Four go to Snelsmore

One of our members, Steve Gales, is also a member of Newbury and Thatcham archers - and he invited Steve, Richard & Rob to come along and shoot their field course, which is north of Newbury - opposite Snelsmore common - in the grounds of Mary Hare school. They have 19 targets set out in some lovely woodland, which includes some undulating ground, allowing for some nice up and down shots - not quite the extremes of the Warren, but still a lot bumpier than many field courses.

The round we shot was friendly, until about half way through, when Richard informed us that He, Rob and I were level pegging on scores - then, the banter around distances stopped, and things got serious. The targets were animal faces (pictures of animals) - scored on the first scoring arrow - 20 points for a 'kill' with the first arrow (16 for a wound), 14 for a kill with the second arrow...etc... Although the round is normally shot by shooting arrows, one from each peg, until a wound or kill is made, we shot from all three pegs but only scored the first arrow (or second if we missed).

We took a lot longer than we expected - 5 hours later we had finished, with Richard beating Rob and I by only 6 points....so a very close competition. but great fun was had by all - many thanks to Steve G for inviting us all and being such a tolerant host :-)