Balbardie Archers

As some of you will know I entered my first outdoor competition yesterday. As a novice the rules permit you to shoot at reduced distances in your first year so any budding competitive archers in the club shouldn’t be put off by the distance factor. 
However as I have gone off and bought my new toy and very much have the archery buzz at the moment I have set myself a goal of shooting a FITA 1000 this season. To explain what that means a Gents FITA round comprises the following.

36 arrows at 90m on a 122cm (full boss size) face. Max Score 360
36 arrows at 70m on a 122cm face Max Score 360
36 arrows at 50m on an 80cm face Max Score 360
36 arrows at 30m on an 80cm face Max Score 360
Total Max Score 1440

Compounds and Recurves shoot the same round. For Ladies the round is the same but the longest distance is 70m and the 90m is replaced by a 60m round. For Children and Novices the distances reduce (max 50m for example).

To illustrate the difficulty involved you gain a classification based on what you score (you have to do this three times but the concept is the same) which for Gents recurve is as follows:

There are also awards available such as FITA 1000 star, 1100 Star, 1200 Star and 1300 Star which you gain as you achieve these scores. Hence by setting my sights on the 1000 number I am trying to achieve my FITA 1000 star and gain a 1st class Ranking which is approaching the BM (Bowman score).

In terms of expertise, in our club Murray is the only Bowman class recurve archer and is pushing for MB (Master Bowman) this year which would include him in the top 4% of competitive archers. In case you are wondering Scotland only has one Gents Recurve GMB (Grand Master Bowman) Simon Needham who is an Olympian and has been the Scottish number 1 for about twenty years now.

Finally to get a 1000 points on a FITA you need to typically shoot the following scores at each distance:
90m: 200, 70m: 250, 50m: 250, 30m: 300.

OK how did I get on then?

Pre- shoot
I arrived at the competition and registered which pretty just means confirming your name to an official at the table and showing them your GNAS card so that they can confirm your insurance. After that you look up your name on the target list to find out which target you are on (kind of like a seating plan at a wedding but without all the bridesmaids and kilts). You then find yourself a place on the line close to your target number and set up. At this point you enter a tented village at the back of the line where everyone has set up their respective shelters from the wind. Going to my first competition I didn’t have one of these so I just plonked my stuff down in a suitable place beside the folding chair I had the forethought to bring. Newbies should have nothing to worry about here there’s no requirement to bring a tent or anything else, I guess people are just used to the weather in Scotland!

So after you set up your bow and traverse the jungle of guy ropes, travel rugs and thermos flasks you will see a lot of archers chatting and being friendly and generally not doing a lot of warm ups (not much difference from a club day then). You will be called to the inspection line where basically the Judges need to make sure your draw weight is safe (compounds) and that all your arrows match and have initials and that your bow and tab don’t give unfair advantages, apparently mines would in fact do much the opposite but more of that later.

After that you get on the line and shoot some practice arrows (basically like sighters but as many arrows as you can shoot in 4 minutes). There is no maximum on this so I imagine our very own Gilbert Jamieson could easily get through his entire collection of arrows in this time 

After practice you get called up onto the line and shoot a six arrow end. One thing you’ll note is that a lot of people are using scopes, however because these take up space the etiquette seems to be that you leave it on the line if possible and share so I shared with a fellow left hander and used his scope. This is a good method for keeping the line free and also letting those that don’t have scopes use someone elses (reducing cost).

90m
End one: 9,7,2, Miss, Miss, Miss. Arrows are way too low which I assume is the wind (it was quite blustery).

End two: 8,4,3, Miss, Miss, Miss. Despite aiming much higher I’m still not getting anywhere, and start to wonder whether my arrows think that they are actually apples trying to prove a point on gravity for Isaac Newton.

End three: As I load my arrow I notice my clicker has moved forward to the end of the clicker plate. I then spend ends 3&4 adjusting my clicker to find the correct drawlength.

End five: having found the correct clicker position my arrows are still flying way left on the target, I continue adjusting my sight but to no avail. Eventually with the sight nearly fully wound out I am aiming halfway towards the adjacent target in order to hit mines. A friendly passing judge by the name of Bill McKay enquires as to why I am moving my sight pin in the opposite direction of the error and I confirm that I am indeed an idiot. Having never done this in practice it shows you what the Clickergate incident had done to my head by this point.

End six: 9,6,5, Miss, Miss, Miss. Between readjusting the clicker and the sight I manage to struggle 20points on my last end out of a target of 33.

