Archery

• 17th August 2011 at 11:43

My dad is an archery enthusiast, and so, therefore, am I.

Growing up I was vaguely aware that my dad was keen for me to take up the bow - subtle little things, like an archery target appearing in the middle of the lawn, or him saying "I am keen for you to take up archery" - but until recently I have always been too busy learning too many musical instruments, or being too tired from my strenuous days spent typing away at a keyboard.

However, I recently decided to take up archery, entirely of my own accord and without my dad pointing out that my local archery club ran beginners courses. Despite my reservations, I discovered that it was indeed a rather enjoyable pastime, not least because I got most of the arrows in or near the gold, the archery equivalent of a bullseye. Well, at least until I moved from a recurve bow to a longbow, and the distance went from 30 yards to 100. Now I mostly miss.

Regular readers will be aware that I have neglected once-cherished activities, such as this diary, ever since I realised there was a causal link between how much I worked and how many DVDs I could afford. I therefore doubt you will be surprised to hear that since the beginners course I have not made much time for archery practice.

In that light, I'm still not entirely sure why I have taken part in two archery competitions so far this year, nor why I plan to shoot in another three. Needless to say I embarrassed myself at the first, only managing to get 15 arrows on the target (the average was over 60). I did somewhat better in the second competition, despite a longer distance - but to be honest, I think that was mostly because my dad had lent me his bow, which I believe to be enchanted.

As my school reports always used to say, must try harder.

Still, at least there's one tenuous aspect of archery that I hope I'm not a total disaster at; I have just made a website for the Sevenoaks Archery Club. If you live in or around Sevenoaks and think you would enjoy walking around behind a target trying to find your arrows (I jest - unless you use a longbow, of course), get in touch with them - coaching is available for beginners most Saturdays. And yes, for those wondering how I became involved, the club was indeed recently founded by my dad.

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