The results of our yearly friendly competition with South Wilts Archery Club.
Full results
First place: South Wilts (Total: 3249)
Mark Phillips (RC) – 556
Mark Bannister (RC) – 549
Nigel Jones (RC) – 532
Peter Durtnall (RC) – 531
Pete Dixon (BB) – 557
Jon Newland (BB) – 524
Second place: Southampton Uni (Total: 3112)
Andrew Howe (RC) – 566
John Bowes (RC) – 548
Matt Potticary (RC) – 544
Stephen Fawcett (RC) – 508
James Nelson (BB) – 476
Liam McDonnell (BB) – 470
Report
Stephen Fawcett was mildly controversial last year when he disingenuously suggested for the annual SWAC vs SUAC match last year that while SWAC didn’t have much in the way of female recurves to choose from, SUAC neither had any (good) female recurves following the departure of half of the club in the summer. Despite the fact the squad has some good female recurves this year, a team of six men was selected for this year’s match. The main governing principle for the team selection in this friendly combination is that SUAC selects six archers, and SWAC put forward the equivalent bowstyles where possible, so a combination of the availability of SUAC’s (recurve) and SWAC’s (barebow) ladies resulted in the six-man team – SUAC might finally have a greater bowstyle diversity than SWAC now! This is mainly because James Nelson has a horsebow and Liam McDonnell also has a longbow.
The main challenge with the team of six is how to get everyone to Salisbury on a Wednesday evening, since minibuses are unavailable and cars can generally only take five people. Fortunately SWAC’s Owen Blackmore works in Southampton and for the second year running was able to give lifts. However, he has since got a new car, so the car that Stephen was waiting for was not the one that would be picking them up. In the meantime, former SUACer Lizzie Richley met up with the team as she would also be getting a lift. She still confused Stephen for Theo Chen-Sverre though, and he wasn’t even going.
The destination of the competition would be Wyvern College, but having been there a few times, Stephen was aware of the name of the road that the school is on. When James found ‘Wyvern College’ on his satnav and said that it was on Botley Road before starting to take the people he would be giving a lift to, alarm bells started ringing for Stephen. After debating with Liam and Lizzie about whether they had the right place, Stephen went off to double check the directions with James, and found that their car would otherwise have ended up at Wyvern College in Eastleigh.
At the venue, there was a bit of confusion of what target some of the people would be shooting on, since an extra boss had been put out, so Andrew Howe ended up with a boss to himself. There was also the added obstacle of several banks of exam tables being laid out in between the shooting line and the target, so everyone had to make sure they wouldn’t miss low. This idea was a worry to Stephen, given that something had been going wrong with his shooting and he had a miss in each of his four last Portsmouths. This unwanted streak would continue in this competition.
In the first few ends, something seemed to be bothering Andy. At least, it seemed that way due to the apparent disregard that he was tossing his scoreboard on the ground with. On the wooden floors of the hall, this would make a loud noise that echoed around. Andy’s mood did eventually brighten, as the board would later be placed on the ground with more care.
Despite his miss, Stephen still scored 508 (woop), Andy got 566, Matt Potticary got 544, John Bowes got 548, while James got 476 and edged out Liam with 470 in the SUAC barebow contest, to give a six man total of 3112. In the announcement of the results, Andy was the highest recurve of both sides, but SUAC were impressed when it was announced that the best barebow was a PB score of 557 from Pete Dixon of SWAC, which proved to be the second highest score out of everyone on the day. SWAC’s total was 3249, so it was a fairly convincing win for them, and SUAC had to return the trophy that they had held for the first and only time last year. The series now stands at SWAC – 3, SUAC – 1.
Matt was conspicuous by not wearing the club shirt at this competition, so that when it came to the team photo he tried his best to hide behind everyone else, but with limited success. Half of the team stopped off for fish and chips on the way back, while those in Owen’s car decided that it would probably be politer to their guest driver if they went straight back to Southampton, given that it was already fairly late. The other half did not know this, and were confused when the remainder of the team didn’t meet up with them at the chip shop.
