With a good chunk of the club away at a competition It’s another quiet Sunday. With only a small number of, there aren’t even enough people to set up- I step into the gap to help. The cones for the shooting zone need to be laid out.
I’ve put down three before James tells me I’m putting the wrong ones on the wrong line. I look down and realise he is right…
How did I miss that?
How could I make such a mistake?
I’ve seen this set up one hundred times before. My brain musn’t be with it today.
I get the shooting zones cones perfectly symmetrical, and am rightly proud of that pedantic, obsessive detail. Then coach Dan, teaching some newcomers, moves one out of the way. I knew it was going to happen eventually… But Dan… You’ve broken my heart.
In my dotage, when I look back on these long gone days, one of the things I’ll remember about the club is Tom and Niles.
After the first shot I’ve plonked myself down for a reason I don’t understand. I watch as they, Tom and Niles, go up to the crease and do their thing.
They stand back to back, draw together, but Niles holds his shot for longer, and leave together.
Being almost the same height, the image of the pair shooting cements itself into the brain. You can’t help but notice it. The first time I saw them shooting, not knowing who they were, only thinking that Tom looked a bit like Dane DeHaan, I noticed their shooting together. You can tell, when they shoot, that they’re best buds. They’ve got a real friendship going on at that crease, and it’s beautiful.
The friends who shoot together, stay together.
“James, is that on the line?” Ben asks me. He and Aaron, on the next boss, are debating a shot and need an independent ref. It’s a good shot, on the gold, but is it a 9 or a 10? I cast my ‘expert eye’ over the target face.
There is definitely a line beneath. It sounds cruel, and Ben is crushed, but I give it a 9. It’s what a proper ref would do.
Still a good score though.
Finishing up for the day, ninety arrows shot with a FANTASTIC (for me) 64% hit rate, collecting the cones, I start to think about my next personal target.
Today I’ve passed the next hurdle, and I can now call myself an Archer: 2nd Class. 1st Class is still a bit far off, so I look instead at that hit rate. Let’s not go mad and say 100% just yet, but what about 80%? Let’s try and get one 80% session by the end of February…
That’s a good target.
The Archer's Nook 