Target Score 200 Actual Score 95 

As a team you now grab the boss and stand and move it forward to the next distance and confirm off everyone’s scores for the distance. Then you have a 20 minute break and off you go again. I spent this time making sure my clicker was screwed down really tight and getting my sight in the right place. And yes I managed to do this in an expletive free fashion that did not involve racket abuse.

70m
End one: 4,4,3,2,2,1. a lot of whites as I struggle to get used to the wind.
End three: 10,10,8,7,5. Having remembered to move my sight the correct way I finally hit a gold. At this point I notice the fourth finger on my string hand is really hurting from a blood blister I’d developed over the course of the week through all the practice. Thankfully Murray had a first aid kit and I strap up the offending finger and ignore the pain GRRRR 

Clearly the part where I ignore the pain doesn’t register in the part of the brain that controls my loose as my arrows start to fly in all sorts of interesting directions towards the target making my scores drop again pretty rapidly. Interestingly I also manage to nock enormous lumps out of my bracer (seriously I’m talking inch square holes) for the next three ends as well and wonder why I am paying to do this…

Target Score 250 Actual Score 190 

After moving the target and listening to lot’s of advice about button tuning from well meaning individuals (cheers guys but seriously I’m not going to do it in the middle of a competition). One of the other Judges commented that my form was fine but that I was applying torque to the string with my fingers which was causing the string to smash into my armguard at a horrendous angle and also causing the arrows to fly in such entertaining patterns.

On closer inspection the platform on my tab had twisted at a great angle and was causing me to seriously pinch my string. I borrowed a leatherman and got to work on the tab thinking right, we’re sorted bring IT ON!

50m
Buoyed by my newly adjusted tab and cup a soup (OK let’s face it by this point I’d reached for the chocolate). I set about the 50m target with new hopes.

End one: 5,4,1, Miss, Miss, Miss. The Second shot was an almighty crack as my arrow left the bow and dropped less than delicately at my feet. I got a bit of a fright and realised that my arrow hadn’t been knocked properly and nearly dryfired the bow. Clearly the rest of the end I spent bottling it from pulling the arrow through the clicker.

End Two: 10,9,7,5,4,3. Happy enough but something doesn’t feel quite right.

End Three: 9,9,8,8,7, Miss. I notice that my arrows just won’t knock properly, basically the serving between my knocking point had compressed to the stage where the arrows were very loose (one arrow an end was dropping off on the line). I manage through to the end of distance trying not to think about just how bad my equipment was behaving today and seek out the sage like Elliot for advice.

Target Score 250 Actual Score 206 hmmm

After finding Murray huddled around a stove and describing how much he was looking forward to a bottle of wine that evening (by no means was I the only archer having a less than great day in terms of shooting) we concurred that an emergency fix of dental floss over the serving between the knocking points would suffice to give my knock something to bond upon.

Helpfully the blood blister from earlier had now burst so between the blood from my fingers and the dental floss my string now looked more like an instrument of torture than my friend however we had a brief chat and I explained to it that if it let me shoot 36 more arrows in a relatively painless manner (both figuratively and literally), I would reward it by putting on a new serving and making it look pretty again.

30m
End one: 8,7,6,6,4,3. Thankfully at the two shorter distances you only shoot 3 arrow ends so between that and the fact you can see your arrows land you can adjust your sights much more quickly.

Ends two and three I started to improve my scores up to the 45 mark.

Ends four and five I kept nearly everything in the red and nudged it up to the 47 mark.

End six: 10,9,9,8,8,7. A 51, my best end of the day and a good one to finish on (my target was a 50 score end).

Target Score 300 Actual Score 269 happy enough considering the rest of the day
Total Target 1,000 Total Actual 760 (ahem…)

Conclusion

At this point you pack up the bosses (just like a club day for those that wonder what happens to them if they leave early) and sign off your score card. You then pack away your stuff and watch the great tented village disassemble itself back into the boots of various cars.

Clearly I wasn’t in the running and my hand was a right mess at this point so I wasn’t hanging around but several others would to receive their richly deserved medals. I swapped war stories with Josie, Murray, David and Struan and then headed off into the Sunset (it was indeed a glorious evening).

On the way home I reflected on whether I enjoyed it. To be honest After 90m: No, after 70m I was getting pretty frustrated, 50m felt like nothing else could go wrong but 30m – yes I’ve got to say it was great fun. Finishing on a good end was a great feeling and I’m totally coming back for more. Angry Kev is back but this time he’s packing a first aid kit and dental floss. Bring IT ON!!!

El Presidente