Haven’t shot many clout competitions so far this year, a clout competition is where you aim at a flag that is set out on the ground at 120 yards (for my age group). Clout distances range from 80 yards- 180 yards and 75 meters-200 meters.

Every year the Lancashire Clout Championships are held at Maghull near Liverpool. This competition is normally plagued by strong winds, rain or both. Fortunately it was a really nice day this year, no wind; the sun was shining, and not too hot.

I already hold the national record for the 100 yard distance which I set a couple of years ago, and this was one of my last chances to break the national record for the 120 yard distance before moving up to my next distance of 140 yards.

I started off quite well, but soon realised my scores were not on track for a record. But it was not all doom and gloom, I was awarded first place junior in Lancashire, receiving the trophy I have now won 5 years in a row. I also was lucky enough to win a few prizes in the raffle!

The day after the Warrington (Cheshire) shoot, I competed with the adults at the annual western rounds held at the High Elm archer’s venue, of Altcar rifle ranges Liverpool.

It was a sunny day with a slight wind, not bad weather for shooting.

It was only a short shoot (4dozen at 60 yards and 4 dozen at 50 yards), I normally shoot excellent at the western round, and by the 1st dozen I was ranked 1st gent on the leader board. I stayed in this position for the rest of the day. I was on form for getting a personal best, but when the distance came down to 50 yards, I started to relax a little too early. I shot a few poor scoring arrows, but I still won the 1st place trophy and medal in the gent recurve section. I was fairly happy with the way I shot, but I know I could have done a lot better.

Wow, I haven’t shot a gents FITA (3 dozen at 90 meters, 3 dozen at 70 meters, 3 dozen at 50 meters and 3 dozen at 30 meters) in a while, in fact I have only shot one this year. So I was looking forward to competing against all of the top-ranked adults this weekend to see how I fair with them.

The weather was quite good, some showers throughout the day, but practically no wind! Excellent conditions for shooting the longer distances.

I was happy with the way I was shooting, getting ranked 10th place out of 37 after the first 4 dozen. I was shooting the best I have ever shot for this round and was on form for a personal best score.

I started to slack at 50 meters, loosing points to the rest of the competitors, meaning I slipped into 14th place. At 30 metres I was on fire and clawed back some of my lost points, scoring the best score I have ever got for that distance.

Although I ended up in 13th place (out of 37 competitors in that category), I scored my personal best which I was reasonably happy with, and I know with a bit more practice, I will be in 1st place in time to come.

The annual New Century Bowmen two day shoot near Macclesfield is normally accompanied by dismal weather conditions, and this year was no different. Sunshine and heavy showers were predicted by the Met Office for the 17th July… They got the heavy showers bit correct! It was my last chance to shoot a Bristol 2 round before having to move up an age group next month, and thought it would be nice to get a decent score to end on.

Despite the heavy (occasionally torrential) rain, and gusting winds blowing from all directions, I managed to win the competition, increasing the county record that I already hold, and setting a new regional record.

Day two of the shoot was supposed to be the worst of the weekend weather, and it was. The wind was a lot stronger, and head on for the first half of the shoot. The wind then started to randomly change direction for the last part of the shoot. On top of the strong winds we had the additional problem of the frequent showers again. Once again I got the highest score, and set more county and regional records for a Double Bristol 2 round.

I finely tuned my bow this week, ready for this weekends competition, and I shot at the club on Thursday night shooting really tight groups. With this in mind, I felt more confident than ever for this weekend’s record status competition hosted by the Wirral archers at their venue on the Wirral Peninsula.

I entered for an Albion (adult) round (3 dozen at 80 yards, 3 dozen at 60 yards and 3 dozen at 50 yards). I was the only junior that was shooting the round, and I went there with intentions of setting a new national record.

It started off a sunny yet very windy morning with targets being blown over before the shoot had even started. The targets were secured more so, and the shoot began. The strong winds were blowing the arrows everywhere (not good when you are shooting long distances), but I was getting reasonable scores for the conditions, and I was happy with the way I was shooting for the furthest distance of 80 yards. When the targets were moved to 60 yards, I was shooting gold after gold, getting 31 out of 36 arrows in the gold for that distance. I was on my way to getting a good score, possibly breaking the national record.

I had a couple of low scoring arrows at the change of distance to 50 yards, putting my thoughts of getting the national record for this shoot on the back burner. I finished the tournament with a decent score, a few points short of the national record maybe, but on the positive side I won 1st place medal, best gold, and reset the county record that I set last year. J

After getting my equipment back to my normal set up, using my other new limbs I felt as if no one could beat me this weekend at Lilleshall.

