Yeah, theres this competition organized by our good friends from PPCC Archery. Ongnardo, Hwee Juin and Mingwei took part in it. It was 2 rounds 6 ends of 6 arrows from 30m with 122cm face. Heres the results:
Ongnardo - 612, 14th
Hwee Juin - 547, 14th
Mingwei - 577, 7th
Well, didnt shoot very well and it was quite a competitive shoot. The team was ranked 9th and didnt shoot for the team event. Well, we'll do better next time!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
SAFRA Indoor
Morale |>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>
Fun |>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>
Excitement |>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>
The Singapore Armed Forces Recreation Association or otherwise known as SAFRA has organized an indoor archery competition. Well, this should be the first indoor competition for most people, where the target face is man small even as the distance is an easy 18m. Nothing much to prepare for this day since we have been shooting at the indoor range ever since we last shot at NJC soccer field. Well, shooting in air-con comfort is always different from the radiation from the hot sun, as the increased heat and humidity would affect the properties of the limbs (tokking kok here). Indoor has always been more erm sort of exciting where there is cut-throat competition as differences between archers are only a few points which translate to a few centimeters apart. In short, indoor is the time when mental plays a really key role.
Okay, competition day itself was very pumped up. People came with really high hopes to achieve something. We arrived at the venue and noticed that some stuff are just not going our way. 1) All the RJ guys are gonna shoot the C or the D board which means the lower boards which means harder to shoot since our guys are rather tall 2) The hall lighting is DAMN SKRUED UP 3) According to Mr. Lim, our in-house fengshui master, the fengshui of the hall is not very good as it promotes fishtailing. Hmm, this is not gonna be a good day after all.
After a really long wait, we finally got to register. The goodie bag is rather man, with the NEW MAN magazine ( 2 issues), a water bottle, Centrum vitamins, some funky drink and a suntanning voucher [to make up for all the time spent training indoor when you would otherwise be in the sun] and of course, the usual NEWater, water made from reverse osmosising crap water. And the waterbottle emblazoned with the safra crest and “safra indoor archery championships 2006” no shirt again. Rawr. After another looong while, its equipment inspection where the judges check that your shorts are of the proper length, your bow can pass through some 122mm hole and whether your arrows are marked, whether your points are sharp enough, whether your arrows are too fat, whether you are too tall for shooting, whether you have cancer or not etc etc.
Well, some time later it’s the real actual event itself for the guys. WHOOOOOOOO! Yeah and we just realized that the hall is really very small and we barely have space to move around without kicking a bow. Sighters round. Yeah, the usual adrenaline rush and sudden realization that you are in an actual competition. My own sighters was horrible with the arrows hitting the entire board indiscriminately. This really does not feel anywhere like the homely and cosy Potong Pasir CC. Howver, no one can have a better sighter round than Dylan who has the privilege of the entire hall looking at him while he shoot his sighters. Apparently someone kicked his bow and caused his sight pin to break just before the sighters and it was a blessing in disguise as he got a new free sight pin.
Sighters was over and I looked around at my board-mates. There was a good mix of people such as a 老教 from Pasir Ris CC, some MAN from HomeTeam NS ( who finally told me what HomeTeam NS is), Kenneth from TP and Ongnardo from RJ. Well, at least theres someone who can tokkok in the form of Kenneth. At the same time also realized that there are many GuaiLan people in TP such as the Indian guy who complained that he “射三个black”. My board wasn’t very different, with one from precc, one from hometeam ns and terence from tp. Sadly there wasn’t a njc detail reunion.
Back to the competition, the scoring rounds has started. The first end for me was rather ok as I shot my average and evaded the FEKOS safely but the scores somehow plummeted in the proceeding ends as the scores fluctuate up and down. Haizz, was rather demoralized by this and tried to relax somehow. Looking around Aaron seems to be doing fine but everyone else really did not shoot very well that round with all of us not hitting our averages. Guess fengshui there is really not good.
The round continues and I managed to pull back some with several good ends. Was quite pleased that I did not screw up totally. The rounds this time went very fast as there was only one detail and one time to retrieve arrows which makes the ends go very fast. Nevetheless, the second round came and we shot another round. This time my round started pretty well but totally died somewhere along the middle. It somehow cancels out and both rounds were around the same. Nothing seemed to improve for the rest as we barely met our average. Something is really wrong here. Lack of mental preparations, maybe, need to really work on it to prepare for later competitions.
Some interesting observations… NJ seems to be trained to really take their time to shoot as we see them taking really long to aim and anchor. Azrin was also shooting in a manly way, I noticed. The guys round soon ended and yeah, most of us did not really meet our average…
The girls then took over with the girls standards round. aas decided that it was time to enforce the fita rules with regard to attire.
After an expensive and not-worth-it lunch we went back to watch the girls shoot. It was quite ok but some really feels the stress and jitters of an indoor competition, the tense atmosphere and the skrued up lighting. Mr. Ang was really quite busy walking up and down, encouraging and correcting. In the end they performed rather ok I guess, even with all those angst and pressure. Guess what. There were standard men shooting as well. Because there want enough space in the previous two rounds. interesting.
Another long wait ensues as we angst and angst endlessly about our shooting that day. Meanwhile, Mr. Ang our coach was shooting and we decided t watch him and compatriots Mr. Sew shoot. Very entertaining indeed. Soon after, the results were released and Tan Jian Hua Aaron was awarded the first prize. Congratulations! Team seedings for the guys were not very encouraging as well as RJ teams have to meet each other right at the first round. After some more angst, the girls’ results were also released. Much angst soon ensued with all those 4th placings and stuff, and the girls team being seeded to play with favourites.
We decided to leave soon after as there is still another day of team event to prepare for. Some of us went to Simei BK where there is totally no one and we had all the space to ourselves. Yeah, toked a lot of kok and tried to get pumped up for the follwing day. The day of angst soon ended as we made our way home in various ways and means…
lynette decided that watching me eat a double whopper was very interesting/amusing.
Day 2. Team Event. Here’s a brief introduction to the teams from RJ – Team CAO (Chris, Aaron, Ongnardo), Team MAD (Marcus, Aswin, Dylan), Team ASD (Azrin, Sirui, Daniel), Team LeMoN (Lynette, Mann Shing, Natalie) and Team PMS (Pan jinglin, Mingwei and Su Mae). (I.e. rj-a, rj-b, rj-c etc etc)
Whenever they called for team rj-c more or less all the rj archers looked up.
Seeding SUCKS. It seems that they have decided to merge the guys and girls standard team events. (we were not amused) On one side of the table we see RJ teams playing with each other all the way to the semis. This seriously does not look good at all. We quickly had a hasty breakfast with fried bee hoon and stuff and after a really long wait from 10am – 1pm, our team event finally starts. For the first time ever, there was actually sighters for team event and yeah, we made full chance to sight properly. Sighters round was actually our best end though. The first round of 1/32 finals started that pits team ASD with some PSRC team. They shot one end and the round was called off and everyone had another sighters round.
Finally they had some sense to actually split up the guys and girls teams. The girls teams shot first and it was really impressive with team PMS beating team TP which were actually higher in terms of seeding. In the semi-finals, team PMS also managed to beat team ACS who where actually the top seeds after the individual rounds and team LeMoN also beat an in-form TP team by a narrow margin. It was an all-RJ finals and of course, RJ was the winner. The girls team event seriously seems lacking in terms of volume and noise as the atmosphere was icy and all is silent. (Juz a comment, no harm intended).
I demonstrated the domino effect by accidentally tripping over one of the many bows in a (very long) row of bows. Meanwhile, mr n and company decided that some chem revision was in order and promptly drew 2,4-DNPH on a conveniently available whiteboard.
The guys team didn’t have such a fine scenario however, the first round was MAD vs ASD and TP v TP and the winner of the former will play against the MaNly Benny team and the winner of the latter will play against team CAO CAO. Eventually, team MAD went through and the TP team with the mandarin-speaking Indian went through as well.
In the quarters, team ASD managed to beat team TP with a rather dangerous margin, nt very good… On the other side however, team MAD seems to be trying to be GuaiLan by doing all sorts of funny stuff while playing against the Manly benny team.
Well, we now go on to the semis where we somehow manage to pick up and triumph against our arch-rival NJ who was the only other JC in the competition ( A div match??), also by a dangerous margin. Team event is really quite MAN as it is really the time to see whether your form can still remain there under great pressure.
The njc archers had truly captured the spirit of the shoot. They declared that the scores didn’t matter as they were just shooting for the fun of it. And they meant it. Pei fu.
Finally, it’s the finals. Manly Benny’s team against team CAO CAO. Fun! At the end of the day, it was a confrontation between the rivaling teams – RJ and TP. We gained a lead in our very first end as we shot impressively. However, we failed to keep the momentum and did not do as well in the next 2 ends and finally it boils down to the last end. There were ruptures of cheers all the time, after every shot. Yeah, this really is the atmosphere of the TEAM EVENT. The first shooter Aaron went in and slotted 2 arrows quickly, chris following up next, and I finally went in for the last 2 arrows of the day. First one, nt very good, last arrow of the day, must make it good. Yeah finally shot the final one which concludes our SAFRA campaign.
