An unseasonably warm evening for the Halloween ping shoot this year saw 18 archers plus spectators arrive at Sywell in the pitch dark to take part. Four targets were laid flat on the ground and illuminated pumpkins were set on the gold of each one.
The rules were, as usual, made up more or less as we went along. This year they ended up as normal five zone scoring with a direct hit of a pumpkin counting as 10. Random ghosts witches and pumpkins were scattered on the ground between the targets also counting as 10. Grass counted as zero. Targets were about 30-40 yards from the shooting line.
It was a very starry night so we had plenty of reference points for aiming. To level the playing field even more between experienced archers and beginners glow sticks were attached to all arrows to completely remove ballistic integrity.
Most arrows, as usual, scored zero. Only twenty arrows actually landed on the targets all evening. Not a single pumpkin, witch or ghost got injured in the process, although several pumpkins did have lucky escapes.
After a break for drinks and snacks we returned to the field to shoot a volley: All archers shooting in unison to voice commands. This didn’t make any difference to the final scores, and resulted in only one additional archer (George) actually hitting anything.
Prizes were awarded as follows.
Junior Lady: Hazel Dalley
Junior Gent: Toby MacFarland
Senior lady: Karen Wilkins
Senior Gent: Paul Hopkins (That wasn’t the highest score but everyone thought I must have cheated)
Thanks to everyone who helped set up and pack away afterwards and especially to Lou for the photos & refreshments and George (Genny) Bond for keeping the lights on – well, most of the time.
