Denys, Unlimited archer from Harlequin Bowmen
Terry from Bowmen of Lychett - very laid back chap who really improved towards the end of the field session
Tim, a lovely chap & longbow archer who found the field archery session a little challenging!
Tim's magic trick! Arrow ricocheted off some trees and into a bush! Arrow appeared to 'hover' in the twigs 
Discipline 3: Clout Archery
Single clout – 3 dozen arrows at 140yrds
Of all the disciplines, I really thought that this would be my weakest. I hadn’t shot a clout in 8 months and didn’t have any reference point to work from! After my sighters I saw that I was nicely grouped a few yards over the flag – I needed to aim lower! I managed to get it sussed and had two ends where I got all arrows within the ring! My score was 67 (my double clout score for the Sarum Clout was only 86!)
Results Time!
Well I won my category, as did Billy with his longbow! Peter came second behind Chris with my Fox tail! I had a thoroughly fab day and really enjoyed myself. I hope this event grows and grows as it’s really good fun! Well done Osprey and I’ll see you all soon!
Sam x
