Debs provides us with an update on what she has been doing since her grant.
As the indoor season has come to a close, and the outdoor season is gaining momentum, I felt it right that I give you a further update on how I’ve been getting on.
I remain beyond grateful for the PSE Dominator Duo that you supported me to get. I’ve just increased my draw weight for the first time since getting it, so I am now pulling around 43lbs. In my last brief update to you I had just attended the Chester Indoor Tournament. The Saturday didn’t go as hoped but after some equipment maintenance I moved onto the Sunday competition with a hopeful optimism. On the Sunday, although we were shooting as a club team, they were also awarding Individual scores. Somehow, I still can’t believe it myself, I managed to set a new PB for the Portsmouth round of 564, an increase of 8 points!! This score earned me the place of 3rd Lady Compound out of 12 archers. I was, and still am, very proud of this achievement.
The following week I attended the Deer Park Archers Inclusion Shoot 2024 in Balcarras School and it was lovely to see some of you there. I didn’t achieve my best score, but I learn a lot about the impact of travelling and fatigue on my shooting. I was pleased to come away with a gold medal from this shoot, but it was more of a positive in what I learnt.
I am a strong believer in honouring my commitments, so after the DPA shoot I spent a week resting up before attending the Corus Deeside indoor shoot on the 18th February, which also doubled as the NWAS Indoor Championships 2024. This again was a really big learning curve for me. Had I not rested the week prior I don’t anticipate I would have been able to complete this, but with a positive mindset, some self-belief and all possible techniques to dampen down the auditory sensory overload I was experiencing, I came away from the day with a new P.B (now increased to 566 on a Portsmouth round) and with the award of NWAS Indoor Champion Lady Compound 2024.
Perhaps a gluten for punishment, or just on a quest to experience as much of this new sport that I can, Saturday 24th February myself and my ever-faithful agent Sabrina, took a road trip from North Wales over to Derwent Bowmen to shoot as a visitor in the Derbyshire Indoor Championships. It continues to amaze me how helpful and welcoming the archery community are. We were grateful to be part of such an enjoyable day having travelled through all 4 seasons of weather to reach our destination. Not a P.B scoring performance, but a good consolidation overall and the trip was made even more worthwhile as I later learnt I earned the gold medals for Visitor Senior Woman Compound and Senior Women Compound for the Double Portsmouth round. This weekend didn’t end there though, and not wanting to let people down Sunday 25thI again left North Wales in the early hours of the morning and travelled to Preston College for the Lancashire Indoor Championships. On reflection, I shouldn’t have, I had done too much, and my fatigue meant I was making some avoidable errors. I should have retired but dug deep and completed my second Double Portsmouth of the weekend. My score wasn’t one I was pleased with, but I did come away with another medal to add to my growing collection, Visitor Compound Women Champion.
This is where I really took a step back, considered my health and took a sensible approach, realising I needed to stop being stubborn and start admitting when things were getting too much. I withdrew from Morecambe Bay Wet Warwick shoot on 9th March. Not something I wanted to do, but something I needed to do.
My final competition of the 23/24 Indoor Season saw us make one final journey on the dark winter mornings, and on 17th March I shot in the Wigan & Orrell Portsmouth. The score that day was a disappointing end to the Indoor season, it just wasn’t my day but still proud to achieve 2ndplace overall.
So that was my 2023/24 Indoor Season final round up. It’s been 6 months of challenges, new equipment, self-belief, some low points and some real high points, but more than anything, every time I pick up my new bow I can honestly say it’s another step up on the never-ending learning curve that I now find myself on.
Archery has brought me so much since I became part of Clwyd Archers in October 2022 and I can’t wait to see what else it has instore for me.