THE indoor venue of Blue Lake Archers proved a haven from the wild weather that affected the region over the weekend.
Friday night’s indoor was programmed as the first of the two events for the weekend, but with Sunday’s outdoor event washed out those attending the indoor were the only competitors to submit scores.
A World Archery 18-metre round of 60 scored arrows attracted six archers to the St Martins College Hall venue, although only four of those logged into the electronic scoring as competitors.
Len Bayley was keen to have a crack at using his new bow in competition for the first time and was quietly confident his practice sessions had ironed out most of the new equipment jitters.
Paul Freeman set about building his experience level closer to gaining his handicap score rating and after Friday now only requires two more indoor events to qualify.
Fresh off a win from his previous outing, Ben Kilsby was wary of Garry Jacques’s recent good form and with Bayley an unknown quantity with new gear, Kilsby knew he could not afford errors.
During the first half of the evening the off the bow score honours were going in Kilsby’s direction in a big way as he carded 287 from the possible 300 on offer to that point.
After a wayward arrow on the first end Bayley’s concentration was then focused like a laser and he earned his first indoor all gold medal in the second end of the night.
After a short half-time break the archers shot the remaining 30 arrows required.
Bayley was now scoring freely and clocked up his second all gold for the night.
Kilsby responded in typical fashion, not one of his arrow drifting outside the gold centre area of the target face for the entire round and he finished the night just one point shy of matching his personal best for the round.
Jacques had toiled quietly in the background steadily accumulating a tidy score and finished with a flourish, his last three arrows for the night crowded tightly into the 10-ring.
A count-back was need to settle the runner-up position with Kilsby and Jacques tied on 596 points apiece after handicaps had been added in.
Kilsby getting the nod to drop Jacques into third for the night.
The big story was not that Bayley had picked up the night’s win with a new personal best, but the gap between himself and his opposition.
Bayley’s adjusted score is guaranteed to put the handicap adjustment system into overload as he finished an almost unprecedented 141 points in front of second placed Kilsby.
