Inter Club Triple Challenge 26^th February 2006

Report by Nev Wilson

This year’s annual challenge between the Company of Sixty, Cloth of Gold and Havering Nalgo clubs took place at the Havering Nalgo Club’s new grounds near Billericay in Essex. This was the third year the Triple Challenge shoot has been staged and a great shoot it was too.

The weather forecast was dry but windy and cold. Boy was it cold! But they had raided the bacon stocks to feed the early arrivals some breakfast and put out free tea and coffee for all to help us get warmed up.

Alan and Jill Lambeth plus their course setters Carl Tagg, Graham Piercy and John Hillsden put on a challenging 23 target course made up of mainly 3D’s and one homemade cut-out of a life size bull elephant. They had a bit of bad luck with their 4x4; it had broken down so all the heavy equipment had to be hauled by hand all the way to the base camp area.

All three clubs put out strong teams, the Co. of Sixty with 11 brave souls, H.N.A  turned out 11 shooters but had to persuade Dave Coutts to abandon his Bare Bow and scrounge together some wooden arrows too make up their team. (He managed to start with six and finished the course with one and a half). And the Cloth of Gold with 17 attending tried to win again by over loading the shoot with ringers. (Norman Bird - Longbow Champion). They tried to take the mickey out of me who took out my brand new wooden arrows broke two, lost one, and lost a pile in one of the 3D’s.

The course consisted of a variety of tricky targets including a heron that swivelled when hit. (They tried to catch me out by making me go last but it stayed in the same position when Bob Bassett hit it.) But I fooled them all; I missed! So I had the last laugh.

Other targets included a ram that looked like a straightforward shot but had many people fooled by the distance and a predator and prey shot involving a crocodile and a Raven which could have got some lucky person 50 points if they got kills on both. (No one did)

They said the bull elephant was only sixty yards but whoever paced that at sixty yards must have strides of one and a half yards each. I heard somebody asking could we please have the elephant a little closer next time so that the tree that finished plastered with arrows could be left in peace to grow unmolested!

When the shoot was completed and everyone had had a break for lunch the groups went out to shoot the course again for fun until 3 o’clock.  The results were then compiled for the presentation of the trophy A vote of thanks goes to H.N.A. for a super shoot 

Results as follows:

Cloth of Gold   1514

Company of Sixty   1470

HNA 1447

The trophy presentation: