For those of you, who have read my match reports, you will know of my fantastic trip to the World Masters, in Lausanne, Switzerland last year. Whilst there, we met a wonderful lady recurve archer from Italy called Annamaria Carrer After the competition, we stayed in touch and she kindly invited us to stay with her and shoot at a competition hosted by her club, in Rome, in March 2019.
So the gauntlet was laid down, of course, we had to go!!
The morning of departure arrived and with kit packed we departed at the crack of dawn, 7th March. We had allowed an extra hour on top of the normal, two hour before take off thing, so we left at 5am, 4 hours before our 9am take off!
“WHAT!”I hear you ask, “it should only take 50 minutes to Gatwick
at that time in the morning!”
“Not today!” Is my reply!!!!!
The journey began well, we even made it over the bridge with no
hold ups. Then, in the distance a stationary trail of red lights, the
M25 was closed, where it crosses the M26!
Apparently a lorry driver on the M26 had hit the bridge that carries
the M25 above!! And so we sat, for almost 2hrs, stationary, with
no option to go anywhere!
When I say we thought we were going to miss the flight I actually
can’t believe we didn’t!
It was the closest call we have ever had, we literally ran from baggage check in, through security and onto the plane!
Once we settled onto the plane the rest was plain sailing!
Two hours later we were greeted at Rome airport by our friend and Italian hostess Annamaria along with her wonderful dog Luna! We were whisked through the airport and out into the Italian sunshine where we loaded Annamaria’s car and began our trip North and towards Lago di Vico (a small lake) and Ronciglione a medieval town, where Annamaria lives, virtually on the edge of the lake.
As we neared the house Annamaria had a call from her husband,
Matt, to ask if we would be joining him for lunch and did we want
the chief to keep any food for us!
Of course after our bolt through Gatwick airport we were now
famished and agreed that this would be lovely.
On arrival at a very small, typical Italian cafe, where, we later
learned, Matt eats every Thursday lunchtime, we were given the
choice, verbally, no menu! Of a delicious choice of dishes.
We arrived at the house and after being given a tour and shown
our quarters I was offered to option of shooting in the garden or a
walk down to the lake beach, I chose the latter as I knew the next
two days would be full of shooting.
Annamaria and Matt also had three guys, from Chile, staying with them, on the work away scheme, doing gardening and general chores in exchange for board, food and Italian and English language lessons. This worked exceptionally well as Annamaria can speak many languages, including Spanish, their native tongue, they were extremely helpful and full of fun and were affectionately known as “the kids.”
We were welcomed around the table for supper along with the kids and more Italian friends who had arrived that evening and who were also taking part in the shoot over the weekend, Fosco Belle and his lovely wife Rita (spectator.)
Later on this year I am competing at the European Masters Games in Turin, Italy. For this competition every sportsman or woman needs to have a medical certificate, following the Italian guidelines, the same as each Italian archer must have biannually to enable them to compete. This was an ideal opportunity to get my certificate with Annamaria as my interpreter the appointment was booked for Friday this turned out to be a blessing as I will explain when we get to the competition day.
Friday morning we travelled back towards Rome to Annamaria’s club “Cosmos” here I had the opportunity to shoot indoors at 18m and outside at 25m in preparation for the combined indoor competition on Saturday.
On arrival we were greeted by the club President Mauro Bradanini and were introduced, throughout the day, to many of the club’s members who were around setting up for the competition the following day. To say we were made to feel welcome is an understatement!
I shot indoors at 18m as I knew I could check my sightmark for 25m during practice before the competition started the following day. Practice went well and I began to get really excited about the competition the next day.
Next........the trip to the Dr, I needed to go and be checked and, if I passed, pick up the medical certificate, that I mentioned earlier. Annamaria drove us to the clinic where we waited to be called and soon enough I was lying on a Dr’s couch!! Blood pressure, ECG and heart rate checked and 5 minutes later I had passed! Fit as a flea!???
While waiting in the Dr reception we had a conversation about archery shops in Rome, and the lack of them. There was, it turned out only one, THE SPIGARELLI SHOP!! Owned and run by the one and only, Italian triple Olympian, Sante SPIGARELLI!! We expressed an interest in visiting and next minute, off we went and twenty minutes later we were there! It was like being in a sweet shop! A relatively smallish shop but crammed to the rafters with everything ‘archery’ that you can imagine...... and more!
Luck was on our side an Sante was there, serving in the shop! I plucked up courage and asked for the ‘Team Spiga’ tee shirt, I had purchased, to be signed! He agreed, with gusto, I think he was quite flattered!? I had my personally signed shirt, along with a few other purchases, in my bag!
Back to the lake house and more wonderful Italian home cooked food but this time an early night!
So to the Saturday morning, day of the competition, up with the lark and off to the venue which was, in essence, a giant inflatable! There was a double entrance door, with an airlock in between so the outer door must be closed before you open the inner door, very odd, and I’ve definitely never shot anywhere quite like that. When inside it was extremely pleasant, bright and warm, even if the sound was distorted slightly and arrows hitting targets sounded very strange!
This competition was a lot bigger than I had expected, over 100 archers over a two day shoot, a combined WA indoor round, 60 arrows at 25m on an 80cm face and 60 arrows at 18m on a 40cm face!
We arrived in plenty of time and were greeted by ‘the kids,’ coffee and homemade pastries! And so the food began again!
We set up our bows and when the judge arrived and had done his checks, Annamaria took me over to the officials table to pay my entry fee and have my Archery GB card checked over by the head judge....... after studying it and, what seemed like a lifetime of animated Italian conversation! Annamaria told me the judge was not happy with my card (even though it has the world archery symbol!) and I needed to have a medical certificate to enable me to compete!!! Which, as luck would have it, and to the judges surprise, I had acquired yesterday, at the Dr’s surgery!!! And so I was able to compete!! Yippee!!
Practice (or warm up, as they call it in Europe) began at 9am. My 25m sight mark was spot and so I was in a happy place, even though nerves where running high!
As we do in England, arrows are shot in threes but a major difference is the ‘pulling’ of the arrows. Each archer pulls their own arrows and it is frowned upon to even offer to pull for anybody else! Something I cannot get used to when shooting out of the country, there seems to be a bit of a ‘thing’ that one archer would damage another archers arrows deliberately!!
My first 30 arrows, and by ability to call my score in Italian, both,
went well and my confidence, in both, was growing!
I ended the first part of the 25m with a score of 278.
The first break was upon us, cake and coffee for all!
Then the second part of the morning, another 30 arrows at 25m. My nerves now more settled this part flew by and before I knew it the lunch break was upon us. I had scores 279 for the second part of the 25m .......... if nothing else consistent!
Lunch was served .....hot spinach and ricotta cannelloni with fresh bread and a side of risotto if required! Or tomato and meat ravioli also with sides! All home cooked and delivered hot to the venue, served by ‘the kids’ and always endless supplies of coffee! I had never seen anything quite like this, as always, the food, how much of it was available, along with the quality was of huge importance to the archers! It was included in the entry fee and had a big impact on whether or not Archers would return to compete there again ......... Hilarious to us!!
After an hour and a half lunch break and a sneaky 40 winks in the sunshine, outside, I was ready for the 18m first 30 arrows. Sight mark was good and so it began again. By this time the temperature inside the venue had risen and layers were having to be removed and I was introduced to the Italian way of removing long sleeved thermals from underneath a T shirt without removing the T shirt therefore showing no flesh (not a pretty sight!) to the surrounding archers! If any ladies (or gents!?) would like to be shown this trick please ask when you see me next!
And so to 18m .......I quickly found that my sightmark was good so I felt calm after the first three arrows and the next thirty arrows past in a flash!
Company on the target was all Italian and as the day progressed we became more at ease with each other and with lots of hand gestures the conversation began to flow, in a strange sort of way! First thirty at 18m done, I scored 272, again consistent.
Another coffee and cake break followed, a different cake made by a different club member. I never thought I could eat so much on a competition day but it seemed to be keeping the energy levels up!
Soon we settled to down to the last 30 arrows and again I was, if nothing else, consistent, but slightly disappointed that I hadn’t managed to break 280 for any of my sets of 30 arrows, I had again scored 272!!
My total for the day was 1101, the first time that I had scored over 1100 for that particular round, so I was thrilled and ecstatic when I found out that I had won my category for the day, second highest score of the day only a couple of points behind the highest scoring man, so a very good day for me but I had to remember that tomorrow another group of archers would be shooting the same round so the competition was not over yet!
After packing our gear away and a quick freshen up we were whisked off to a popular local restaurant for, yet more Italian gastronomy!! This small, but perfectly formed restaurant, was very popular with the locals but Annamaria and about 12 other members of Cosmos had booked us a table, in advance, and so we were shown straight to it.
The menu was only in Italian so after we had heard a detailed translation from Annamaria and the table had had a long conflab the decisions were made. Antipasti for all to share consisting of several several salami, all different flavours and textures and from different regions, prosciutto ham, cheeses and breads and some local Roman delicacies comprising of, mostly offal and including lambs innards and tripe! We were encouraged, mostly by Fosco, one of Annamaria”s archery buddies, to try everything, which we duly did and as expected, for me, it wasn’t my favourite! Although Tony was quite partial to the tripe!!
Next was the primi pasta course, approximately twenty to choose from, eventually I settled on carbonara, which had come highly recommended and Tony the Ragu, thinking they were familiar dishes and we would know what to expect. My carbonara was not recognisable at I knew it, made from pig cheek and egg yolk only, in the sauce, it was more yellow and richer than that we have in England, I had never tasted anything like it ........ delicious, and the portion was massive! Tony’s ragu was similar to spaghetti bolognese, as we would know it, served in the shape of a massive Volcano, absolutely huge portion! I tried, and failed, to finish mine in fact it looked like I had hardly touched it when I was full. Tony was determined to finish and when he had he looked similar to someone who had completed a marathon, sweat being mopped from his brow by Fosco who was duly impressed by Tony’s efforts.
Main course, usually a meat dish? ............ I think not!!!!!
In fact nobody had a main and we found out that the restaurant
was famous for its, very large pasta dishes and although
sometimes quests choose another one, as a a main, dish they
often share it and very rarely does anyone have a meat dish! I felt
slightly better about my inability to eat anymore, (ignoring of
course the panacotta and a small taste of tiramisu that followed
slightly later on!!) AMAZING!
Full to the brim we returned to the lake house, Annamaria
heroically driving us back, windows open and chattering all the
way, she had been up early with us, competing all day as well as
helping with food and organisation at the venue, she was
exhausted too!
After a great night's sleep and a very light breakfast we packed everything up for the journey home that evening, before returning to the competition venue to watch the second wave of archers compete and wait and see if I would retain my position!
We arrived just before lunchtime and after the morning shooting was over, I was still leading the Masters lady category ........great!!
Annamaria had told us that there was an overall trophy for the highest scoring female and male, recurve, barebow and compound bows, across all age categories. The trophies had been made by a member of the hosting club, Cosmos, her name is Giovanna and she wanted me to win the highest scoring recurve Lady award!! No pressure.
Lunch was over, faces changed and shooting line moved forward to 18m and shooting began again.
At this point I was made aware of a young lady, shooting recurve, who was, in fact, the current Italian senior Champion. Claudia Compagnucci!!
She was shooting well but after 25m I was 4 points ahead of her!!
After the first 30 arrows at 18m I had hung onto the lead and was
still 2 points up!! How exciting..........
I think at this point she was determined that the overall trophy was
not going to leave Italy! She upped her game and scored 281 to
my 272 .....she had beaten me by 7 points for take the overall
trophy, but what a close call, I was extremely proud to have come
that close to her and of winning the Master lady category.
And so it was over, the scores were collated and medal ceremony was prepared, podium and all. We collected everything together as when the ceremony was over we needed to leave quickly to get to the airport for our return flight to Gatwick.
We watched as different categories were called (in Italian) to the podium and waited for mine, unfortunately the third and second position ladies in the masters category had won their places the previous day, along with me, but had not returned on the Sunday so we’re unable to collect their medals and stand on the podium with me, I was given my gold medal by the President of the club and stood on the top of the podium ...... the cherry on top of a wonderful Italian weekend cake!!
I would like to thank Annamaria, her family and her club for being the best hosts ever, we are looking forward to her visiting us sometime soon when we can introduce her to some of the archers that read this report!?
Thanks for reading. Wendie