The scores were calculated and it was 189 – 176, well well, we lost to a better opponent.
and so the shoot ended. We returned to the squash court where we had set up camp and took down our bows and packed up. Then it was time for prize presentation. Then before we knew it, prize presentation was over and so was SAFRA indoor 2006. We helped clean up, pulling the tape from the floor and took photos on stage with the banner. That done, we adjourned to tampines mall’s café cartel for dinner.
Dinner was a whole new experience (for want of something better to say). At café cartel, we piled our bags in a corner and proceeded to rearrange the tables to our preference. The people inside the restaurant were not amused. They complained that we were banging the glass. Whoops. but whatever. from one end of the table, we (Ongnardo Aaron Sirui Daniel) ordered a fried platter for 5 and a Tropicana BOMB. ← as stated in the menu. The food came in this order: everyone else’s food, then the Tropicana bomb (its ice cream) then the fried platter. Fantastic. at the other table they had decided that it was a good idea to play zhong ji mi ma. To cut a long story short, the unwitting victims of jinglin’s handiwork were jinglin, chris and mingwei.
And so, when we decided that we had tormented the staff of café cartel enough, we decided that it was time to go. And we went.
As usual, we would like to thank:
Mr winston hodge (its [still] a formality)
Mr Francis Chong and Mr Wong Tze Yang, our fantastic teachers in charge
Hoyt, easton, samick, cartel, shibuya, win and win, for the equipment that we have, and the eye candy that isnt ours
our parents, for their support
SAFRA, for the chance to compete
Kaptain K, for the inspiration
Kim, Annalyn and Daryl, for coming to support us
Koach Ken, for all the time spent correcting our form and training and in other words for being our koach and putting up with all our nonsense.
and anyone else who has helped us in one way or another
--
written by Ongnardo & Aaron
Fun |>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>
Excitement |>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>>|>>>>
The Singapore Armed Forces Recreation Association or otherwise known as SAFRA has organized an indoor archery competition. Well, this should be the first indoor competition for most people, where the target face is man small even as the distance is an easy 18m. Nothing much to prepare for this day since we have been shooting at the indoor range ever since we last shot at NJC soccer field. Well, shooting in air-con comfort is always different from the radiation from the hot sun, as the increased heat and humidity would affect the properties of the limbs (tokking kok here). Indoor has always been more erm sort of exciting where there is cut-throat competition as differences between archers are only a few points which translate to a few centimeters apart. In short, indoor is the time when mental plays a really key role.
Okay, competition day itself was very pumped up. People came with really high hopes to achieve something. We arrived at the venue and noticed that some stuff are just not going our way. 1) All the RJ guys are gonna shoot the C or the D board which means the lower boards which means harder to shoot since our guys are rather tall 2) The hall lighting is DAMN SKRUED UP 3) According to Mr. Lim, our in-house fengshui master, the fengshui of the hall is not very good as it promotes fishtailing. Hmm, this is not gonna be a good day after all.
After a really long wait, we finally got to register. The goodie bag is rather man, with the NEW MAN magazine ( 2 issues), a water bottle, Centrum vitamins, some funky drink and a suntanning voucher [to make up for all the time spent training indoor when you would otherwise be in the sun] and of course, the usual NEWater, water made from reverse osmosising crap water. And the waterbottle emblazoned with the safra crest and “safra indoor archery championships 2006” no shirt again. Rawr. After another looong while, its equipment inspection where the judges check that your shorts are of the proper length, your bow can pass through some 122mm hole and whether your arrows are marked, whether your points are sharp enough, whether your arrows are too fat, whether you are too tall for shooting, whether you have cancer or not etc etc.
Well, some time later it’s the real actual event itself for the guys. WHOOOOOOOO! Yeah and we just realized that the hall is really very small and we barely have space to move around without kicking a bow. Sighters round. Yeah, the usual adrenaline rush and sudden realization that you are in an actual competition. My own sighters was horrible with the arrows hitting the entire board indiscriminately. This really does not feel anywhere like the homely and cosy Potong Pasir CC. Howver, no one can have a better sighter round than Dylan who has the privilege of the entire hall looking at him while he shoot his sighters. Apparently someone kicked his bow and caused his sight pin to break just before the sighters and it was a blessing in disguise as he got a new free sight pin.
