This year we had only three club members taking part and one junior, as Danny had to withdraw at the last minute for work reasons. Again the tournament was hosted by Bowmen of Danesfield, who always seem to put on an excellent day. Ernie was rather nervous for an old hand, as he hadn't done any competitive shoots for well over three years, possibly longer. Our ringer this year was Lynne Evans, former Olympic archer (Munich 1972), also chairman of the GNAS, club President and member for many years.
This year was very well attended, with almost all the Somerset clubs represented and around 90 archers shooting. Again it was a very friendly shoot, with many first timers taking part. On my target was a gentleman who had only been in the sport for three months. He still won a prize though, for worst white.
I'd also like to personally thank Andrea the Judge and Doug the organiser and coach for helping with my daughter Jessica. She was mortified to find she was shooting 40m, which she had never attempted as she was certain her bow would not reach. After some persuasion from Royette our coach, she was persuaded to see if she could shoot the shorter distances while not actually competing. Doug however was a star and sorted her out a sight mark and got her onto the 40m target, and Andrea allowed her to catch up her missing dozen over the lunch break. This turned what would have been a disappointing day into a special one for her, as she really wanted to shoot. In the end she got the gold award, so I'm sure it was all a cunning plan after all. Now she is keen to do the Somerset Indoors Junior in November.
As for the seniors, none of us felt we did particularly well, as there was a rather nasty and variable headwind all day, which made shooting a bit more challenging . Personally I was 48 down on last year, which is not great. However, as it turned out, everyone was having the same problems, and as a result Lynne managed to win the Ladies, and received a rather large filigree bowl as a trophy.
The biggest surprise of the day was when it came to the team trophy, and I don't think any of us expected for a moment that our club would be the name called out. I was somewhat surprised, and Ernie was really stunned after having what he considered a really bad score.
So in the end it was a goods day for Wells City Archers, and here are the results:
Jessica Read (Girls, recurve) 1st in the Very Short FITA (40m, 30m, 20m)
Wells City Archers (Chris Read, Lynne Evans and Ernie Chapman) won The Backwell Cup Team Trophy (for 3 recurve archers from one club to include
one Lady).
However, things were not as they seemed, as it appears a manual count performed due to computer failure had failed to correctly determine that in fact Gordano Archers had in fact won the team trophy by a few points. This did not come to light until a couple of weeks later when the results were published. So, we have graciously returned the trophy (before engraving) so that they can have it for the year. Next year we'll be back to claim it again.
Chris Read, Ernie Chapman and Lynne Evans
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The Team, now with added Jess