Archery

My name is Steven Burbidge & I am the owner of Cromer Trophies & Engraving Ltd.  When I'm not at work my main hobby is the sport of archery, which I've now been doing with Fakenham Bowmen for over 20 years.  October - March is our indoor season and the New Year period is when most competitions are held.

First competition this year was our club championships, where with a record turnout of 27 members, competition was keen across the disciplines & gender & age groups. The two main titles, Gents & Ladies 'Olympic' bow type were both retained, Kirsty Robb winning the Ladies' for the second year in a row & having won every year since 1998, I made it 10 in a row by winning the Gents competition.

Two weeks later, North Walsham sports centre was the venue for the Norfolk County Indoor Championships. As usual Fakenham members turned out in force, and again it was Kirsty & I who came away with the titles. It was Kirsty's first win at this level, whereas I had previously won in 2004 - it was good to get my hands on the cup again, and it's even better to get to engrave my own name!  These were just warm up events, however for the main competition - the National Indoor Championships.  Held at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall, this is one of the biggest indoor shoots in the country.  The competition was in 2 parts, firstly a normal shoot - highest score wins.  In this I finished in an excellent 13th place, on 559 points (out of a maximum of 600). My target score was 560, so I was close enough to be happy - there was actually a 3 way tie on 560 for 10th place! Competition is certainly close at these big events!   The second part of the shoot was a knockout match play competition, where the top 32 archers from the first shoot compete against each other in 5 rounds to decide the winner. My aim in this shoot was to reach the 1/4 finals.  Having qualified in 13th I was confident going into the first match.  Each match was 12 arrows, giving a maximum score of 120 points.  9 arrows in, all was going well, I was 6 points in the lead - a seemingly unassailable margin with the last 3 arrows to shoot.  At this point, a TV commentator would have used the phrase 'snatched defeat from the jaws of victory' as I had a complete aberration & flinched as I loosed an arrow. I was now suddenly 3 points behind with 2 arrows to shoot - but it was too late to do anything about it!  To say I was gutted would be an understatement!  All the preparation work of shooting 3 times a week, additional fitness training & focus specifically for this event since last November & I'd messed it up!  So for now, back to the day job of engraving other people's trophies & hopefully for next year some of the lessons learned this year will help me progress further!