The Archery part of the Senior Games is shot on Friday 6/10/11 for ages 65 and up, and on Saturday 6/11/11 for ages 50 to 64. Friday on Davis Field was a day like you dream about for an outdoor shoot. It was warm, but not to hot. It was overcast so you didn't cook. And the wind was just enough to keep you feeling the cooling breeze, but not so strong it affected your shot badly. Shooting began at 10:00 am. You have 5 minutes to shoot each end of 6 arrows. We started out at 60 yards shooting two rounds of practice followed by 5 scoring ends of 6 arrows each for a total of 30 arrows and a possible score of 300 points. Then we had a 15 minute break, followed by the same thing at 50 yards, with no practice ends. Then we had a 30 minute break, followed by shooting are last 30 arrows at a distance of 40 yards. They had large coolers of ice water, which were very much appreciated. You just couldn't have asked for a better day. The wind seemed to calm down a little as the day went on, which made the most difficult distance of 60 yards probably affected the most by wind. In all the years I have competed outdoors, this day was a 10. The people who ran the shoot were the same from previous years and did a super job. The only possible way they could have improved the shoot is to have all the shooters shoot the same day. The problem is, there are more shooters than the venue can accommodate all at once. Thank You Beryl, Mike and company, and see you next year.
The targets sit on a stand (above) and are moved for each distance to be shot. The rope and tent peg in Mike's hand, is pounded into the ground, to keep the wind from blowing the target over
The Coylage RULES AGAIN - IT'S A TWO PEAT - LIFE IS GOOD !
Creekwood's Ron Coyle had a Two peat. For the second shoot in a row he shot the highest score of all the people there. He obviously took the GOLD in his age class. Ron shot the best score of the entire event, ending up with a 868 out of a perfect 900. He had 33 "X's", and 66 10's out of 90 arrows. "X's" are also counted as 10's. We are so proud of him representing Creekwood, and when you add to that, he is one of my good friends, it makes it even more special. The picture above is his last 6 arrows at 40 yards. The woodchucks won't have a chance this summer, if he goes out.
This picture of Ron was taken another day. The Elite hat, shirt and bow he shoots makes him smile like he does. At this shoot he shot his GT500, Nano's with two fletch and a very calm 5" between his ears.
LIFE IS GOOD !
I took a SILVER in my age class, and the picture above is our last 12 arrows (OJ & I) shot at 40 yards.
In the picture above are my long time friends, Dave Benty (My Hero) on the left and Ed Happ, in the center from Ed Happs Archery in Corfu, NY. Ed took a BRONZE in his age bracket. LIFE IS GOOD !
This is my shooting partner on target # 9, OJ. He is from Endicott, NY and was there with his bride who was routing him on. Both OJ and I never went into the strawberry patch for the entire 40 yard distance. OJ took a BRONZE in his age bracket. Good job bud.
The shooters from Creekwood on Friday, were Ron Coyle, Ben Adams, Joe Georgi (aboveCenter), Dave Benty and Dick Reuter. The shooters on Saturday from Creekwood that I know of, and I don't know how they did yet are Steve VanZile and Dave Reese.
To explain the lemonade patch above, it goes like this. The white two outside rings score 1 and 2 points. The next two black rings (coal mine) score 3 and 4 points. The next two blue rings (blueberry patch) score 5 and 6 points. The next two red rings (strawberry patch) score 7 and 8 points. The two center yellow rings (lemonade) score 9 and 10 points. The very center faint black circle line is the "X" circle (which are used as a tie breaker) and in the center of that is a real small "x" which we call the spider. If you kill the spider, your arrow is in the middle of dead center.