Sighters was over and I looked around at my board-mates. There was a good mix of people such as a 老教 from Pasir Ris CC, some MAN from HomeTeam NS ( who finally told me what HomeTeam NS is), Kenneth from TP and Ongnardo from RJ. Well, at least theres someone who can tokkok in the form of Kenneth. At the same time also realized that there are many GuaiLan people in TP such as the Indian guy who complained that he “射三个black”. My board wasn’t very different, with one from precc, one from hometeam ns and terence from tp. Sadly there wasn’t a njc detail reunion.
Back to the competition, the scoring rounds has started. The first end for me was rather ok as I shot my average and evaded the FEKOS safely but the scores somehow plummeted in the proceeding ends as the scores fluctuate up and down. Haizz, was rather demoralized by this and tried to relax somehow. Looking around Aaron seems to be doing fine but everyone else really did not shoot very well that round with all of us not hitting our averages. Guess fengshui there is really not good.
The round continues and I managed to pull back some with several good ends. Was quite pleased that I did not screw up totally. The rounds this time went very fast as there was only one detail and one time to retrieve arrows which makes the ends go very fast. Nevetheless, the second round came and we shot another round. This time my round started pretty well but totally died somewhere along the middle. It somehow cancels out and both rounds were around the same. Nothing seemed to improve for the rest as we barely met our average. Something is really wrong here. Lack of mental preparations, maybe, need to really work on it to prepare for later competitions.
Some interesting observations… NJ seems to be trained to really take their time to shoot as we see them taking really long to aim and anchor. Azrin was also shooting in a manly way, I noticed. The guys round soon ended and yeah, most of us did not really meet our average…
The girls then took over with the girls standards round. aas decided that it was time to enforce the fita rules with regard to attire.
After an expensive and not-worth-it lunch we went back to watch the girls shoot. It was quite ok but some really feels the stress and jitters of an indoor competition, the tense atmosphere and the skrued up lighting. Mr. Ang was really quite busy walking up and down, encouraging and correcting. In the end they performed rather ok I guess, even with all those angst and pressure. Guess what. There were standard men shooting as well. Because there want enough space in the previous two rounds. interesting.
Another long wait ensues as we angst and angst endlessly about our shooting that day. Meanwhile, Mr. Ang our coach was shooting and we decided t watch him and compatriots Mr. Sew shoot. Very entertaining indeed. Soon after, the results were released and Tan Jian Hua Aaron was awarded the first prize. Congratulations! Team seedings for the guys were not very encouraging as well as RJ teams have to meet each other right at the first round. After some more angst, the girls’ results were also released. Much angst soon ensued with all those 4th placings and stuff, and the girls team being seeded to play with favourites.
We decided to leave soon after as there is still another day of team event to prepare for. Some of us went to Simei BK where there is totally no one and we had all the space to ourselves. Yeah, toked a lot of kok and tried to get pumped up for the follwing day. The day of angst soon ended as we made our way home in various ways and means…
lynette decided that watching me eat a double whopper was very interesting/amusing.
Day 2. Team Event. Here’s a brief introduction to the teams from RJ – Team CAO (Chris, Aaron, Ongnardo), Team MAD (Marcus, Aswin, Dylan), Team ASD (Azrin, Sirui, Daniel), Team LeMoN (Lynette, Mann Shing, Natalie) and Team PMS (Pan jinglin, Mingwei and Su Mae). (I.e. rj-a, rj-b, rj-c etc etc)
Whenever they called for team rj-c more or less all the rj archers looked up.
Seeding SUCKS. It seems that they have decided to merge the guys and girls standard team events. (we were not amused) On one side of the table we see RJ teams playing with each other all the way to the semis. This seriously does not look good at all. We quickly had a hasty breakfast with fried bee hoon and stuff and after a really long wait from 10am – 1pm, our team event finally starts. For the first time ever, there was actually sighters for team event and yeah, we made full chance to sight properly. Sighters round was actually our best end though. The first round of 1/32 finals started that pits team ASD with some PSRC team. They shot one end and the round was called off and everyone had another sighters round.
Finally they had some sense to actually split up the guys and girls teams. The girls teams shot first and it was really impressive with team PMS beating team TP which were actually higher in terms of seeding. In the semi-finals, team PMS also managed to beat team ACS who where actually the top seeds after the individual rounds and team LeMoN also beat an in-form TP team by a narrow margin. It was an all-RJ finals and of course, RJ was the winner. The girls team event seriously seems lacking in terms of volume and noise as the atmosphere was icy and all is silent. (Juz a comment, no harm intended).
I demonstrated the domino effect by accidentally tripping over one of the many bows in a (very long) row of bows. Meanwhile, mr n and company decided that some chem revision was in order and promptly drew 2,4-DNPH on a conveniently available whiteboard.
