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.

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 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

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.