Arundown win at the County Championships

The Outdoor County Championships were held later in the season this year, due to problems with arrangements. They were held at Falmer High School in Brighton which is renowned for being one of the more windy venues, but yesterday the weather was very changeable. I was in and out of wet weather gear before the start and after finally settling on the dry weather quickly realised the error of my choice.

My first end scored 44, which is pretty acceptable for a 100 yard score. All was going well until the heavens opened as I approached the line for the second end and I got soaked and cold. At this point, my enthusiasm started to ebb. Shortly after this the wind started blustering strongly which set the theme for the day.

I finished my 6 dozen @ 100 yards about 100 points down on my PB, with 3 arrows off. I was pondering retiring to a hot bath and cup of tea, but County Archer Graham Stevens of Holbrook was having an even more miserable time than myself and beat me to it.

During Lunch I was talking to fellow recurve archer Nick Prysnyak from Bognor and found out that he was 2 points behind me and this was the trend over the field. To my amazement I went on to take second place in the Gents Recurve with a score of 938.

I learnt the lesson that it’s worth soldiering on, even if you believe you are doing badly as others may be doing equally so or worse. As Graham said archers often compare their scores against their own PB’s and not what’s being shot there and then.