A Tale of Two (Windy) Cities

“It’s winder than somewhere that’s really windy” as Baldrick might say. Which seems to have been the general theme of things last Sunday when we had a the first outdoor competitions of the season with dual outings to Bassetlaw and Meriden.

Bassetlaw Pie and Peas

We had much reduced contingent at the first Pie and Pea event of the year at Bassetlaw. In keeping with last years, organisation was lacking with many chairs being forgotten, more importantly a tent to shelter in. Luckily, the ever organised Keith had his gazebo in the van; unluckily, it had no sides, so didn’t cut down the biting wind very much, but he did have a spare chair for me to sit on, which was the main thing.

It’s winder than somewhere that’s really windy

Disappointment was high on the agenda, as we had all been listed as having “No Meal” on the attendance list, so there were a few glum faces, but a quick word rectified this (more on that later) and we were all given our meal ticket. Following the usual talk from Mario et. al. we shot our six sighters only to wonder where the whistle was to start shooting. Much mutterings ensued wondering what the holdup was and then a flash of Smurf blue caught my eye; Adeel and chums had just arrived after having got lost in the wilds of Worksop.

The weather was again bright and warm, as long as the sun was poking out from between the clouds, but soon as it went in, the temperate seemed to plummet 10 degrees. After the first two dozen, the wind picked up which I think had been specially imported from Siberia. This in itself wasn’t too bad, as we Archers are a hardy bunch, the main problem was the, one second the wind was blowing a gale, the next it had changed direction completely, making aiming a little troublesome. Anyway, it’s the same for everyone isn’t it?

Lunchtime called, and the Peas had miraculously morphed into beans again and I think that the weather had adversely affected the Pies, as ours were decidedly lukewarm. I think I’ll take my own pie next time and join Dan and Terry on the picnic benches.

The afternoon session suffered with more wind, perhaps it was the Peas/Beans adding to the gusts as many mumblings and grumblings could be heard along the line so, to put it politely, many scores were not what they could have been, or rubbish to the rest of us.

Having said that, Adeel did come second, so congrats to him for battling through the wilds of Worksop and the Russian winds to put in a decent score. The rest of us faded into oblivion further down the leader board. Apparently, there was only one team, and we weren’t it, which is surprising as there were six of us there; never mind, better luck in October.

Bassetlaw Results

Meriden 1440

by guest author Shai, Competition Nag and Tournament Junkie

So the story starts about two months ago whilst perusing a certain store, (that I rarely visit) I ask George which comps he has signed up for. Now the enticements start with the mythical, magical and downright legendary Meriden Archers (whoooo? yes me too). A very long established club in the West Midlands, with the most sheltered grounds ‘anywhere’….. dum dum duuuuum. Apparently its where all the top archers go to post high scores.

How could I turn it down, me being me I also roped in Chris, Dave and Mick, unfortunately Dave had to drop out, amazingly the lure of a weekend away with the family was more tempting (lucky bugger, dodged a bullet there). I gave a few folks the option of going and Cory decided to jump in with both feet (having never actually shot 90m).

So we get up, blurry eyed at 5am, aiming to get to the ground for 7am and glad we did, as there was only two tent spaces left on the line. We met a nice steward who helped us park, saying “Oh never been here eh, be prepared to put some big scores in”. I’ve been shooting competitively pretty much from the start at Burton Joyce and have visited a fair few clubs. However, Meriden simply puts EVERY single club I’ve seen or heard about to shame.

From a Notts perspective BJA is outstanding, lovely ground, decent facilities BUT they pale into insignificance compared to the hallowed Meriden, they have, deep breath, 24/7 floodlit shooting, permanently set out targets, a heated clubhouse, toilet block, gravelled car park, fully equipped kitchen, archery workshop, covered shooting for shorter distances……FOR GOODNESS SAKE….they even have a club CAT, (it’s called Puss and is the official Pest Control Officer, Ed.) that’s right you heard it here first, they have a cat, with its own ruddy cat flap to the kitchen!!

Right, back to the competition, as per normal you register yourself (remember to bring your GNAS Card or no shooty shooty). Tent pitched, scope on the line, first come first served. Ready for the offing with a bit of a breeze but nothing to worry about, the occasional random gust to push you about, then slowly and blinking surely the wind and gusts (that NEVER happen at Meriden) happened!!. Even the lovely Eileen the tournament organiser said, in all her years, she’s never seen such bad weather.

Apart from Bramcote and Bassetlaw last year, I can honestly say the conditions were b****y awful, when half the GB squad and a few sponsored archers left in the morning, we should have guessed it would be tricky, and tricky it was.  The wind would literally change direction from one end to the next, that’s difficult enough to deal with but when you’re also getting thrown about by 30mph gusts, well lets say its ‘challenging’. One of the highlights being scopes getting blown over, but my favourite was a judges chair that went flying into a certain commonwealth silver medalists bow! Mick’s bow also got into a tangle with a fellow competitors bow, but the amorous couple were separated, there was some bending of a rod, but it was easily fixed with the twist of a nut.

Remember the Great British weather is challenging so everyone prepares for the worst, by the end of the day I was wearing two base layers, a club top, two body warmers, a hoody and jacket…..AND I WAS STILL FREEZING! Anyway enough of my fashion tips, by lunchtime and the end of the longer distances, we were all doing okay. By all, there is a small caveat, Cory; you see what Cory failed to do was remember to bring his ARROWS, his arrows ladies and gentlemen, quite an important feature, in the archers repertoire, well less of a feature and more of an ESSENTIAL item. Still the gritty gent persevered with a set of my compound arrows that were literally double the spine of his and about two inches shorter. Amazingly he did get some of them to land on the boss, unfortunately my spin wings had other ideas and even with the greatest skill in the world, you’re not going to land an arrow with 2 vanes on it at 70m, let alone 90m. At 50m he switched to some allys he luckily had in his bag. Word to the wise…..triple check your gear. To be fair he did, he just forgot to grab them up when Chris picked him up (it was 5 a.m.! Ed). Still he battled through and finished his first 1440 with a reasonable score in hideous conditions.

So the Meriden adventure ends in its usual fashion, me and Mick trying to pack away our now world famous SHANDY comic popup tent, 2 mins to put up, a Facebook viral video to put down.

All that said, would I do it again? The answer is, yes, in a heartbeat. Yes, its about personal bests and winning but its also about making new friends, having random sandwiches at lunchtime with your mates. Getting up at ridiculous-o’clock doesn’t matter when your out having fun with your friends. When you shoot competitions like a few of us do, almost every weekend in the summer season, it really gets into your blood, I cannot recommend it enough, so please my fellow Smurfs dip your toes if you haven’t already. I mean which other sport gives you the opportunity to shoot next to an Olympic medallist, guess what 99.9% of them are really nice people and they all want to help, I haven’t met one yet that bites.  (I have, Ed!)

Pictures from Meriden are in the gallery.

Meriden Results

Update

It’s taken a while to track down, but my endeavours has paid off and I have a copy of the elusive video of the Magnificent Meriden Men and their Marvelous Marquee.