Since my last blog entry I have been training with the EAF and testing the Hoyt Formul RX with F4 limbs.
Shooting is going well and I love the new bow. I am shooting the 27 inch riser with 42lb short limbs (68 inch overall). I shot a new EFAA Marked 3d record on 28/12/09 with 554out of 560. Then in early Jan I shot 338 for 70m (indoors) for the first six ends of H-2-H practice at the EAF training weekend. Then Last Sunday I shotanother EFAA record, this time with 522 for the Hunter round.
So all in all I am very happy with the bow and my shooting and looking forward to shooting for the EAF in Delhi in March for the Commonwealth Games archery test event. I hope to get my remaining qualifying scores there to go into the CWG shoot off.

On Sunday I shot the Marked Big Game round at my EFAA club. I had been feeling a bit rubbish with a cold last week and didn't shoot too well in training indoors. I was tired and weak, but I thought I would shoot the round anyway since it was only 28 targets and you only need shoot one arrow at each target if the first arrow scores. I was glad I did shoot. I shot 28 perfect targets for a maximum score of 560 and a new EFAA National record. There are a number of compounds who have shot a maximum score, but as far as I can see I am the first to do it with a recurve. The club usually has a classification round once a month and it is a nice way to measure how the winter training is going. So I am looking forward to next months round.

I made a list of all the shoots, rounds, scores and positions from this season. It has been a good year so I thought I would share it here.

25th January Whitemark IFAA International 279* 1st
22nd February Whitemark IFAA Marked N F 815 1st
1st March Glamorgan field 24 combination 339 1st
29th March Whitemark IFAA Field 503 1st
4/5th April Panther field 24+24 combination 353/336 1st
12/13th April Dearne Valley field 24UM+24M 350/343 2nd
25/26th April Pentref Spring field 24UM+24M 356/329 1st
2/3rd May WMAS, Lilleshall Double FITA 1245/1143 3rd
9/10th May NCAS, Timperley Double FITA 1244/1270 1st
17th May Evesham 720 +H2H 618 (2)=6th
23/24th May All Brittish field 24UM+24M 372/333 1st
31st May Andover Double 720 635/636 1st
13th June Rivernook Double 720 619/627 3rd
20/21st June Northampton field 24+24 combination 356/375** 1st
27/28th June SSTT, Lilleshall 720 + FITA 643/1300 (5)(4)4th
4/5th July Euronations FITA + 720 H2H 1251/631 2nd/
11/12th July Overton field 24UM + 24M 374/338 1st
24/26th July World Games 24UM +24M 352/346 8th
1/2nd August Oxford 720 H2H + Double 720 628/632/652 (2)1st/2nd
8/9th August British Target champs Double York 1168/1168 1st
17/23rd Aug European Field 24M + 24UM 368/357 (2)6th
29/30/31st Aug EMAS, Norwich Double FITA + 720 H2H 1251/1254/636 2nd(4)4th
5/6th Sept Meriden Double FITA 1294/1290 2nd
13th Sept Bowmen of Glen Double 720 633/636 2nd
19/20th Sept Ipswich Intl. 720 + H2H 657 (1)3rd
26/27th Sept WMAS, Lilleshall Double FITA 1259/1287 3rd
10/11th Oct Cheshire field 24UM + 24M 364/339 2nd
*EFAA National record for International round
**ArcheryGB National record claimed for 24 combination and double combination

This weekend was the Cheshire Field Champs and pretty much the end of my outdoor season. It was a great weekend. The weather was good to us if a little windy at the top of the field on Sunday and a couple of showers of rain, but not too bad for this time of year. This field tournament has everything that a field shoot should have. It has shots over the lake, shots in the open, shots through the trees, uphill, downhill and across the slopes. You get a bit of everything at the Cheshire Field and it is always a good shoot.
I shot with my old friend Alan Wills, Liam Grimmwood and Barry Marsden. Saturday was the unmarked round and I had a lot of fun shooting with Alan. It was a fairly close match all day and I was just 1 point in the lead over night. Sunday was the marked round and was much the same as Saturday with Alan taking an early lead. I cought up a bit and then lost a few points and in the end Alan was about 12 ahead. I can't really complain as I felt I shot pretty well for the end of the year and I was mostly happy with my performance.
A really nice shoot to finish the season, just not looking forward to 5 boring months of shooting indoors!

