Longbow shooting at The City of Sydney tournament

[longbowinfected]

Whilst this shoot is not strictly a trad shoot I will report on some of the longbow shooting today. It was hot and very windy.
There is only one longbow division but those shooting with alloy arrows shoot a double Canberra [60m, 50m, 40m by 30 arrows on a full face] Those shooting timber arrows compete against the other longbowers but shoot the distances 50m, 40m, 30m.
This year Andy Firth from Sydney Bowmen shooting timbers shot a 690/900 in the morning and a 711/900 to beat Steve Farrell, no mean feat.
Matt Allison and I both shot 591/900 using timbers in the morning session then Matt tried his brand new bow and gave me the fend off of all time shooting a massive 651/900. How can you be unhappy when you shoot two PBs and a combined PB and get monstered into fourth place? The three of us on target 13 shot PBs and three out of the top four places were shot with timber arrows. In fact I think there were 4 longbowers using alloys and 10 using timbers. The evergreen Sydney Bowmen Mike Fouracre and Duncan were very close on my heels which was excellent to see as they have not been on the circuit much lately.On the last end on our target 13 at 30m in stronger wind Andy, Matt and I shot 13 arrows in the gold [6 being Andy's]. All the way past lunch the scores were ranging from 43-50 per end.....exhilarating stuff.
Regina Bohler shot PBs but could be seen muttering about needing a stronger bow. Without being too cheeky and acknowledging the fact that our distances were shorter a large number of the longbowers' scores compared very favourably with sighted and bare bow recurve scores.
Get along to this shoot....it is fun and the annual bragging rights and pecking order is the big issue. No one not good accidentally wins the silver spoon so most of the rest of us elbow and jostle for the sheer fun of it.
Once again .......thank you Sydney Bowmen.

Kevin

[rodney macdonald]

G'day Longbowinfected,

Good to see some results from a Tournament
How many were taking part.

Rod Mac

[longbowinfected]

Rod,

about 13 longbowers out of 60-70 entrants. Seven of these have medalled in good company at state/national and/or world masters level.
Held at South Coogee. This is one of the oldest shoots at the oldest still running club.
One of the few clubs to revisit longbow which is now routinely included in tournaments.
It is truly a living link to the past.
The club [Sydney Bowmen] has been a long term mini longbow hatchery of quality in ASNSW along with Liverpool and more recently Mountain Archers.
One a lady [normally open], one shooting a selfbow, one ELB [normally veteran], 10 modern longbows [4 flat laid the rest deflex / reflex] [normally one master, two veterans] all shooting for the one silver spoon but annual braging rights.

The full results should be posted on the ASNSW site ...just takes a while.

Seniors moment......I forget the other scores but at least remember the scoresheets I signed as scorer.

Kevin

[rodney macdonald]

G'day Kevin, ( Longbowinfected )

Great to get some feedback and a bit of your club history.
As a longbow shooter I enjoy the sport and it is good to see so many others getting serious with longbows.

If I get a chance to venture up that way I shall make a point of looking in.

Rod Mac
Dunolly ( central Vic )

[GrahameA]

Morning Kevin

Whilst this shoot is not strictly a trad shoot I will report on some of the longbow shooting today. It was hot and very windy. ,,,

Where are the photos? No lame excuses.

[longbowinfected]

Rod,

not my club. This one is is the Eastern suburbs 125 kilometres east and a 1000 metres lower han my club, Mountain Archers. We would welcome you any time Rod. Just ring before coming as most [more than half the time] Sundays the longbow division are shooting in tournaments.

Grahame

I did not take any as Bede Dwyer took over 590 images. His hi tech Fuji and skils base trumps my set up any day. He tells me that he got a number of consecutive images following my arrow to the target. I now know why he stuck right behind me for a lot of his time there.....my bow being flat laid and me using really heavy arrows 450 grains / 49 pound bow meant my arrows were the slowest / easiest to shoot. The shooting was of such a high standard because of the others on my butt I could not afford the luxury of being the photographer.

Truly I noticed at the World Masters and recently at the Yass shoot my scores/focus decreased by 20% when I took photos. Now do not get me wrong.....the score is not everything but performing to my best is in target and field. It is not the medal but the outcome versus the difficulty that gives me a buzz. If I go to a trad shoot I am not in the running so taking photos is part of the fun.

What was realy funny during this shoot was halfway through the morning I noticed a couple of cockatoos doing aerobatics and coming near my arrow flight path. I stopped and watched and became mesmerized until the guy next to me nudged me and asked me if I was going to shoot....shot a low 39 at 40m but really enjoyed the moment[s]. I just got the six arrows in so must have been day dreaming for at least three minutes...seniors moment.

I will ask Bede for permission to post some of his pix but it might be a week or so because there are so many.

Kevin

[GrahameA]

Morning Kevin

I did not take any as Bede Dwyer took over 590 images.

Lame excuse - I must remember that one. Did not take any photos because "XYZ" did.

Truly I noticed at the World Masters and recently at the Yass shoot my scores/focus decreased by 20% when I took photos.

I know that - that is why I do not even get to shoot all the events sometimes - to busy taking photos.

At least you have made an effort in coming up with reasons why there are no photos - not very good ones I say.

[longbowinfected]

I left my camera, mobile phone and glasses on the dinner table at home......the gods were against me. I really wanted a picture of that target for that last end and I could not take one with my mobile phone.

Kevin