AN indoor archery round marked the Blue Lake Archers farewell to winter last Friday night, but the follow up outdoor event on Sunday afternoon indicated the good spring weather is not quite here yet.
The indoor event was lightly attended, attracting three archers for a double round of Australian 18 metre.
Paul Freeman, Garry Jacques and Graham Lock lined up on the night.
A solid start from Jacques was brought to an unfortunate halt, with an early retirement causing him to continue in his role of range captain from the sidelines.
Lock took full advantage of Freeman bedding in a change to his bow and claimed the first round by a comfortable six points.
A second round allows the chance for archers to reset and start fresh, but that was not the case for Lock, as his form plunged completely off script part way through.
Freeman on the other hand was fully settled in and was happy to return serve to Lock.
The final three arrows of the night set the scene for Freeman to grab the bragging rights to the best off-the-bow score and he was on for an unassailable handicap win.
Both archers were on identical scores in the penultimate end.
The final three arrows from both archers all scored a maximum 10 points each to maintain a tied off-the-bow score of 277 points apiece.
The adjusted handicap score had Freeman an easy winner with a gap of 18 points.
On Sunday the variability of spring weather was on full show with a cool afternoon prone to a mix of sunshine and rain.
The variable conditions failed to be a deterrent and four archers were active on the 50-metre range, while Phil Tremelling and Jacques coached a group of keen beginners on the practice range.
A 50-metre Melbourne round was chosen yet again for its suitability to the prevailing conditions.
A brief shower caused a short delay after the first scored end of the afternoon, but the up side was at that point the wind dropped to an almost dead calm.
With the range safety flags hanging limply there was a chance of good scores on offer.
Ben Kilsby did not need to wait for a written invitation, promptly pouring down an endless string of arrows which landed in the gold centre of the target face.
Mark Turnbull was a retirement with an equipment issue, but not before landing a 50-metre all gold end.
Len Bayley found himself the pursuer rather than the pursued as Kilsby and Lock bounded off into the distance on the score sheets.
The best off-the-bow score was attributed to Kilsby, emphasising his dominance with a perfect 60-point end from his final six arrows.
But it was Lock who had the final say on the matter, snagging the adjusted score win by a single point from Kilsby.