The junior national championships are the biggest event I enter each year, and is spread over 2 days. This year it was held on Saturday the 3rd of July and Sunday the 4th of July. We travelled down there on the Friday, stopping off at the field were I was going to compete the next day to set up our tent, and also have a practice shoot. We then went on to the hotel, where we met up and had a meal with members from Orrell Archers. We had a great laugh! After that I had a good, night’s rest (which was very nice) when we got back to the hotel.

Saturday morning I got up at 6:30 (which is really no good for me) feeling confident for this shoot. I shot really well for the first couple of dozen, being 1st out of 33 on the leader board for a couple of dozen. It was a close competition, with the top 3 places being within points of each other. As the day progressed, I shot one arrow wrong and got a very low score with it, knocking me into 2nd place, I was gutted! Thankfully I shot reasonably well for the rest of the day keeping me in second position. I was awarded 2nd place medal at the awards ceremony. I was really happy with the way I shot as I scored a personal best, and reset the Lancashire county record that I already hold.

After shooting well the previous day, I thought that Sundays shoot would have been a piece of cake, but after seeing the weather forecast when I woke up I thought different. There were severe winds which were supposedly going to get worse throughout the day. The sight marks I attained at Nethermoss weren’t of any use whatsoever and I scored very low for my first dozen arrows and was over 20 points behind the leader by the end of two dozen arrows. I knew I had to up my game and by 3rd dozen I had got back into the swing of things and was 2nd place on the leader board. Targets began to fall over in the strengthening wind and archers were finding it hard to shoot. At 4 dozen the judges decided that it was starting to get dangerous and announced a comfort break so that they could decide whether or not to abandon the shoot. After about 15 minutes it was decided that the shoot was shortened to a western round (there are different types of westerns, being at different distances for each age group, mine being 60 yards and 50 yards, 4 dozen at each distance). The targets were moved to the shorter distance and shooting commenced. I started to claw back some of my previously lost points, but not enough to increase my position on the leader board. I remained in 2nd place till the end of the tournament, winning the second place medal.

Although I went there to win this weekend (as did everybody else), I was happy with the way I shot and pleased that I finished within the top 3 positions on both days.

I had two successful days the previous week (12th & 13th June) at the Lancashire archery association adult championships. It was a gorgeous sunny day on the Saturday, followed by a terrible, windy, dull, and rainy day on the Sunday (as shown in the photo). I won both days as a junior shooting in the Metric1, and Hereford rounds, plus set two new County records over the two days.

Again after the two successful days at the above competition, I felt confident for this years Lancashire archery association junior championships (27th June). The competition was held in the Orrel Archers venue, which meant that I didn’t have to get up early to travel to it because it is fairly close to where I live!! It was a beautiful day, the sun beating down on us, perfect shooting conditions (except for it being a little too hot). The competition started, and I began to shoot rubbish, but I was happy to see my name in first place on the leader board, and am glad to say, that’s where it remained for the rest of the day. My shooting started to pick up towards the end, and I scored a perfect dozen (all in the gold) for my last dozen arrows of the shoot.

At the day’s presentations, I got awarded 1st place junior boy shooting the Bristol 2 round (6 dozen at 60 yards, 4 dozen at 50 yards and 2 dozen at 40 yards). I also received certificates for representing the NCAS (Northern Counties Archery Society) for a shoot against the EMAS (East Midland Archery Society) at Wetherby, at the beginning of June. Another certificate that I was awarded was for competing in the NCAS Postal Portsmouth rounds over the indoor season. This was presented for achieving the highest scores and most gold’s (under 18 Recurve bow), achieved within the NCAS area (Cheshire, Cumbria, Isle of Man, Lancashire, Northumberland and Durham, Yorkshire) over a five month period.

I was called to represent the N.C.A.S. (Northern Counties Archery Society) in a shoot against the E.M.A.S. (East Midlands Archery Society) held at Wetherby, Yorkshire Saturday 6th June.

I got up at 4am ready to travel to Yorkshire where the shoot was being held. It was a FITA/Metric competition, I myself shooting a metric 2 round (3 dozen at 60m, 3 dozen at 50m, 3 dozen at 40m and 3 dozen at 30m, 12 dozen in total). I went there feeling confident after having a good win the previous weekend at the competition in Wales, and determined I was going to win the competition for my age group (U16).

Having to set off to Wetherby at 5am left me pretty tired so I regained some of my lost sleep on the way to the competition by falling asleep in the back of the car (another way I have for preparing for a comp).

When we finally arrived, the sun was beating down on us; it was about 16 degrees at 7am! It was also very humid. The shoot started off ok, my score wasn’t that good, but I wasn’t complaining as after the first dozen I was in the lead. As the day progressed, the heat and humidity took its toll, a couple of the archers retired. I also started to feel tired myself, technique became a little sloppy, and taking too long to shoot each arrow.

