We have been so lucky with the wonderful weather. Our midweek evening club session has moved successfully to a Wednesday this week. It worked perfectly and will remain as a Wednesday from this point forward.
Fridays session saw a canine visitor to our club session, Goose, Toms adorable Springer Spaniel puppy. Quite a distraction for the archers, definitely a part of the extended Griffin Archers family.
Our archery experience gave us a busy Saturday. See our other post for more details.
Then there was Sunday …
The Griffin Olympics
The day had finally arrived, and we had 10 teams entered. It was sure to be an exciting day for all who attended. The range was set up, handicaps calculated and scoresheets prepared. Trevor and Di came up with a system to bring the competition equal. Numbers were added to team scores to compensate. Barebow and Longbow gained their team points and there was a bonus for being a newer club member. The teams assembled for Trev to tell us all the rules.
The teams:
‘The Stupendous Searles’, ‘The Hannarians’, ‘Golds Allowed’, ‘Strictly Come Shooting’, ‘The Team with NO Name’, ‘Salamanders’, ‘The Late Shooters’, ‘Waiting for Rachael’, ‘Lily’s Team’, and ’70m Show-Offs’.
After Assembly and a few misunderstandings about numbers of arrows and the shooting process, the actual Olympic sets began. Tricky, and very different for our members. Archer A shoots 1 arrow, then comes away, Archer B then goes up and shoots one arrow, and the process is repeated for Archer C. Then this whole process repeats until all archers have shot 3 arrows each.
Then the “Set” is scored. First looks showed that our hotshot team “70m Show-offs” had the advantage, pulling high ‘67’ out of a maximum 90 score. Pete and his compound, John and Steph, had got their eye in….would it be a total whitewash?
Repeat another set, and then work out the top scores. With 4 teams for medals and the remaining 6 going into “repechage”, with a chance to get “placed”.
Not too surprisingly, the 70m Show-Offs were in the top 4 for medals shoot set!
Fighting for medals!
But we had ‘The Stupendous Searles (with Hollys Longbow)’, ‘The Late Shooters’, and ‘Lilys Team’ all fighting for those medal places. A single set decided who would go head to head.
‘The Late Shooters’ got the highest score of this set, so they were in the guaranteed medals shoot against ‘The Stupendous Searles’. The Bronze / Wooden Spoon shoot-out ended up being ‘The 70m Show – Offs’ (a shock to us all, not in guaranteed medals ) against ‘Lilys team’.
After the “repechage round” we had:
‘Salamanders’ versus ‘Strictly Come Shooting’ going for 1st and 2nd placings, and the other four teams fighting to see who would gain that 3rd place.
One final set of shooting…..who would succeed, who would gain bragging rights? Who would just end up with a lollypop?
So, the final scores came in, just this one set so out of a maximum 90points plus handicap/bonus’s .
Podium places go to…..
Gold – The Stupendous Searles
Silver – The Late Shooters
Bronze – The 70m Show-Offs
And the wooden spoon – Lily’s team.
Then placed:
1st – Strictly Come Shooting
2nd – Salamanders
3rd – Waiting for Rachael
And our three runners up – ‘The Hannerians’, ‘The Team with No Name’, and ‘Golds Allowed’.
Everyone did so well, Hannah tried 30m for the first time, having only ever shot 20yds previously. Chris tried 30m for the first time too. Charlotte used her new limbs for the first time ever, and aimed for 30m. Steph got her 70m sight mark again, John showed why he is Founder and Chairman by shooting for the Stupendous Searles and also as a reserve for Lilys team (due to absence). Robyn also showed her worth, by doing the same. They both managed Gold and also to be part of the overall 4th place team with Lily. Did that make it that Holly and Lily were really head-to-head as they had the same team mates? Geran and Tom B kept up with sharp shooting barebow Raul. They also tried to psyche Holly out in the medal head-to-head, but Holly showed her Searle stubbornness and laughed it off. Alex, Trev and Steph did well scoring, and Rian also jumped in with that final score sheet.
There were so many fun and amazing achievements, just taking part and experiencing a Griffin Fun Shoot is a feat!
WELL DONE GRIFFINS, and Thank you Trev for coming up with the idea. It’s a system we will repeat, there are some issues – we will iron out before then! Olympics 2.0 next time. Better, faster and stronger!!!