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Hamish 2012
The second annual Hamish is in the books and it had its plot twists, expected results, shocks and an international flavour.
The weather could have been better Wednesday ... although isnt that always the case? You could call it "occasionally inclement" as regular showers of rain trundled across the field and the wind gusted annoyingly at inopportune moments - mostly it seemed right when everyone was at full draw. However our attentive and appreciative audience of two ducks didnt seem to mind so we shut up and got on with the shoot.
Early signs had Stu going for a perfect round, the gents horsebow classification was cut throat with it being anyone's trophy and no-one was quite sure where the recurve section was going after Geo shot a 3 and had a meltdown, Ronnie just missed scoring a perfect half dozen and Duncan quietly got on with scoring points.
Some bizarre choccie spot prizes were on offer including closest to the flag (the one at the top of the boss). This one was nailed by Mark with class and elan leaving the spider killers chocolate-less!
After about 80 minutes of semi organized mayhem, the scoring was finally done and the organizers scurried off to tally scores, rank archers in their categories and in one case correct bad spelling!
Prize giving was in the pavilion with Judge Duff as master of ceremonies and Hamish as Lord Paramount. SO it was that a relieved (or possibly peeved its hard to tell) Geo who retained the Gents Recurve scoring 274 (including meltdown end) and so holding off Ronnie. Incidentally this gives Geo's hamster a home for the next year.
The Ladies Recurve has gone all international after mademoiselle Pauline scooped up the trophy with a solid 222. (3 little ducks ... deux deux deux! ... Non? Mon Dieu, vous etes un twonk)
Compound Stu missed out on his perfect round when he dropped 2 points scoring only a 7 but his 322 was easily enough to retain the trophy he didnt get after winning it last year.
Gents Novice Recurve went to Dunky with an impressive 244, all the more impressive since he's been having tuning issues recently.
Gents Junior Recurve was a vicious 3 way dance between Phillip, James and Cameron but in the end James came out the winner with a score of 210.
Aileen showed her bloke how it was done securing the Ladies Traditional category with a score of 76. However just to show that the tourney organizer was on the case, John T added the matching Gents Traditional to the family trophy cabinet just edging the missus' score with a 183.
Many thanks to tournament organizer John Tait, Judge Andrew "dont I get a helmet, a motorbike and a gun?" Duff, all the archers who participated and to the man himself, Hamish Robertson, for forming Glasgow archers circa 1948 in the first place! Happy Birthday Sir!
(pictures wlll hopefully be available at some point)
10,000 desperate** women and nary a snog...
Sunday 13th May was the Womens 10k road race in Glasgow and for a good number of years your Glasgow Archers have had a small but important role in the event. We run the 6km mark water station to be found just outside Pollock House in Pollock park just an arrows shot from our field.
This year the archers doing good works in the community (and not because of a court order) were Ali Ross and the twins, Pauline, Andrew, John Sodden, Grace, Ronnie, Robbie, Alistair and Geo.
Pauline and John got their first taste of the mayhem that is water station duty coming through with flying colours. Andrew wins this years purple heart having picked up an ankle injury lugging water and Geo was in no way caught trying to chat up some of the more attractive competitors as they ran through the water station (although mysteriously most seem to speed up going past his table!)
As usual a good time was had by all the archers - honestly its a lot of silly fun. (**and the women were desperate for water obviously**)
What happens when you "Shoot Better"?
Congratulations to Derek "Apollo" Mcaulay who put up not one but TWO scores worthy of Grand Master Bowman** status over the weekend.
Scores of 1359 and 1355 at Ayr Archery club's double FITA gave 1st place in the gents compound to our man in shorts. Such high scoring was all the more impressive when you consider that the venue (Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive) is notorious for bizarre, gusting crosswinds. Results here
With Big Derek putting up scores like this so early in the summer season, you have to hope this is the start of a PB busting season.
Best of luck with the season DM!
** A grand master bowman ranks in the top 1% of archers in the UK. To get the coveted GMB badge as a compounder, you have to put up 3 scores of 1352 or more when shooting a FITA (max score 1440). It should be noted that the D-man already holds a GMB badge and if you ask him nicely he might let you look at it! **
On the Line, Get Set, Shoot!
Traditional archery wasn't always about accuracy. The medieval longbowman expected to get 10-12 arrows away in a minute because it was weight of fire - the Arrow Storm - that made the welsh/english longbowman so effective. The horse archer also had to get arrows away quickly as there was no guarantee the target he was intent on perforating was going to stand still to be perforated.
With the above in mind we had a little experiment down the field today (Sunday 6th).
Duncan had to shoot 12 arrows from his horsebow into a blank boss set at 30yrds as fast as he could. He was allowed to start with an arrow nocked. He then had to get 12 hits out of 12 while he was timed. On the 12th hit the stopwatch was stopped.
He started out trying too hard, fumbling the nocking of his second arrow but soon got into a methodical groove. At one point he was shooting "without thought" - in the zone if you like - and his arrows were grouping closely together. He finished the 12 arrow 'splash' with 12 hits in a commendable 1 minute 24.8 seconds. Admittedly the medieval archer would look upon Dunky's effort as that of the ham fisted, village idiot but I'm sure the medieval archer's efforts at web design would be pretty poor as well.
Now that the standard has been set, can anyone beat 1:24.8? ... although I suspect our resident traditionalist JT can shoot 12 arrows off his recurve faster than that! 
UPDATE: After a slight pause to adjust his boaster cushion ... JT and Coach Wee Dave set about the above record. Wee Dave shaved a full 4.8 seconds off to record 1:20.0 but Speedy Tait put up an even more impressive display when he banged in 12 arrows in 1:04.0! 12 arrows in 1 minute is looking decidedly doable. Of course once they've managed to do it at 30yrds ... we move the boss back to 50yrds! 
Give 'em Heck ...
Good luck to GA's own Ails and JT who are off to compete at the AFA Open and Scottish Field Championship 2012 up Oban way.
While the other competitors will be duelling it out with compounds and recurves made of aluminium, carbon, plastic and stainless steel ... Our twosome will be flinging woodies from their traditional leather and wood horsebows in the barebow class all the way from the blue peg.
Give them hell guys ... and failing that just hide the bosses once you've shot them so no-one following you can find them!
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