Today’s winds were by far the strongest we have encountered this year; the forecast was for 25 mph with 35 mph gusts, and this turned out to be correct. Unfortunately, this unrelenting wind was also regularly veering from south to east, which made for some very challenging and frustrating shooting.
Overall scores were generally lower, due mostly to a greater number of 8’s, 7’s, and even a few 6’s. Some of the 20-minute details included longer periods of those 35 mph gusts, and attempting to ‘wait them out’ risked running out of time. Consequently, many shooters were forced to release shots while the flags were reacting in ways which were very difficult to interpret. All of my 8’s were to the right of centre – despite the POA being on either the 7 or 8 rings to the left!
Of the seventeen competitors, at least five managed to get the better of the wind – Dave, Alistair, Mike, Allan, and Gary produced some truly outstanding scores in extremely demanding conditions. Mark too would have up there with them, but for one unaccountably wayward pellet which nicked the edge of a scoring box – thereby depriving him of 7 points.
The rest of us had to be content with rather less impressive scores, the overall averages for the three cards were lower than those achieved in the previous two matches – 236. 236, and 237. However, the standard of BR shooting continues to improve at Dartmoor, and securing a place at this year’s final certainly can’t be taken for granted.
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