First NEUAL match of the season

For those of you who aren't familiar with the acronym NEUAL stands for Northern England Universities Archery League. The University of Bradford Archery Club attended our first match of the 06/07 indoor season on Saturday 25th November. Technically it should have been our 2nd match, but the 1st fell through due to "reasons beyond our control". The turn out on our behalf was poor, with just 4 experienced archers, 1 novice, 1 guest (who is no longer a student and therefore cannot contribute to the team score) and 1 supporter who very kindly volunteered to drive us.

The competition itself was agonising, with 3 people shooting at each target in turn, and a general apathy towards scoring at any speed, it seemed to last forever. This was not helped in the slightest by the fact that I am not currently match fit. I've been having trouble with my back and so standing for long periods only exacerbates my lumbar pain. I've also not been pushing myself enough in practice sessions due to my back pain, I was exhausted after having slept very little for about a fortnight and the sports hall we were in was extremely cold. Three dozen arrows to go and the pain sets in big time, by the time we get to 1 dozen arrows I should have retired through sheer pain and exhaustion. I continued out of stubbornness, no way was I going to to retire and let both the team and myself down this close to the end.

Once the competition had finished and the equipment had been packed away, we went to a local pub for the results to be anounced and to get a meal. Feeling very sorry for myself, I bought food but didn't eat much, I was hurting too much to eat. Unsurprisingly our team came in last, however I was very surprised to learn that I had shot a new personal best at a score of 481 (meaning that I could finally claim a purple badge for achieving a score above 475) as I really didn't feel I was shooting to the best of my ability. I was even more shocked to hear that this score was enough to earn me second place in my category of Ladies Experience Recurve. I couldn't believe it, especially when I was so close to withdrawing near the end! So Ladies and Gentlemen, big me up for perseverance and just a little bit of skill. =)