The Archery GB National Series final was held at Lilleshall on the 4th October. What a great day! I wasn't shooting, having finished in 7th place in the qualifying tournaments, but I went along to watch and support. I arrived a little late and only saw the last few shots before the lunch break and then watched the rest of the finals in the afternoon. I have to say I thought it was fantastic. The organisation was great, the venue with the targets on the lawn in front of Lilleshall Hall house and the nice gardens in the background, was spectacular. There were several hundred people that turned up to watch. There was lots of exposure for the sponsors of the series and it was a beautiful sunny day.
Well done to the archers for making it an exciting event to watch. Well done to all those involved with the organising of the event and the five qualifying events that have taken place through the year. I think it really shows what the future of spectator archery should be.
If you weren't there then make sure you don't miss out next year.
Some great photographs of the day on www.dutchtarget.com and www.agbns.org

The WMAS FITA at Lilleshall at the end of September signifies the end of the Target shooting season for most. The weekend was really good and we couldn't complain about the weather. Saturday was bright, sunny and warm particularly in the afternoon. Sunday was overcast and cooler, but an even better day for shooting. There was seemingly no wind to start with on Saturday, but I struggled to group in the middle of the target. It seemed like unusually hard work at 90m and I was blaming myself and my form. I had been looking forward to the weekend for a while, but I also knew I was tired from a long shooting season and probably not on best form. However, none of the men recurve really capitalised on what seemed like good conditions and talking to the other guys it seems everybody was having problems with the breeze that hardly showed up on the flags or in the leaves of the trees. It was one of the most frustrating 90m I can remember shooting for a long time. I needed to win the shoot in order to make the final of the Archery GB National Series and a 282 at 90m wasn't the way to do it. Thankfully the top score was only 299 and although I was down in 8th place I was confident I could move up through the field. 70m and 50m were a bit better and I had moved up to 3rd only to finish in 4th after a really stupid last end at 30m. Overnight standings were Alan Wills, Larry Godfrey, George Harding and me followed closely by a number of others. I knew I would have to have a good start on Sunday morning if I was going to finish in the medals. I shot a reasonable 299 and thought that was enough to move up to 3rd only to be denied by Tom Barber who shot a very good 317 for a new Junior record. 70m was steady, but top score (326) at 50m took me back into 3rd place. I knew it was too late to catch Alan and Larry, but at the same time it was unlikely that I would be overtaken either. Just had to keep it together to finish in 3rd and that is what happened.

Lots of good scores from the weekend and too many to mention. Check out the results here www.telfordarchers.org.uk

The weekend was really enjoyable, but now the target shooting season is finished and it will be a long winter before we are back. Still got a few field shoots and then probably the odd indoor tournament.

Back to Lilleshall next Sunday to watch the AGBNS final and it will be nice to finally have a day off after so many weeks of continuous competition. I can barely remember the last time I didn't get out of bed until after 06:30 either to go to work or to go shooting!

This weekend was the Ipswich International. Qualifying on Saturday was a 720 shot 'World Championships' style with a split field of men recurve and ladies compound in the morning an then men compound and ladies recurve in the afternoon.
Saturday morning was a great day for shooting, probably one of the best so far this year. I was in good form and shot my best score of the year, 657, and lead the qualifying. Overall, very happy with my shooting although there were still a few shots out in the red that were a little unexplained and could easily have scored a few more points. We had all afternoon to relax whilst the second group shot and I spent a really nice afternoon with my favourite four lady compound archers in Aldeburgh (by the sea).
Back to work Sunday morning and the weather was OK but not as nice as Saturday. The wind picked up from the right and was reasonably strong at times. We shot the head-to-heads in the new format of sets rather than total score. Each six (or three) arrow set is scored and then the higher scorer gets two points or one point if it is a draw. Fisrt archer to score six set pints wins the match. It really makes a difference compared to the previous system of total score on one dozen arrows since you can have a really bad shot or a big lead on the first end, but the match is not over and there is every chance to catch up.
I felt confident, having shot well on Saturday, but somehow distracted at the same time. After a couple of matches and wins, I paid the price with a loss to Michael, yet again. It was a close match going to four sets. I lost the first and second sets by a single point, won the third to stay in with a chance, but then lost the fourth. So finally I finished in third place overall behind, Mickey Peart and Tom Barber.

It was a really good weekend and slightly different to most tournaments. The pizes were obviously good with moeny awarded to the first three places and then there were other prizes from sponsors. Not all the prizes went to the top three. There were awards for top local archer, closest to the middle and highest ranked unrewarded. There were also many hats and a longrod stabiliser given out in a free raffel at the end for anybody who stayed to the end to watch and support.

A great weekend and I hope the tournament grows to be even bigger and better next year.

Next on the calendar is the last big target shoot of the year, a double FITA at Lilleshall.

