Lyme Valley August 8 2010
A 6:30am wakeup call on a bright, sunny morning heralded the start of my first field shoot. And what an amazing course to choose to take my Field Archery virginity on.
Lyme Valley, for those unfamiliar, is set in the midst of prime Staffordshire woodland; the course laid out along a narrow valley that follows a gentle winding brook. Never having shot a field course before I have very little to compare it against, but I felt each target was well placed, the pegs were challenging and the progressions were good.
Karen and I both started well, although I had the best of it, and by halfway we were some 30 points apart; I on 242 with my Longbow and Karen not far behind on 210 with her Hunting Tackle recurve.
Lunch intervened at 1pm, seeing us just over half way round the 36 mixed big game and 3D’s. When we got back underway at 1:45 we feared that relaxed muscles would have grown stiff through lack of use, but as it turned out we both started the afternoon well-24’s for the both of us and a raft of 20’s. Unfortunately for me though, that was as good as it got. On the run in to the final targets my luck deserted me entirely and I blanked the last two.
Dropping so many points on the run-in and with Karen shooting her personal best, it was hardly surprising that at the end of the day we closed with me on 470 and Karen on 484; both personal bests and Karen doing especially well with no blanks.
The only gripe we had during the day, and this was not a reflection on the course itself, was that several groups took excessive time to move through the course. These seemed mainly to be what others in our group called ‘twiddlers’... otherwise known as compound archers and freestyle archers to us laymen...
One group in particular was made up entirely of these twiddlers, which made progression on the long shots very slow. But considering all that, a great day was had by all and many commented that it was the best day Lyme Valley had put on. As it was my first I could hardly deny that claim.
Paul Davis.
Lyme Valley, for those unfamiliar, is set in the midst of prime Staffordshire woodland; the course laid out along a narrow valley that follows a gentle winding brook. Never having shot a field course before I have very little to compare it against, but I felt each target was well placed, the pegs were challenging and the progressions were good.
Karen and I both started well, although I had the best of it, and by halfway we were some 30 points apart; I on 242 with my Longbow and Karen not far behind on 210 with her Hunting Tackle recurve.
Lunch intervened at 1pm, seeing us just over half way round the 36 mixed big game and 3D’s. When we got back underway at 1:45 we feared that relaxed muscles would have grown stiff through lack of use, but as it turned out we both started the afternoon well-24’s for the both of us and a raft of 20’s. Unfortunately for me though, that was as good as it got. On the run in to the final targets my luck deserted me entirely and I blanked the last two.
Dropping so many points on the run-in and with Karen shooting her personal best, it was hardly surprising that at the end of the day we closed with me on 470 and Karen on 484; both personal bests and Karen doing especially well with no blanks.
The only gripe we had during the day, and this was not a reflection on the course itself, was that several groups took excessive time to move through the course. These seemed mainly to be what others in our group called ‘twiddlers’... otherwise known as compound archers and freestyle archers to us laymen...
One group in particular was made up entirely of these twiddlers, which made progression on the long shots very slow. But considering all that, a great day was had by all and many commented that it was the best day Lyme Valley had put on. As it was my first I could hardly deny that claim.
Paul Davis.
posted by Paul of Sherwood at 10/10/2010 10:00:00 am
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