Middlesex County Archer Association Indoor Championship - Pt2

11.00am - Okay.  So its competition day again.  This time its the MCAA Indoor Champs.  One of these days I'm just gonna have a lazy weekend with nothing to do.  

The weather seems really good today!

1.00pm - I pick up Richard (The Ageing Archer) and set off on another road-trip.  We both seem in good spirits for this one.  The ghosts of Telford are long behind us.

 2.30pm - Where on earth is the venue?  We've arrived at the location according to SATNAV but all we can see are BP buildings.  Where are we?  Richard get out google Maps and fine tunes the directions.

2.35pm - We've arrived!  Though it's not quite what we're expecting.  Are we in the right place?  We're in a car park ... a flooded car park. Let's just park up and get indoors.

2.36pm - We spot a man with an archery bag!  Yup, this is the right place.

Next we spot a lot of people in purple shirts.  They look like they mean business.  They're busy taking photos whilst me and Richard set up.  I wonder who they are.  No time for that now.  These bows aren't gonna put themselves together on their own.

2.45pm - I bump into a staff member from Telford.  He remembers me.  He's a judge today.  Archery definitely gets you to meet new people and makes new friends.  It's not just about the arrows.  

We also meet an archer from CMO Bowmen.  It's a club me and Richard have been looking at.  He recommends it to us and re-confirms they have a shortage of recurve archers.  I think we're gonna have to take a closer look at them.  He also tries to win the biggest belt competition.  He has a US army water canteen and what looks like a radio pouch on a 3 inch leather belt along with various carabiners and archery goodies.  It's a good attempt but no chance buddy.  You're gonna need more than that to beat ma padded molle combat belt.  Better luck next time.

5.15pm - The session begins.  We're getting through our ends at a very fast rate.  Should be done in about 2 hours.

I hear murmurs about my 'Freedom' stance.  Hehe, 

Again the first 30 arrows go without a hitch.  It's looking good.  But just like Telford it begins to drop in the second half.  Fatigue sets in and I start hitting a few 7's and 8's.  When I get back to 2020 I'm gonna have to take a look at that.

My final score is 541!  That's not too bad.  I had hoped to get above 550 as my PB is 548.  Maybe next week.

5.30pm - Raffle time.  The organisers have laid on a raffle.  It's always good to support raffles at competitions.  The money raised either goes to the club to help fund new equipment or helps to lower shooting fees.  I manage to win 4 of the 6 prizes.  Oops.

5.55pm - Homeward bound.  Another weekend another competition done.  

Oh I found out who the purple shirts were - University of London.  Even though they all have the gear, only one of them looks like they know what they are doing (he's a really good shoot too!).  The purple shirt next to me mistook my arrows with his own when scoring.  He also managed to destroy 2 Easton Jazz arrows.

All this competition practice is proving useful. 

Next one is in 7 days! 

Chinese New Year

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR - Gung Hei Faat Choi!

I hope the Year of the Horse brings good fortune and prosperity for everyone!

Hopefully, some of that will rub off into my archery. I have a competition tomorrow so I'm gonna need it.  It's the Middlesex County Indoor Championship at Meadhurst Sports Club.  We're shooting Portsmouths again so this should be a little less daunting than Telford.

On a slightly different note ... it's freezing in my work office!  Yes I know it's Winter but the heating is off!  I hope the sports club tomorrow has a heated shooting line.

Last Practice Before Next Competition

Wednesday 29th January 2014

Its the last chance for me to get some practice in before the next competition.  This one is on Saturday 2nd February.  Its the Middlesex County Open Indoor Championship.  At least it won't be on a triple spot target.  

I managed to shoot a round of 529 with 60 arrows.  About average for me.  It was good to see the club again and shooting a Portsmouth.  After weeks of shooting at triple spot targets it feels good to be back on the target that I started with on my journey.

This will be my third competition.  I've really got the bug for it now.

Let's see how well I do on Saturday!