It’s a long drive to Purbeck but that’s all part of the game, if you want new clubs to get involved in the sport you’ve got to show them support, the recent “stay at home” mentality is annoying to say the least, do we not want the sport to grow? Do we not want a national sport we can all be proud of? 100% powered by volunteers, we have got a long way to go to catch up with some sports but staying at home and having a narrow vision for the sport doesn’t help anyone.
A 6 am start and with a 30-minute break we’d be down at Purbeck in 4.5hrs, makes for a long day but at least it ensures Phil gets at least 8hrs sleep!
The ground was pretty amazing, 6 different areas all with different winds, this was going to be a difficult one to get right and judging by some of the scores it looked easy to drop a few double dinks. A walk around the course with the camera was an insight and lesson in reading the wind and left me thinking that this was going to be a classic day of all or nothing, which can make for a frustrating day.
The sun was now beating down as we headed for the plinker, I got the feeling this was going to be a waste of lead but always good to check the zero and what the wind is doing at 55yds.
The answer was it was doing a bit of everything, oh well, time to dig in and just do my best, I needed another good score because Chubby had done a 39 and Andy had dropped 16. I started on Standers again, 4th time this year, I almost feel like writing a letter to the BFTA about it and then I remembered I’m not that kind of prick!
All Hail The Wind
The wind was tough to work out on most of the sections and the buffering on the body was tough to fight in places. I was doing OK as I came out of the woods but I did have a bit of luck on some of the long ones. The next bit did worry me though because it was really exposed and I know for a fact the end of the gun was telling fibs. This section really punished me hard, I missed the long rat and doubled dinked lane 25. I got pushed off target 50, that hasn’t happened in a long time.
The last 3 “bowls” are a bit of a blur, so difficult to work out at times and even harder now the targets are splattered. I did see someone completely miss the plate on target 3, this really surprised me but not as much as the guy shooting.
I was fighting hard for every single target but it felt like poke and hope on a fair few of them due to the wind rather than the distance. I really tried hard but the wind and heat really gave me a hard time but after driving all that way I really need a good one under the belt. I left disappointed and so did Phil, when we set off on this seasons journey we both aimed to get in the top 10 of our grade, we’ve both excelled that but winning my grade would be a nice way to end the season and stop Ian Taylor’s voice saying “why aren’t you improving, it would be the perfect full stop to the end of the season.
