Outdoor Archery Season, 1996

Summary

Fita average

 Dist	 Hits  Golds    Score   Low  High  S. Dev. Num
  90m   35.94   3.18   276.65   261   294   9.4616  17
  70m   35.94   6.76   306.76   299   318   5.3636  17
  50m   36.00   7.24   307.24   294   317   6.5307  17
  30m   36.00  19.00   339.82   321   347   6.5551  17
  All  143.88  36.12  1230.47  1205  1249  13.9500  17

Competitions

California Cup, 29th-31st March

A poor start to the season, caused mainly by over-expectation, but also by a sore neck. I came eighth in the qualifying Fita, but went out in the first round of the eliminations, after a single arrow shoot-off. I enjoyed the weekend for all that, and met quite a few of the alt.archery and rec.sport.archery regulars. The weather was warm and sunny, with a light-moderate tail wind. I took some interesting photographs at the tournament.

Builth Wells, 14th April

Fourth. This was the second time I'd come to this competition, and the second time I won the Lady Paramount's Prize. The weather wasn't as bad as expected, there was a cold breeze from behind and some rain during the day, but the weather forecast had threatened snow.

Wolverhampton, 28th April

90m award. After a good start which took me to within three points of the leader, tiredness and lack of concentration took over and I shot a couple of dreadful distances for the 70m and 50m. The 30m recovered a bit, after I stopped caring what happened.

Lilleshall, 4th-5th May

Sixth. Poor motivation and a bad night's sleep took their toll on Saturday, with a poor performance. The weather wasn't particularily good either, with a cold headwind, which veered from side to side quite often. Some tuning and form work with the British squad coaches on Saturday night improved the shooting on Sunday. Even then it was only at the 50m distance before the benefits previous night's work started to show.

Timperley, 11th-12th May

First. A light but variable breeze made conditions quite tricky, and I got very frustrated because I was nearly, but not quite, shooting very well. Every time I caught the leaders up, I would shoot a bad end and drop back a few points. I finally kept my nerve to win with a 118 last dozen, whilst the previous first and second place archers got tired and shot poorly.

Colchester, 25th-26th May

Second, and 70m award. A good result, in difficult conditions. On the second day I had my first miss of the year, which dropped me to third place, but I pulled back up at 50m and 30m to take a comfortable second. The weather wasn't as bad as the previous year, but some heavy showers and a blustery wind which kept changing direction didn't make it easy.

Nîmes, 1st-2nd June

Second team. This was my first trip with a British international team. I didn't perform up to my own expectations, but still shot around my average for the year. The weather was fine for the first day, with a changeable breeze which could only be detected by looking at the flagpoles at one side of the field. The head-to-head rounds on the second day were shot in pouring rain; I performed much better under the stress than previously, winning my first round comfortably, but lost the second round narrowly after a wayward shot on the last end.

The team performed well overall, with Kim Copson and Debra O'Connor taking first and seventh places in the ladies recurve, Matthew Gray taking seventh gent recurve, Maryann Richardson taking fourth lady compound, and Simon Tarplee and Bernie Dicks taking fourth and fifth in the gents compound. Claire Trenamen set a new European record for junior ladies compound 70 metres with 319, and a new British record for the junior ladies compound long metric. The gents compound and ladies recurve teams came first, and the ladies compound and gents recurve teams came second.

U.K. Masters, 8th-9th June

The weather started off with thunderstorms and half-inch diameter hailstones on Friday night, giving way to a hot weekend with a tricky light breeze that increased during the shoot-offs on Sunday. I started out very well, but slipped back after a shot at 70m rode onto the top of the pressure button just as I released, and missed the target. I ended up shooting around my average, and was eighth in the Fita on Saturday. Strangely, the Fita was not used to seed the shoot-offs on Sunday, instead a Fita 480 round (4 dozen at 70m) was shot on Sunday morning. I came fourth in the seeding round, and made it through the first pass of the Olympic Round easily, but was knocked out in the second pass after I shot very poorly. I was in good company; only one of the top four seeds made it to the last four, and he (Britain's top male archer, Steve Hallard) had a very poor semi-final to be put out by the top junior archer, Jeff Bond.

Euronations, 15th-16th June

Second team. The weekend was sunny and hot, but with a slight breeze which increased throughout the weekend, to be quite blustery on Sunday afternoon. I was feeling weak, and had great trouble with the timing and line of my shot. On both days I started out strongly, coming close to beating the Scottish record at 90m, but shot very poorly for the rest of both days, with my worst scores at 30m all year, and some very poor 50m and 70m scores. For all that, I came third on the first day, and probably fifth on the second day. I was annoyed at shooting so badly, since we came within 7 points of beating the English gents team, which would have been the first time they hadn't won since they re-entered the Euronations tournament.

Banchory, 13th-14th July

Second. Unexpected hot sunshine and a changeable breeze, combined with several weeks' break from archery made this my worst double Fita of the year (so far). I was still encouraged by it because my shot felt better than it had done for a while.

Scottish Championships, 3rd-4th August

About sixth, and 70m award. This was a great disappointment; I was never close to first place, which was taken by Simon Needham with a new Scottish double Fita record, breaking my existing record by five points. I was in contention for second place until a disasterous 30m on the first day. Frustration at not being able to shoot nice shots contributed greatly to this disaster, and pressure of work meant that I knew this would be my last competition for a while, so I was trying harder to succeed.