Scores were collected every dozen, and the names of the highest scoring archers placed on the leader board. Although I felt like I wasn’t doing particularly well, I was happy to see that I was in the lead for my age group throughout the competition. I won In the under 16 category, equalling my personal best for this round, and the N.C.A.S. team of which I was a member, won the team prize.

On Sunday 30th May, I went down to the club to get sight marks and to prepare myself for the Welsh whit western shoot the next day. Down at the field I experienced the worst shooting conditions I have shot in at the club’s new venue. It started getting dangerous with gusts of winds across the field lifting arrows off arrow rests etc, but eventually I was able to get some rough sight marks.

On bank holiday Monday, the 31st of May, I entered as an adult in the Welsh Whit Western (shooting the adults distance 60y/50y). With all the messing around I had with my equipment last week, I felt confident that I was going to shoot well on the day. The shoot began, the conditions were perfect, I started hammering the arrows into the gold, at this point I knew that although I was shooting against adult men, it was going to be a victorious day for me.

I continued shooting very well and at the end of the day I shot my personal best score which was 806, my previous being 800. At the presentations the gentlemen recurve scores were read out, 3rd place, 770 something, 2nd 780 something, 1st place 794, they made a mess of the scores! I beat first place by 12 points! I had to go query the scores and found out I got put down for a junior! This is the second time this has happened to me at the same shoot, so I had a word with the organiser and the organiser realised that he had made a mistake. Apologies all round, and I got awarded 1st place gentleman recurve, finally.

With getting PB, and beating all the men, I came home with a smile on my face :)

What a week! On the strength of getting the ASDA sponsorship cheque through, I ordered a new set of limbs for my bow. The limbs arrived at my house Saturday 15th May. After hours of adjusting everything on the bow, I still couldn’t get it to shoot correctly. Several other archers down at the club also tried without success to sort the bow out. I had the Bebington Western’s to shoot the next day (16th May), so I decided to give up on my new limbs, and reverted back to my old limbs. It was getting late in the day, and I never had any real chance to set up again to my original settings; I had no choice than to enter the shoot with an un-tuned bow!

Although my arrows were flying erratically, my final score wasn’t too disappointing. I had entered under the adult category (shooting against the men), and came 3rd, missing out to 2nd position by 2 points! I didn’t think I shot too badly, considering the bow was not tuned.

On Monday, I attempted to tune my new limbs again, and tried them out on Tuesday, but something still was not right! I decided to keep the set-up the way it was to try it out again on Thursday. Thursday came, and further adjustments to the bow made. I didn’t like the way the bow felt at all, so I decided to contact Bowsports asking them to check them to them out, and for a replacement/ refund. Meanwhile, I borrowed a set of limbs of the same poundage (strength) from another club member (that has turned to shooting a Stick (Longbow) knowing that I had two competitions ahead of me at the weekend. So I tried tuning them in, in the garden at 10 O’clock at night, I only have about 4 meters to shoot in the garden, which is nowhere long enough for serious tuning. Next day I visited Orrel Archers Club grounds to tune them in finely, and get sight marks for my competition distances. Luckily enough the bow tuned in quite quickly, the first bit of good shooting I have had in a while. Knowing the bow was fully set-up boosted my confidence for the competitions ahead of me during the next two days.

On Saturday 22nd May, I shot a national round, which is a 6 dozen round, in Mannings lane, Cheshire. It was a very, very hot day, reaching about 26 degrees centigrade. I shot very well, the best I had done in a while, and broke the national record by 12 points! UNFORTUNATELY!! I could not claim for a national record, as it was not a record status shoot! Grrrrrrr! So I had to take condolence in only setting a new County record instead.

On Sunday 23rd May, I shot a double FITA 720 which all together was a 12 dozen round, in Eccles Manchester. Like the previous day it was a very hot! I shot very well for the first 3 dozen, scoring 310, a personal best, but it was decided to have a comfort break after 3 dozen, after having the break my score decreased, and I only got 270 for the next 3 dozen arrows, a significant difference to 310! I ended up with a score of 580, which was also a personal best for me, and county & regional (northern counties) record. The afternoon session started, and I soon became very tired. The sweltering heat took the energy away from me that I really needed. The extra heat of the afternoon took its toll on many of the archers reducing their performance, and several retired. I ended up with an afternoon score of 563, exhaustion, and sunburn (although I was smothered in high factor sun cream several times during the day). I got the highest score for the juniors, got ranked 7th out of 23 adults in the morning session and 6th out of 15 adults in the afternoon session. My club, Nethermoss archers were awarded first place team, the team consisted of, Tony Hoe, Dave Ball, and myself. Boy, did I sleep that night…