Glasgow League - Half Way

The conclusion of the third leg of the Glasgow League would mark the half way point in the inaugural 2024-25 season. This round was to be shot once again at The Time Capsule in Coatbridge which has somewhat become an arena of choice (well, they let us come back) for this sporting clash of titans .. battle of the giants? .. titanomachy?  Whatever sporting cliche you want to call it that makes makes us archers sound dynamic and sporty. Monklands Archery Club (MAC) were the hosts this time .. a club well known to dabble in the dark side* arts.

Going into shoot number three, Glasgow Archers were holding a slim lead of just 2 points from Strathclyde Uni. Although two previous squad members were on their hollybags, the core of the squad was made up of the usual suspects Dunky, Euan, Geo, John and Oksana. Jumping into the mix as first timers were Chris, Faisal, Fahd and Furas for the biggest GA team to date.

The weather was pretty horrendous with a thunderstorm hitting Coatbridge as the archers were arriving with Thor like claps of thunder, wild precipitation and wind so powerful they tripped Geo's car alarm. The racket inside the hall from rain hammering on the metal roof was pretty deafening but would fortunately subside before assembly. Kicking off in the relaxed atmosphere that is the hallmark of this competition, it was a wobbly start for many. It may be relaxed and easy going with no timed ends but its still a competition and nerves need to be controlled.

The shoot proceeded smoothly as had the previous two with the usual dodgy laughter coming from Geo's target No.2. We're not sure what goes on on his targets but we suspect some very iffy humour indeed. Only drama experienced during the shoot was when EK archer Leigh had the screw on one of his limb bolts shake itself loose and was found on the hall floor. All parts but the spring were found but that can be easily replaced. While its a little disconcerting, the limb's performance was not affected and he shot on unimpaired.

At the end of the shoot, overheard on one of the targets there was the usual exchange of thanks ... "thank you for shooting with me today" .. "thank you for pulling my arrows" .. "thank you for scoring" .. and then the less than usual "thank you for showing off". Someone must have had a good round!

Tidying up, there was the usual physical and mental activity. Physical in that the bosses had to be put away .. and mental with the 9 scorers retreating to various nooks and corners to apply archer math** to their scoreboards.Once the scores were tallied, there was a moment of consternation. GA were announced as having taken 3rd and therefore bronze yet John's score was no where to be seen. After some tense negotiations and appeals to higher authorities (AGB? .. World Archery? .. A calculator?), John's score was found and added to the GA total elevating Glasgow to second and the silver. However, this necessitated Dunky drop out of the four person squad for scoring/medal purposes. John's interjection had upgraded GA to a silver and won himself a medal, but cost Dunky a bronze. Way to take one for the team Dunks!

With Strathclyde putting up silly numbers, GA were well beaten into second this time but they continue to hold first in the league overall by a single point. With three shoots still to go its going to take some heroics to stop Strathclyde whose powerful squad are on a roll. Everyone in Team GA is getting their inner Rocky loaded and the training montages are good to go. Eye of the Tiger GA, Eye of the Tiger!

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Glasgow league stats and standings can be found here

* In case you aren't aware, compound is known as the "dark side" of archery.
** Somehow simple maths like 10+9+9=28 or 9+8+7=24 seems to give archers, no matter their real world numerical aptitude, real issues.
note: there are a couple of mistakes in the stats - see if you can spot them before they get sorted!