Diamond Valley Archers – June 2018

The time came round for the second 3DAAA event to be run at Diamond Valley Archers Inc. for 2018. This also gives the course setters a chance to review the layout and the grounds from running our first event in summer to now planning to manage the ranges in now winter.

Trees and foliage change, the tracks and pathways used in summer have altered and new shot lanes can be created adding to the changes of where we place the 3D targets.

With the layouts planned, the targets checked the courses came together with the assistance of DVA team. The competitors started arriving and the day events soon began.

The ranges emphasised targets size and placement to create depth and perception combined with the use of dead ground all challenging the competitors to think of their shots and consider or reconsider that first thought of distance estimation.

Day 1 scores soon reflected this and the comments such as “that was so much closer, than I estimated it to be” “the crocodile easy enough but why an 8”, “that honey bear looked so simple, until we were getting our arrows and realised the perception of shot placement into a river bed”, “the black panther on the rock made me think twice on what I had set my sights to when looking at the target at full draw”. It was pleasing to get the feedback from the competitors across all divisions as they came in with score cards in hand and getting their lunches around the clubrooms – for one archer though getting a perfect round on the 3rd range great work Drew Orton.

With the first three rounds completed, dinner preparations made for members staying over it was time to relay the courses – team one was already out and pulling up the furthest range targets – team two comprising of some of our junior archers took to the field to learn and assist in relaying the 20 targets for the next day. It did not take these juniors long to get the idea of how to make shots interesting and challenging, add to this that each one in the team was responsible for a different component on each target created some very interesting shots for day two.

Day 2 the weather was again kind to us and the archers worked their way across the ranges easily and once again the field course was alive with comments of success and well those that were not so successful. Once again the courses delivered as promised and people came back excited about how close they came to the perfect round, how it was not their day, but all about how much fun they had working their way across the ranges. Yet again another archer took out his first perfect round of 100 – congratulations Sam Mufale

With the assistance of the new team in training results were up and finalised 30 to 40 mins earlier, and presentations & announcements were done with competitors heading home ahead of time with some staying back to practice on the target ranges and others planning their trips to the next events.

Presentations done the talk was now all about the next events – 1 day 3D back at DVA on the 29th of July 2018 during the day in the evening we will be running the 3D AAA Indoors & Twin Cities Archers will also be running 3D AAA Indoors refer to the 3D AAA website for times and details followed by the next two day event to be held on the 17th & 18th of August 2018 at Twin Cities Archers.

Some recollections of the two days from – Sam (CUBA)

At the 3D at DVA I had a good time and a good shoot claiming my first straight 100 as well as breaking my personal record. The targets set across the field were great with some challenging and difficult targets. I couldn’t have completed my straight 100 without the support of Cordell Martin and Shaylen. I had a great shoot as well as many other people. Thanks for reading Sam