I’ve not been getting up to the field much of late, but it was great to see so many people shooting on the Friday and Saturday. It was also great to see how everyone has been progressing and improving since going outdoors.
Not least was young Ruby Paul. She’s been taking note of advice from a number of people and with her first outdoor away competition scheduled for Sunday, she spent a session with Geoff working on tuning her bow and getting perfect sight marks. Time and trouble that would pay dividends at the competition.
I was not at Wicken for their 33rd Open Tournament but I did not want Ruby’s achievements to go unnoticed. I usually wait for county record claims to be confirmed but given the amazing shoot that Ruby had and the work that she put in over the three days leading up to he shoot I asked Leza for an update on the day that I could share with our blog readers. Leza has therefore kindly sent me the following mini-report from the shoot:
Wicken 33rd Open Tournament
On Sunday 1st June the sun shone down on Archers taking part in the Wicken 33rd Open Tournament. One of those Archers was AoR’s Ruby Paul.
Her first tournament of the outdoor season in fact her first outdoor tournament ever, away from home! Wicken is a lovely club to shoot at and Ruby was made very welcome, it also helps that there were a few familiar faces such as John and Christine Marshall.
Ruby was shooting her first Bristol IV (U14’s as she has only been a teenager for a week) so from the very first arrow she set a PB !! On Thursday Geoff spent time with Ruby including tuning her bow and getting all her sight marks for 40, 30, and 20 yards.
Pete did the assembly and Ruby stepped up to the shooting line and into unknown territory…
Her first dozen arrows she scored a very impressive 100 and for the first 6 dozen arrows at 40 yards she scored 536, lunch came and went and so onto 4 dozen arrows at 30 yards and she scored 408 and never falling below 100 for a dozen, all this time the sun kept on shining. Her final distance of 2 dozen at 20 yards and she scored 212 (you should have seen Ruby’s face when she dropped 4 points it was a mixture of disappointment and pride).
Her total score for Bristol IV was 1156 and so not only a club record but also a County Record that had been set in 2009. Ruby herself looked at the score sheet afterwards and has pointed out where she can improve and set an even more impressive score not bad for a 13 year old.
Fantastic Ruby – well done! 🙂