Round 2 of the Welsh
Field Masters Tour this year was hosted by Red Kite Field Archers at
their course in Broak Oaks, Carmarthenshire which has a reputation
for being a difficult course and it didn’t fail to live up to
expectations!
It was a really nice
day, sunny and warm with clear skies but as always on that course,
there was a harsh wind on the top half of the course where all the
long shots are. It is due to the landscape channeling the wind. On
the lower half of course near the clubhouse it is dead calm, not a
breath of wind but up on the ridge it is very windy and hard to hold
on target, quite often blowing you off the target entirely.
I had a bit of a slow
start as I couldn’t seem to settle but I soon leveled out and I was
putting in mostly 19’s and 18’s. The first half was a little bit
low because of this but the second half picked up with some better
shots. Everything was going ok until the penultimate target…
Target 14 is a 2 peg
walkup, 2 arrows at 23 yards and 2 at 20 on a fairly steep uphill
angle. On the first half I scored 19 points with only one out of the
spot. On the second time around, I put in a 4 4 4 miss, shooting my
final arrow at the wrong target face! Only scoring 12 for that target
dropped my half considerably. The final target was the 15/14 yard
walkup which I scored all X’s on so recovered well but too late –
damage done.
I finished on a 513 in
joint second place which was still a decent result. If I hadn’t
messed up that target it would have been close to 520 which is about
my average for that course but I wasn’t very happy with my
shooting. It felt inconsistent so I need to do some work on shot
execution and I am still not 100% with my marks at long range.
What I need is access
to a long flat field to get accurate long distance marks, and some
targets on slopes where I can test them. The problem is our club only
has 50 yards flat and we cannot leave practice targets out due to
vandalism so setting up for practice on the slopes is difficult. I am
going to find a way to sort it out in the coming weeks, probably at a
Target club that has open space to check my long marks ready for the
next shoot.
The next one is a
classification round at March Hare, over the English border in
Throckmorton in 4 weeks time. Bit of a drive (2.5hrs) but it is an
almost flat course so it is a good place to test gear out without
having to worry about slopes and angles etc. It is also 2 weeks
before the Welsh Open so a final chance to practice.
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