I have only ever taken part in indoor archery competitions until last Sunday when I took part in my first outdoor competition. Louise and I went to the Jolly Archers shoot at King’s Ripton, Huntingdon. I decided to play it safe and shoot the Bristol II which is 72 arrows at 60 yards, 48 arrows at 50 yards and 24 arrows at 40 yards, so 144 arrows in total + sighters.
I could have shot the Hereford round which starts at 80 yards – maybe next year. Louise bought their line tent, and I amazed how everybody had the same tent, even down to the colour! Everyone had green, although apparently you can get them in grey. I think if you don’t have a tent you’d look out of place.
It was certainly different to be shooting 3 arrows, swapping details then shooting another 3 – it was like being indoors again.
The 60 yards was bit dodgy, but my sight marks for 50 yards were way off so my 1st end at every new distance was quite a low score. But in the end I had 1020 out of 1296. A 2nd class score, and probably the maximum you can get anyway. That’s a 7 score average. My 60 yard distance average was 6.5, 50 yard was 7 and 40 yards average was 8 per arrow.
We both came away with 1st place medals, but it seemed like so many people got medals, hardly anyone was missed out. I think the problem is with having all the different age ranges, genders, distances and bow types. There just too many variations – then there are the team awards.
An enjoyable, but a long day (the toilets are about 200 yards from the shooting line, plus the breaks weren’t that long).
Here we are in the car at the end with our medals:
