Northern Area Championships - 14th March 2004
(A report by Johanna)

 

On the 14th of March 2004, 4 merry members (well not so merry, we had to get up pretty early as we were shooting in the morning session) made their way from Aberdeen to Forfar for the NA Championships held by Lochside Bowmen. Those who chose to shoot that day were Mel, Jo, Kev and Hamish. We knew we werenít going to get team medals, as they donít allow mixed disciplines (Two recurves, a longbow and a compound all took part) but we made a good attempt at the respective ones we could get. John arrived as Melís chauffeur and was seen to be hobnobbing with Bill McKay and various other people.

 

It started well with the RGU contingent of GCU shooting with us in the morning session (Aberdeen University were just too lazy!) Everyone shot pretty well apart from Jo who was suffering from a cold and found that taking the subsequent medication threw her off her pace. This meant that she didnít shoot as well as the competition at Lochside previously where she got 502. Everyone finished well but some were disappointed to find that the cafÈ was shut this time and so various people had to go find lunch elsewhere! RGU stayed on to play card games with Mel during the afternoon session while Jo went looking for lunch and then suffered quietly in a corner due to the cold. Hamish and Kev disappeared back to Aberdeen not even waiting for the resultsÖ or the raffle!

 

When waiting on the results being sorted we had the raffle. Jo, being determined to win something, bought £4 of tickets and got what she predicted what she would getÖ the car spongeÖ Ronnie Taylor on the other hand bought £2 worth and was drawn at least 4 times but only picked up the small teddy bear (he wanted the bigger one but someone else beat him to it) and asked for other the tickets to be redrawn.

 

Finally the results. Mel had started well and raced off to try and get the Ladies Gold medal to beat her Silver of previous attempts but Morag beat her again in the afternoon. Kev won the Longbow medal convincingly but then he was the only one yet again! Hamish finally got a medal (YAY!) he got 3rd Compound gent after Bob Provan and Ronnie Taylor respectively. Jo added to her small stash of medals by receiving her E class medal. Though some worry was caused during the awards ceremony, especially when Mel and Jo collected Kev and Hamishís medals respectively, although not as many eyebrows were raised for them as there was for Bob Provan. He had to collect all the Links Medals as the rest of the club had gone home early too.

 

All in all a good day, with some of us heard to be muttering ìmust try harder next year!î