The 3D Champs this year were held at Osmaston Park near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Fairly close to home for me and Kay so we decided to drive home in the evening and not camp over.
I was a bit more prepared for the 3Ds after doing the Scottish Champs earlier in the year, still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect though as there are 3 courses at the 3Ds. As expected, me and Kay wouldn’t be shooting together for this one…not even close…completely different courses. We arrived just after 8am on Saturday morning and got parked fairly close to the admin area. We wandered down to get booked in and grab some food before the queues became any longer. The rest of Artemis turned up while we were booking in and I took delivery of my artemis T-Shirt and fleece. Thankfully the weather was warm enough not to require a fleece and I decided to head out in my new orange t-shirt.
Day 1
After the usual morning briefing, we divided up into the different couse groups and headed out onto the courses. I was on the A course and Kay would be on the C course. The A course was walked out first, and there was a very good reason for this….A course was bloody miles away!
After arriving at the peg we didn’t have too long to wait before things got underway, mainly due to the long walk out we had compared to everyone else. The woodland was really nice and had a remarkable relaxed feel to it, despite the fact that there was no smoking allowed. The targets, while not long distances were remarkably well placed which made them very deceptive. I started out fairly well and did a lot better than I expected, although all I had to go on as far as a champs course was concerned was Scotland. The only downside to the A course was the amount of pigs as targets. Towards the end of the day things were getting a little boring and repetitive.
At the end of the day I finished with a score of 484 and only 2 blanks. Compared tomy first day in Scotland, this was an excellent performance and I was very happy with it. To find out how I compared with everyone else would have to wait till the next morning.
After we packed up we were invited for a meal with the rest of the Artemis Archers, the pub we stopped at was called the Rose and Crown and is located on the A52 in a litlle village called Brailsford. I wasn’t driving, so I enjoyed a few beers with my meal while dissecting the course and the days performance.
We arrived nice and early for the second day. I was full of confidence, although still a little nervous and unsure of how I’d done the day before. We made our way down to the admin area to book in and check out the standings after day 1. It wasn’t until I tried to find my name on the results sheet that I realised how many people were shooting in my class. I normlly look for my name quite close to the bottom of the list and hope I’m not at the bottom. I was pleasantly surprised. while I still wasn’t in the top 10, and didn’t expect to be. I wasn’t in the bottom 10 either! Out of a total of 87 people shooting my style I was 65th. A dramatic improvement over the Scottish Champs.
As always, I had a look at the result to see how Kay had done. I never know whether or not to do this as she doesn’t really like to know how she’s doing. I was pleased to find her name at the top of the list in first place in her class. Now I just had to figure out if I should tell her or not. After several questions about how she’d done and if she’d done ok I decided to tell her and as usual she didn’t believe me! It was just as well I decided to tell her really, as everyone that she spoke to or that knew her were congratulating her, so she’d have found out in the end anyways.
Feeling a lot happier after seeing the result, we went for a wander around some of the trade stands that were there and I saw something that caught my eye. More about that in a later post! 
For the second day, I would be shooting the B course and Kay would be shooting the A course that I’d shot the previous day. The B course was a lot closer than the A course so we had a lot shorter walk out which suited me fine! I was a little more prepared for this second day and a lot less nervous!
The group I was in on the second day wasn’t as good as Day 1. We also had 6 people on the peg which seemed a little odd to me as it’s usually 5 and 4 of them seemed to know each other and had shot together the previous day. They also decided to pick the shooting order on the first peg and stick to it all day. Something else I’m not fond of, especially as I was shooting last all day!
The B Course was slightly better than the A course, the targets were more varied and there were some longer distance shots. My only gripe would be the catering. Drinks and food were expensive and they ran out of water mid-afternoon. I performed about the same as day one. My scores had been pretty consistent over the 40 targets, averaging about 240 per 20 targets. I ended the second day with a score of 474, dropping only 10 points from day 1 on what I would consider a harder course. I await the full results to find out where I finished in relation to everyone else and to see if I kept my place overall.
Kay was a different story, although there was a slight scoring mix up and she didn’t figure in the results anywhere the first time they were announced. She had actually won her class.
no comment untill now