County Four-way Indoor Match Report by Wendie King
Place - Sittingbourne Kent
Teams from - Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex
Bow style - Recurve
Round - Portsmouth
Team members - Kevin Juniper, Chris Jordan, Imogen Newby (junior girl) and myself, Wendie King (stand in captain)
Date - 02.02.2019
I arrived early at the venue, Sittingbourne Community College, at about 8.15am, after a somewhat eerie drive through Kent. The previous night had seen snowfall through some areas and I passed through parts on the M2 where vehicles had been abandoned and the fast lane and hard shoulder were covered with a couple of inches! Whereas there was no snow to be seen ,either at home or at the venue!
After texting my fellow team mates to update them on the parking situation I began setting up. I was soon joined by the rest of the team and the venue began filling up and warming up, it was a chilly day outside!
The morning session was for recurve and compound teams but unfortunately Essex were only represented by a recurve team.
After finding out our target numbers and a quick assembly the competition began. There was one member from each of the four counties on each of the targets, in each of the disciplines. Essex and Kent on the same detail and Surrey and Sussex on the other.
Ends were shot in two minutes and there were two ends of sighters as in any other competition.
After realising that, as stand in captain, I needed to collect scores at the end of each dozen, to keep score updates flowing, I quickly hoodwinked, Leon, Imogen’s dad who agreed, without hesitation, to help!
So the scoring began , for the first dozen;
Kevin - 110, Chris - 117, Imogen - 115 and Wendie 114
A fabulous start by all!
Shooting continued and everyone was happy with at beginning of their second dozen, until it was noticed that Imogen was having trouble, her arrows dropping low, randomly, and causing her score to drop significantly!
Second dozen scores
Kevin - 116, Chris - 114, Imogen - 101 and Wendie- 111
Third dozen began, again everyone generally satisfied except Imogen? Again her arrows were hitting randomly even though her shots were strong? By the end of that dozen Leon was getting suspicious and started to examine the bow carefully but nothing seemed obviously wrong?
The third dozen scores where as follows
Kevin - 113, Chris - 111, Imogen - 101 and Wendie 114
As the fourth dozen began the Newby team were desperately trying to work out the problem .......Thank goodness for dad! Leon then spotted that Imogen’s limbs were, in fact, on upside down!
We began the fourth dozen and, after speaking to judges, Imogen was allowed time for equipment failure, she then shot her three arrows alone on the line! ( her own choice)
Normal was service resumed;
Kevin - 113, Chris - 116, Imogen - 114 and Wendie - 115
Last dozen, myself, Kevin and Chris had a conversation that none of us wanted to know the result so far for fear of putting pressure on ourselves! So we continued with the task in hand. After the first 9 arrows Leon asked us if we wanted to know where we were at that point, I only remember declining, I’m still not sure about my fellow team members? But it turned out at that point things were very close and only a few points separated the two top teams!
Final dozen scores;
Kevin - 115, Chris - 111, Imogen - 114 and Wendie - 111
So to close, scores ended on Kevin 567, Chris 569, Imogen 545 and Wendie 565.
Totals for the morning from all counties;
Essex 2246
Surrey 2235
Kent 2231
Sussex 1944
Very close at the top only 15 points separating the top 3 but Essex won by 11 points!!
Finally I would like to say a big thank you to my fellow team mates, it was a pleasure shooting with you and I look forward to doing it all again soon!
Special thanks to Leon, for collecting scores and a big thank you to Imogen for continuing to shoot when her equipment was misbehaving! It shows that we all can make mistakes, it’s how you come back from it that counts and what would her score have been if the limbs were in the right place from the start?!
Congratulations to Essex recurve team !! Especially Chris Jordan, being his first county competition and top scorer for us!
Well done to all, a great morning’s shooting, very much enjoyed.
Wendie King