At a glance
Monday – WA 1440 Ladies/Gents
Ally – 1099 – 5th
Abby – 1023 – 7th (New club record)
Matt W – 1000 – 15th
Michael – 952 – 17th (New club record)
Tuesday – Albion
Matt W – 715 – 5th
Michael – 648 – 9th
Abby – 435 – 12th
Tuesday – Field
Ally (Barebow) – 256 – 3rd
Sam – 326 – 4th
Thursday – Double 2 way clout 140yds/180yds
Ally – 145 – 3rd (New club record single and double)
Abby – 102 – 6th (New club record single and double)
Sam – 37 – 10th
Michael – 56 – 9th
Matt W – 6 – 11th
Friday – Western
Ally – 727 – 4th
Abby – 698 – 7th (New club record)
Matt W – 680 – 7th
Michael – 648 – 12th (New club record)
Sam – 342 – 21st
Dunster Traders Trophy – Mixed team of 3 – Ally, Abby and Matt W – 2105
Saturday & Sunday – Double Hereford/York
Abby – 1047, 951 – 1998 – 7th (3rd Visitor Medal) (New club record single (novice and senior) and double)
Ally – 938, 887 – 1825 – 13th
Sam – 459, 464 – 923 – 23rd
Matt W – 722, 709 – 1431 – 20th
Michael – 434, 573 – 1007 – 26th
Dunster Salver – Mixed team of 3 for the single round – Ally, Abby and Matt W – 2707
Another successful and exhausting Dunster archery week completed for SUAC. The club retained the Dunster trader’s trophy from last year and won the Dunster Salver trophy which we will hopefully receive when the last winner returns it. On top of that there were a number of individual medals for some very impressive performances with 11 new club records.
Match report
With Abby winning a gold medal at BUCS there was a hasty reshuffle of the plan to allow the first car to get away as soon as possible. With Ally being knocked out of the head to head (by Abby) the Dunster trip began and the first car set off. Arriving at a slightly more sociable time than last year, as the campsite owner pointed out upon our arrival, we managed to get the tents up with a little daylight to spare. Of course staying around to collect a couple of gold medals from BUCS the second car set off a lot later and after getting a little lost and employing some “creative navigation” to see the sights of backstreet Minehead, arrived at the campsite around 2.30am.
Monday was another WA 1440, those new to Dunster were surprised by the very relaxed atmosphere, rushing off first thing to look for a registration tent and returning slightly confused when they were told that there was no registration, no check of GNAS cards and no equipment inspection. Michael, having had no sleep for 3 days was feeling a little worse for wear by the time we got back to camp but a couple of ciders and he was partaking in the Dunster tradition of attempting to spin poi culminating in his exercise in infertility.
For Tuesday the trip split up, two brave souls- Ally and Sam attempting the notoriously difficult Dunster field course with Abby, Matt and Michael staying at the castle for the Albion. By all accounts, the field lived up to its notoriety a lot of steep hills and a decided lack of clear ground made the shots difficult and in some cases finding arrows impossible. A hard day with many hills, a lot of searching for arrows and a sub-quest.
The Albion seemed to be equally difficult with Nick Nicholson considering increasing the Dunster overshoots after some particularly poor shots from a SUAC member (*cough* Abby *cough*). The tiredness was really setting in, but pushing through everyone managed to reach the end, probably the best thing that can be said of the Albion.
Finally, Wednesday was a day off, much needed and much deserved. While Ally went off to fly birds of prey the rest of the trip had a more leisurely morning heading off to look around Dunster village before watching the longbow 2-way Western and finally heading to the beach where they once again met up with Ally for fish and chips. Entertainment was provided by Michael who was having great difficulty mastering the boomerang, often chasing it substantially further than he had originally thrown it.
Thursday was a new experience for a couple of the archers who had never shot a clout before, and 2 way clouts add in an additional level of difficulty, especially when you are not aiming at the flag. Combined with the famous, and ever changing, Dunster wind it was an interesting experience although only a 6 dozen day. There were some nice scores from the team but none like Matt W’s ‘impressive’ 6 points over a double clout.
After the clout it is traditional at Dunster to do a president’s volley, all archers shooting simultaneously at a small cardboard castle at an unknown distance (somewhere a little over 140 yards), with a bottle of champagne at stake SUAC rose to the challenge and, after Ally being chastised by Nick for being too slow on the first shot, for the second year in a row the castle was hit by a SUAC Historian with Abby picking up a bottle of champagne for her effort.
As Friday rolled around it was time for the Western, very blustery but some good scores, which was important in order to retain the Dunster Traders Trophy that was won the year before by John, Dom and Nat. Also with some interesting coupling for the attempt at the Hart and Hind trophy which SUAC sadly didn’t manage to retain.
Saturday and Sunday at Dunster are the biggest days of the shoot with the Archers of the West competing to become Lady or Gentleman Champion of the West. As visitors to the west, we weren’t eligible for that grand title but it was still another chance to win some more medals. Abby put in a very impressive score of 1047 for the single round putting her in second place after the first day and smashing well into a Bowman score. Unfortunately not quite as impressive a score nudged her down the places but she retained the third place visitor medal and the team walked away with another team trophy, or would have done if it had been returned.
Overall the team came away with two trophies, 3 individual medals and smashed 11 club records, despite the small number of members probably the most successful tournament this year. Bring on Dunster 2016!
