haha so blablabla me n dan arrived at the top secret hidden location jurong camp after making *ahem* a few wrong turns here n there. we walked into the gate just in time to see mr kapitan and neo ji
anyway on to the vast green expanse of grass which we call the shooting area, with the excellently marked lanes, shooting lines, waiting lines and equipment lines, and the well placed 30m target boards that actually seemed a LITTLE nearer on the 16th of December 2006. well, competition stress makes u see things.
things proceeded on time, and with the incessant hurrying of the organisers, final registration, checking of lane assignment, equipment check took place...and by this time many archers up and down the field were wondering exactly how stressed they were for this competition. fortuanately mr ken e. ang our coach decided caution was the better road to take and requested the judges check the distance.
and apparently the decisive force which most of us guys (bloody ongnardo) will be joining next year can calculate artillery shell trajectories, missile strikes and bomb drops with excllent precision...but is unable to measure a distance of 3000cm on a field. the distance which our koach and the judges measured was a grand 21.346203474947m.
n so after 30 mins of degenerative waiting, the organisers announced through the speakers which only half the field could hear that help of the archers were needed to move the target boards the remaining 8.653796525m to achieve the accurate distance of 30.00000000m that we were supposed to shoot. certain archers interpreted the request as directed to homo sapiens bearing the XY chromosome only, and thus busied themselves nonetheless with eliminating the population of flying bloodsucking insects which had peacefully inhabited the fields prior to this event.
and thus after 15 mins of minute adjustments to make sure the distance was really 30.00000m, the organisers kindly gave another 10 mins of break before the sighters began. meanwhile, MeN with the grey army shirts began to run up and down the lanes, pegging down lines and shifting the 50m boards back as well.
n so began the competition. after the sighters, the organisers announced they had come up with a fUnKy new shooting system, where detail 1 would shoot 1 end, followed by detail 2 which would shoot 2 ends, followed by detail 1 which would shoot 2 ends, n so on. this resulted in MaNly long breaks in between shooting, in which certain competitors promptly decided to fall asleep.
my time between ends was divided between sitting beside dan, jinxing hamsey with my presence from behind, talking to kangrui who seemed to have made new zhar bor frens, and watching annalyn own at the far end of the field. as annalyn mentioned, high stakes blackjack was also played, which ended up with marcus losing badly to xtopher.
the kaptain kindly offered halfway thru the first round to bring our scoreboards to the judges stand for us. however after the first round ended, i looked for that tall imposing figure without success. maybe cos the sky was getting darker. anyway, as the organisers decided to have a sudden attack of no mercy they announced the second round would get underway straight away. and thus i arrived back at my lane just as the 2 whistles were blown. n nearly slipped on the %$#^@!@%&^#$ mud.
and as mentioned above, in line with predictions made by many including our wise seniors and the koach, dark cumulonimbus clouds began to cover the blue sky, with the hapless fluffy cumulus clouds disappearing into thin air. me n dan thus began a bet on when it would start raining. in the end only dan bet bcos i forgot to cast mine after my end was over. anyway he was wrong.
blablabla and the shooting went on, with a pause after the 4th end as the droplets of water started to assault the field. the SAF was prepared, and white trash bags were handed out for us to shelter the scoreboards when we went to score. however, many competitors turned out to be more technologically advanced and employed the hi-tech device known as the umbrella.
lunch was excellent, but i lost the bet with daniel about wad it wud be =( after lunch, me n dan took off in search of the toilets. the SAF had decisively decided to put "under renovation" signs on the toilets nearest to the canteen. furthermore, me n dan had saw a sign saying "toilets, block 301". thus began our ardous trek around the camp, until we discovered the canteen was actually situated in block 301, n the signs had been taken off -.-
so we arrived back at the field, only to find out that the results were still not out yet, due to the unforeseeable lack of a printer. kangrui suggested they announce the results out, which was met with much unenthusiasm from the rest of the team. the rj men thus decided to sit under the chin up bar and continue high stakes blackjack. meanwhile, ongnardo called and decided to have a nice long chat with the standard men. hwee was passed the phone later on but seem repulsed by the jambi man's voice. thus the conversation continued on until mr neo demanded his phone back on the grounds of an exploded phone bill.
well, and of course the day wouldn't be complete without more rain. (but cant be compared to day 2 lol) we ran back to take shelter under the canvas, where higher-stakes-blackjack was played between koach ken and kaptain kaswin, with the stakes being 3 seconds of pinching. the battles were fought long and hard, and tho the kaptain put up a brave fight, he was soon subject to the torturous fingers of the evil koach. most of us watched the highly entertaining scene, while kangrui busied himself with shen diao xia lv, and dan fell aslp on his bowcase.
after the blackjack was called to a stop, a sudden realisation hit us that annalyn n hwee had gone off to check the scores and were thus probably stranded at the judge's table. the kaptain again bravely volunteered to go fetch them. however, he forgot that he cudnt possibly fit under the umbrella along with 2 girls, and so i sacrificed daniel's slippers and set out to rescue the kaptain.
to cut a long story short, the organisers decided that enough was enough and cancelled the team event, with team placings being taken by totalling the individual scores. annalyn owned with 2nd place, and the results have already been posted so i shant repeat them now.
one more time i would like to thank:
koach ken for the advice, encouragment, and entertainment
kimberly, yu qin, heidi, and mei ling for coming down specially to suppport
marcus, chris n kaswin for making the journey to the west, skipping lunch, and all the support
the Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association for the excellent venue and organisation
Mighty Minds for the street directory, the essential guide to locating the top secret base in Jurong
Angel Playing cards for blackjack equipment
Stanley Powerlock measuring tape for providing the exact 30.0000m shooting distance
n all the archery equipment manufacturers blablabla.
thus concludes SAFSA Day 1, Standard Class Category (again)