The guys team didn’t have such a fine scenario however, the first round was MAD vs ASD and TP v TP and the winner of the former will play against the MaNly Benny team and the winner of the latter will play against team CAO CAO. Eventually, team MAD went through and the TP team with the mandarin-speaking Indian went through as well.
In the quarters, team ASD managed to beat team TP with a rather dangerous margin, nt very good… On the other side however, team MAD seems to be trying to be GuaiLan by doing all sorts of funny stuff while playing against the Manly benny team.
Well, we now go on to the semis where we somehow manage to pick up and triumph against our arch-rival NJ who was the only other JC in the competition ( A div match??), also by a dangerous margin. Team event is really quite MAN as it is really the time to see whether your form can still remain there under great pressure.
The njc archers had truly captured the spirit of the shoot. They declared that the scores didn’t matter as they were just shooting for the fun of it. And they meant it. Pei fu.
Finally, it’s the finals. Manly Benny’s team against team CAO CAO. Fun! At the end of the day, it was a confrontation between the rivaling teams – RJ and TP. We gained a lead in our very first end as we shot impressively. However, we failed to keep the momentum and did not do as well in the next 2 ends and finally it boils down to the last end. There were ruptures of cheers all the time, after every shot. Yeah, this really is the atmosphere of the TEAM EVENT. The first shooter Aaron went in and slotted 2 arrows quickly, chris following up next, and I finally went in for the last 2 arrows of the day. First one, nt very good, last arrow of the day, must make it good. Yeah finally shot the final one which concludes our SAFRA campaign.
The scores were calculated and it was 189 – 176, well well, we lost to a better opponent.
and so the shoot ended. We returned to the squash court where we had set up camp and took down our bows and packed up. Then it was time for prize presentation. Then before we knew it, prize presentation was over and so was SAFRA indoor 2006. We helped clean up, pulling the tape from the floor and took photos on stage with the banner. That done, we adjourned to tampines mall’s café cartel for dinner.
Dinner was a whole new experience (for want of something better to say). At café cartel, we piled our bags in a corner and proceeded to rearrange the tables to our preference. The people inside the restaurant were not amused. They complained that we were banging the glass. Whoops. but whatever. from one end of the table, we (Ongnardo Aaron Sirui Daniel) ordered a fried platter for 5 and a Tropicana BOMB. ← as stated in the menu. The food came in this order: everyone else’s food, then the Tropicana bomb (its ice cream) then the fried platter. Fantastic. at the other table they had decided that it was a good idea to play zhong ji mi ma. To cut a long story short, the unwitting victims of jinglin’s handiwork were jinglin, chris and mingwei.
And so, when we decided that we had tormented the staff of café cartel enough, we decided that it was time to go. And we went.
As usual, we would like to thank:
Mr winston hodge (its [still] a formality)
Mr Francis Chong and Mr Wong Tze Yang, our fantastic teachers in charge
Hoyt, easton, samick, cartel, shibuya, win and win, for the equipment that we have, and the eye candy that isnt ours
our parents, for their support
SAFRA, for the chance to compete
Kaptain K, for the inspiration
Kim, Annalyn and Daryl, for coming to support us
Koach Ken, for all the time spent correcting our form and training and in other words for being our koach and putting up with all our nonsense.
and anyone else who has helped us in one way or another
--
written by Ongnardo & Aaron
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Thanks Archers!
Heya, thanks for the teachers' day gift! I like both the card and the pen. I supposed the Parker pen especially the logo represents the arrow and the card is the target board. What a thoughtful idea! Maybe you can give me a bow next time. Ha....
All the best for your exams. Take good care of your health and God bless!
Friday, September 01, 2006
oh happy day (:
hellooo thank you all so much for the numerous smses and for the sweet little notes in the little notebook (: i can't stop flipping thru and reading them all again and again (: and i heart you muchly kim!
big big <3s to my dearests (anticlockwise) kim ken daryl kang sueling jiahao amelia amy -- 'twas such a fun lunch and i love all the presents!! but y'know, i love you guys even more.
"and i'm overjoyed and overloved and feeling lucky," says jason mraz, who actually wrote that to describe my current mood for me heee (:
big big <3s to my dearests (anticlockwise) kim ken daryl kang sueling jiahao amelia amy -- 'twas such a fun lunch and i love all the presents!! but y'know, i love you guys even more.
"and i'm overjoyed and overloved and feeling lucky," says jason mraz, who actually wrote that to describe my current mood for me heee (:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)