Slotting in the nock, fletching etc

Elf and I enrolled in an adult ed course to get away and spend some time doing something together. Our criteria were it had to involve a) hours standing in a field, b) weapons and c) fletching. This narrowed it down to Organic Farming for Ninjas or Archery, so we chose Archery.


We both had a great time at the first class on Saturday. We were shooting with recurve bows like this one, from about 10 metres. It looked ridiculously close before we started shooting, when all of us sent arrows flying over, under and past the target, with a few thudding into the white low scoring bits.

An hour or so later we were getting our whole round of arrows (6) in the blue, red and gold. Elf and I probably shot about 10 or 12 bulls each out of about 60 shots.

While we were getting our safety briefing an unprepossessing person wandered past. One of the course lecturers asked if he was late for the adult ed course. The other lecturer said - "No - that's Clint!" Clint Freeman was 2003 World Target Champion, and in fact the first person in the world to beat 1400 points in competition - the 4 minute mile of archery.