The weekend started with my first Saturday of non-archery in nearly 4 months. It was so nice to wake up and not have to get up and be somewhere.
Sunday was Bowmen of Glen's double 720 and I was looking forward to seeing if I could get a couple of good scores in. It would have been a really nice day if it wasn't for the wind yet again. The morning was chilly, but bright and sunny and the wind was steadily increasing up to lunchtime. It looked like it was more or less head on and slightly from the right to the left, but if you looked closely at the surrounding trees, leaves on the ground and the large flags at the club house, you could see it was actually quite a strong left to right wind a lot of the time. It was very strange and lead to some frustrating groups just right of the centre when you would expect them to be left.
I was shooting OK and scored 311 for the first three dozen, the next three dozen were much better with 322. I was fairly pleased as the wind was quite strong. Alan W was just ahead of me with 639 and Simon T was well ahead with 663. The wind eased a little after lunch and it took me a couple of ends to find the centre again and I shot 319. A bit better than the start of the morning. The last three dozen were also OK with 317 and again the wind was picking up.
Simon had another good round of near 660 and I finished with 636.
Final positions were Simon T in first and me in second. A good result although further behind Simon that I would have liked.

Next is the Ipswich International this weekend and again I will be hoping for some better weather to try and get a nice 720 score to finish the year.

Simon, good luck in your World Cup final in Copenhagen.

After a long weekend at Norfolk, I didn't shoot much in the week. My left shoulder was giving me some cause for concern so I thought it was best to rest and all I practiced was 3 doz at 90m on Friday.I had decided to shoot one day at Meriden, again becasue a I didn't want to stress the shoulder.
The weather was very good with just the occaisional gust of wind. For the first time in months I could see my arrows flying like dots. I had wondered about my tuning, but this made me realise any doubts I had were just because of all the windy days we have had all summer.
It was a great day for shooting and Mikey and I had another close contest. Mikey finished the day with 1298 and I had 1294. Not quite the 1300s we wanted, but a good effort none the less.
I had abirthday party to go to on Saturday night and I was looking forward to a my first day off shooting since the start of the summer season, but the weather forecast was good and I couldn't miss the chance of another nice day of shooting. I went to the party, restraining from drinking too much, and came back for the second day.
90m was good with 305, lots of 10s but too many blues. Mikey let me have the lead after 90m, but I couldn't get it right at 70m and Mikey shot well to even things up again. The rest of the day was another close match between us with mikey finishing on 1292 and me on 1290. Final score was 2590 toMIkey and 2584 to me. Well done Mikey, can't wait to even things up next time we shoot!
I am so glad I shot both days at Meriden since it means I have increased my National ranking points by a useful amount.

Bowmen of Glen double 720 next Sunday, so I get my first Saturday off in months. I won't know what to do with myself.....maybe I will go to the archery club!

The weather for the FITAs on Sat and Sun was similar with warm, sunny conditions but a variable and fairly strong breeze all day long. The wind meant you had to keep concentrating all of the time otherwise it would catch you out and sure enough it got me a few times especially at 90m. Days like this you just have to accept that you are going to shoot some wild arrows. Accept it and get on with the job. Shoot positively and most will be where you want them, shoot weakly and over aim and you will pay the price with arrows on the edge of the target.
90m was tough and the wind cought me a few times, so the score was never going to be huge. I shot well at the other distances and was happy with 1251 at the end of the day, just 6 points behind Clickers Teamate Mickey Peart. Sunday was much the same and Mikey and I were more or less even all day. Final score was 1254 for me and 1252 for Mikey, which meant he just held on to the lead by 4 points overall. Clicker's Tom Barber was shooting well and nearly cought up with a fine 1278 on the Sunday.
H-2-H on Monday was more of the same. A little warmer, but still windy. Despite having had some shoulder pain for several days and keeping me awaake at night, I started well at 70m. I thought I was on for a great score, but I got cought out by the wind on several ends and finished with 636, just behind the lead again and just short of the qualifying score I wanted for the Commonwealth Games. Mikey and Tom both had 639. The shoot-offs didn't look too appealing with the wind increasing. Thankfully I managed a 108 dozen which gave me a Commonwealth Games qualifying score and I was really happy with that in the conditions. I managed to get all the way through the rounds to the finals. Last year I shot against Mikey in the final and won by 1 point, I think, and this year we met in the semi-final. This time Mikey beat me by 1 point so I had to shoot against Tom for 3rd/4th place. After 6 arrows Tom had a 6 point lead over me. The wind had increased to the point of being almost ridiculous. We only had 30 seconds maximum to shoot each arrow and the wind didn't seem to be letting up so I figured the best thing to do was to shoot as strong as I could and force Tom to shoot in the wind and hope he made some mistakes. Well the plan was starting to work, but I ran out of time and Tom finished 4 points ahead.

Another great weekend at Norfolk. A really good tournament. Shame about the wind.

Hello to Robert 'The Admiral'. The first person I have met that reads this!

Not sure what is next. Time to evaluate the grand plan and make a decision whether to chase qualifying scores or rest the shoulder next weekend.

Jon.