Cheshire Cat-astrophe (Weather-Wise)

This bank holiday weekend treat was the second visit to Neston Archers at Clatterbridge in Cheshire. Last year we trekked there for the very first Metric Tassel award shoot, and this time we were in the Wirral for the very first Tri-Clout Weekend, which had cunningly been timed to catch the first real gales of Autumn. We arrived on Friday evening after a six hour drive and were immediately invited to join Dicky and Roz Summers and Ian Hawke from Hampshire for a barbecue supper - bliss! They were lending Liz a tent, which had already been pitched, and after tucking Rod's tiny tent between two others for protection (there was already a bit of punch in the breeze) we were all set up for the night. During the night the wind grew stronger and there were some quite heavy showers too.
SATURDAY: The first event of the meeting was a 2-way GNAS clout, shooting first with the wind, and then back into it. The wind also increased in strength through the day, so it was a particularly tricky shoot. The kind of weather that defeats longbows as they often can't reach the distance on the up-wind leg, and would you believe it, Liz had picked this day to do her first-ever longbow Clout.

But, using Vlad The Trusty Longbow, not only did she manage to score a few points into the wind unlike most of the contestants, she also built up a very useful score downwind, and ended up in a very strong second place behind Roz Summers, and picking up the first of three medals and a Patron's award (a nice £10 voucher for kit) won over the weekend.

The Cheshire County Clout Table is covered with a new Green Cloth - and among the badges sewn to it is one of  ours.

Now you may think the strong wind and the occasional rain spoilt the day, but it really didn't. We togged up in waterproofs and carried on regardless.

Saturday night was very windy indeed, and some of the tents in the encampment started to flap around quite violently. All the same, they all held together (the ground was very solid and great for holding tent-pegs) and even more surprisingly none of the archers bivvy tents that had been set-up the previous evening blew away overnight.
SUNDAY was the Cheshire County Championships and Open Shoot Day, the round a one-way GNAS Clout. The wind wasn't finished yet, and it developed into probably the strongest I've ever shot in (no need to stop the shoot as there was no danger of the targets blowing over! - not over, but one of the Clout flags did blow away). The pop-up tents were lying down like wheat before the wind...

and the bacon-butty kitchen had to scatter and re-group in the Neston Club Shipping Container when their Gazebo and awning suffered irreparable structural damage.

Liz was second in the Ladies Recurve Open category, three points behind the winner. Rod was third in the Gents barebow.
By the end of Sunday the sky had cleared and it started to get rather cold. Fortunately the wind moderated too, and by Monday morning the wind was reasonable and the sky a gorgeous blue, which is how it was for the rest of the day.

MONDAY: This time the round was a FITA Clout, the distances almost the same as the GNAS distances, but the scoring area considerably larger. Liz was using the Eolla in the Ladies recurve category at 125 metres

and Rod shooting barebow at 165 metres

Another good day for Liz, but once again not quite the gold medal, she shot a personal best (and County Record) to tie with the winner on total score, but was beaten on Clouts.
And that was it - apart from the sheer terror of driving round a corner on the way home and coming face to face with the Uber Meerkat of Nantwich