At a glance
Ziheng Guo, Senior Gents Compound, 571 (1st)
Rachael Smith, Senior Ladies Recurve, 550 (1st)
Abigail Hall, Senior Ladies Recurve, 519 (1st)
Matt Story, Novice Gents Barebow, 429 (1st)
James Murawski, Senior Gents Longbow, 398 (1st)
David Williams, Senior Gent Recurve, 547 (2nd)
Lukas Bastow, Novice Gent Recurve, 533 (2nd)
Kathryn Holyland, Senior Ladies Recurve, 518 (2nd)
Tom Reed, Senior Gents Compound, 551 (3rd)
Stuart MacFarquhar, Senior Gent Recurve, 542 (3rd)
Harry Moncrieff Macmillan, Novice Gent Recurve, 507, 13 golds (=3rd)
Sergiu Rusu, Novice Gent Recurve, 507, 13 golds (=3rd)
Callum Anderson, Novice Gent Recurve, 489 (5th)
Nick Wilson, Senior Gent Recurve, 526 (7th)
Matthew Wellman, Senior Gent Recurve, 524 (8th)
Team Results:
Novice: Victory 2036-1685
Senior: Victory 4647-4613
SEAL Results:
Novice 1st, overall 2nd for the year
Senior 2nd, overall 2nd for the year
Match report
Varsity started much earlier in the week with Matthew Wellman going up to Wide Lane to get various pieces of equipment, while on the Saturday night we packed down to make sure we were able to get 3 of our own bosses down to Pompey so that more people could shoot.
We had a minibus booked, plus Tom and Nick had agreed to drive their own cars. Rachael went straight to the range and started packing Tom’s and Nick’s cars full (and we really do mean full) of danage cubes. Meanwhile, the minibus got loaded up on campus with people with Matt Story driving.
The cars and bus were finally packed, with the important exception of one final thing – one of the archers. Hari was nowhere to be seen, and remained off-radar despite several phone calls.
We were finally forced to leave with our novice team a man down, and departed for Portsmouth. It turned out that Hari had forgotten to charge his phone and as such it had died overnight, meaning his alarm didn’t wake him up, leading to him oversleeping and missing the bus.
Tom and Nick took Stuart and Abbie to navigate, while many shenanigans occurred on the minibus. After a short while on the road, Tom decided that some music was in order, and took the gamble of “what CD is currently in the player.” He lost, finding the Keane CD left by the people who sold him the car. Needless to say, he was far from keen on this – pun intentional.
Once in the city, Tom announced his feelings for our destination with “Ah, the Spinnaker Tower. Portsmouth’s only redeeming feature.” We quickly arrived at the venue, and short work was made of unloading large amounts of foam and wood from Tom and Nicks cars. While the bosses which we had taken with us were reconstructed, others set up their equipment and Horsey McHorseface and Rainbow McRainbowface emerged to terrorise the local population.
The shoot proceeded relatively smoothly, with Nick and Wellman matching one another score for score for several dozen, diverging only slightly along the way. David and Matt Hill from Portsmouth ended up unconsciously psyching each other out despite both of them shooting not at their best to begin with. Rachael meanwhile was taking much glee in the fact she was beating Tom, who in compound corner, was getting distracted by the messing around of Abbie and Portsmouth’s Cameron Temple. Lukas and Sam Humphries from Portsmouth were having a ding dong naval battle on their target, trading points regularly. At some point SUAC failed to keep a sufficient watch over our unofficial mascots, with Rainbow McRainbowface vanishing into the depths of UPAC, remaining unseen until a Facebook post during the return journey.
Once settled in the union bar in Portsmouth, drinks were purchased, food was ordered, and the results were announced. Displaying our superiority over the team who couldn’t even protect their own flag, Southampton were victorious in both the novice and senior categories. The team results and composition are:
Novice Team: Southampton 2036 – 1685 Portsmouth
Lukas Bastow, Sergiu Rusu, Harry Moncrieff Macmillan, Callum Anderson.
Senior Team: Southampton 4647 – 4613 Portsmouth
Rachael Smith, David Williams, Stuart MacFarquhar, Lukas Bastow, Nick Wilson, Ziheng Guo, Tom Reed, James Murawski, Matt Story.
Particular congratulations go to Rachael, who equalled her BUCS-set personal best of 550 to finish top of the team, and Sergiu, who scored a personal best and broke the 500 barrier with a score of 507! Commiserations, meanwhile, go to Lukas, who lost out to his long-time rival Sam Humphries of Portsmouth by only 1 point, falling into second place in his category.
After this, it was time to leave, so we all piled into the minibus and headed for home. Once in the minibus, Michael extracted the Portsmouth flag from his bag, much to the astonishment of David. Lukas donned the mantle of Horsey McHorseface to hold the UPAC flag aloft in victory, and a photograph was shortly posted in the SEAL Facebook group. Alex Clyne of Portsmouth was quick to respond, displaying the capture of Rainbow McRainbowface, but nothing else of interest happened on the journey home. Nothing whatsoever.
Seriously, nothing.
But Rachael, Abbie and David were so glad to be out of that minibus by the end…
