What a week! On the strength of getting the ASDA sponsorship cheque through, I ordered a new set of limbs for my bow. The limbs arrived at my house Saturday 15th May. After hours of adjusting everything on the bow, I still couldn’t get it to shoot correctly. Several other archers down at the club also tried without success to sort the bow out. I had the Bebington Western’s to shoot the next day (16th May), so I decided to give up on my new limbs, and reverted back to my old limbs. It was getting late in the day, and I never had any real chance to set up again to my original settings; I had no choice than to enter the shoot with an un-tuned bow!

Although my arrows were flying erratically, my final score wasn’t too disappointing. I had entered under the adult category (shooting against the men), and came 3rd, missing out to 2nd position by 2 points! I didn’t think I shot too badly, considering the bow was not tuned.

On Monday, I attempted to tune my new limbs again, and tried them out on Tuesday, but something still was not right! I decided to keep the set-up the way it was to try it out again on Thursday. Thursday came, and further adjustments to the bow made. I didn’t like the way the bow felt at all, so I decided to contact Bowsports asking them to check them to them out, and for a replacement/ refund. Meanwhile, I borrowed a set of limbs of the same poundage (strength) from another club member (that has turned to shooting a Stick (Longbow) knowing that I had two competitions ahead of me at the weekend. So I tried tuning them in, in the garden at 10 O’clock at night, I only have about 4 meters to shoot in the garden, which is nowhere long enough for serious tuning. Next day I visited Orrel Archers Club grounds to tune them in finely, and get sight marks for my competition distances. Luckily enough the bow tuned in quite quickly, the first bit of good shooting I have had in a while. Knowing the bow was fully set-up boosted my confidence for the competitions ahead of me during the next two days.

On Saturday 22nd May, I shot a national round, which is a 6 dozen round, in Mannings lane, Cheshire. It was a very, very hot day, reaching about 26 degrees centigrade. I shot very well, the best I had done in a while, and broke the national record by 12 points! UNFORTUNATELY!! I could not claim for a national record, as it was not a record status shoot! Grrrrrrr! So I had to take condolence in only setting a new County record instead.

On Sunday 23rd May, I shot a double FITA 720 which all together was a 12 dozen round, in Eccles Manchester. Like the previous day it was a very hot! I shot very well for the first 3 dozen, scoring 310, a personal best, but it was decided to have a comfort break after 3 dozen, after having the break my score decreased, and I only got 270 for the next 3 dozen arrows, a significant difference to 310! I ended up with a score of 580, which was also a personal best for me, and county & regional (northern counties) record. The afternoon session started, and I soon became very tired. The sweltering heat took the energy away from me that I really needed. The extra heat of the afternoon took its toll on many of the archers reducing their performance, and several retired. I ended up with an afternoon score of 563, exhaustion, and sunburn (although I was smothered in high factor sun cream several times during the day). I got the highest score for the juniors, got ranked 7th out of 23 adults in the morning session and 6th out of 15 adults in the afternoon session. My club, Nethermoss archers were awarded first place team, the team consisted of, Tony Hoe, Dave Ball, and myself. Boy, did I sleep that night…