11 May 2008    Whiteleaf Invitation Shoot
Shoot Report (A beginners eye view - by Andrew Leighton-Sims)

The day started well, we arrived in plenty of time and were soon set up, even Barry with his palatial tent. Burleigh fielded a Recurve and a Compound team. The Recurve Team scrounged a spare guest archer called "Stan" (who I never actually met) to make up the team numbers.

On my target there was only 1 other archer, who was also experiencing 12 dozen arrows in 1 day for the first time, we set our expectations low with the firm intent of enjoying the day. The only saviour from the days scorching sun was the stiff uphill headwind. The Field Judge called us to order, we shot our sighters and then into our first 6 Dozen at 80yds. After 2 Dozen, Burleigh stood 3rd on the leader board. After 3 Dozen, Burleigh slipped of the leader board never to reappear. 6 Dozen completed and despite his best efforts on the last end, my Target partner failed to win the "Worst White", even though 3 of his arrows had the qualifying score. (n.b. Wayne Stocker from Reading Archers won this title, but we all reckoned he'd been deliberately aiming at the line anyway !!). We then all gratefully retired to the shade and consumed our packed lunches.

After Lunch was the novel experience of moving the shooting line 20 yards closer to the targets, rather than moving the targets closer to us !!. Accordingly, a row of chairs and water bottles moved forward too (along with a lone tent). 4 more Dozen flew by and we moved 10 yards closer again. The final 2 Dozen seemed to last no time at all. I missed my target score for the day, probably due to the pressure on the last arrow having to be a Gold and inevitably ending up in the white !

Unfortunately the only real prizes we took home apart from suntans were from the raffle. Stephanie Knight finished as the first Recurve lady, and was feebly supported by the remainder of the Recurve team (Myself, Andy Withey, Barry Walker & "Stan") and we ended 6th out of 8 or 9 teams. The compound team of Sally Du Feu and Sam Baldwin finished 2nd (but there were only 2 compound Teams !). After a welcome cup of tea and sandwiches provided by Whiteleaf we wound a weary and warm way home. Many thanks to Sally, for making sure that we were fully prepared (fluids, hats, sun cream etc) for the first competition experience of a couple of us Recurve archers, and for organising the day from a B-of-B perspective.

All in all, a REALLY good day ! (I'll definitely be doing it again)