Saturday Morning was the start of the real event.

The groundcrew were well and truly on top of things by the time I arrived.. It was only a little bit frosty, but nowhere near Canberra weather. You will notice that I wasn't about to break out the shorts.

You can tell by the flags that at this point there was no wind. It did look like it was going to be an ideal day for a Competition.

But Melbourne can be like that. Beautiful, warm and alluring one minute, just like those Brazilian women you see on TV during Carnivale in Rio, and then dark, stormy and sometimes quite firey. Still just like those Brazilian women that you on TV during Carnivale in Rio, but after they've caught you rebuilding your Triumph on the living room carpet.

Everything looked well and truly in hand, so I concentrated on keeping out of the way and looking for photo opportunities for entertainment, education and possible blackmail purposes later.

I was hoping to be able to do some wide gigapan style panoramas by either finding a hole in the back fence, or putting the camera over it.

The only hole was right next to a support and the wall was too tall. So no luck there.

Registration got underway pretty quickly. There was a bit of a line up, but Marcus and Erica ran a tight ship. I don't think that they lashed anyone.

There was vegemite on hand to scare the New Zealanders with if the opportunity presented itself.

With the appropriate formalities dispatched with, Jim Park gave the briefing and the show got on the road.

I was hoping that he might deliver it in a Rap style, but I was disappointed.

And thus, a few minutes later the buzzer sounded and the arrows started zipping downrange. Most got there. Note the totally legal Shade which doesn't stop the wind blowing the archers around.

Not that there was any wind at that point.

I was rather disappointed that there were only two competitors from India. Cherukuri Lenin and Shankar Gentela Anand managed to make it. The rest apparently had visa trouble. At least a lot of Kiwi's turned up to give an International flavour.

I think that it was the first scoring end that Jim went up to the butts as soon as the buzzer sounded.

Steve Clifton had thrown the gauntlet down and had started off with a perfect. at 90m. As long as the conditions held out it looked like it might be an entertaining day. There were a few comments from the groundcrew that the weather reports for the next day weren't looking terribly encouraging. It's always more fun to taunt the people who will have to be out in it. 

I didn't care. I could find shelter. Besides, I bought my rain jacket and the camera is relatively water resistant.

I'm lying. I did care. I hate being cold and wet.  But I would still take whatever comfort I could out of knowing that if things got nasty, there was a decent supply of jelly pythons in the clubhouse.

Rachel managed to have the first equipment failure of the day and I saw her out there looking lonely in a field of spotting scopes. She didn't seem to really care.

The day progressed as you'd expect. Lots of arrows, walking back and forward, scoring, line calls and every so often something unusual would happen.

Shankar was behind the butts looking for something which I assumed to be an arrow. It's not like you often lose your phone or carkeys down that end of the field.

I noticed that there was a shaft sticking out at an odd angle at the top of the mound. I also pointed to the six inches or so of fletched bit in the grass behind the butt.

I have NO idea what happened or how the arrow got up here. But it made for a good picture.

I don't think that there would have been much more room for anyone else on the line.

In fact, it started to look crowded at the target end as well.

I think that Fiona Hyde's Chrome Blue Bowtech is THE colour to have. Shiny AND Blue. What more could you ask for?

If you look closely, you can see that Matt has the new Soma rods.  I'm just keeping the picture small to make it difficult

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At one point, competitors were told that if they didn't fill out their score sheets properly, they'd get a zero. I'm all for this.

I suggested that maybe the competitors could opt for an alternative punishment instead, like being made to go to a primary school concert at which they had no children.

There were few transgressions after that, so zero doesn't always have to be nothing.

While at the butt end, one of the ladies lost an arrow and was looking around for it.

I found it, but took a photo first.

Fashion on the field wasn't being ignored. Several competitors were taking the time to coordinate their equipment. Andreas GMX was tastefully outfitted with pink highlights.

She combined this with matching accessories. She may have been away from the sport for a while, but she knows what is important. The technicalities get boring quickly.

It's all about how good you look on the line. Quiver, wrap and pen pink highlights show attention to detail.

For the first time ever, I went into the DOS box for a look. DVA's DOS box is a well made enclosure but like most of these type of structures, isn't meant for comfort.

In the cold or heat, I'd elect to be somewhere else. Somewhere else with a waitress. Oh, and toilet facilities. If you want to be a DOS, or a judge for that matter, start practicing dehydration or develop increased bladder capacity.

That Danage control system really is the business. Brendan Wallace has assured me that they are stabiliser weight proof.

Sometimes you don't ask people how they know things.

Burt had a selection of awesome t shirts for the weekend. Did he have pants?

If you weren't there, you don't need to know.

And there was a lot of synchronised elbow waving going on.

Everybody, elbows UP!

And .... elbows DOWN!

Archery can be a sport of many hazards, so it's best to take note of all the warning signs.

I'm not sure that the Leopard skin patterned pen for arrow marking can be beaten until someone goes out there with something more radical.

I can see this escalating until there's a carved gooses quill and an ink well sitting off to the side of the butt.

Although, looking at this target, I think someone has already escalated to a calligraphy brush. Here, we can see not so much a line cutter call, but handwriting analysis.

These Posten Stabilisers DID look very nice. I thought initially that they were a pearl finish.

As was The Rev's haircut.  If you're wondering, yes. That is his natural colour.

Throughout the competition, the Easton booth was being manned.. or (womanned) and there were a few different toys to look at.

Most of us would only have been happy if Pat had dragged his entire shed to Melbourne. Thanks for sponsoring the Competition, Easton!

If you happen to see that little dog around, stick money in it's head. It's for a good cause.

At the end of the day, there was a brief presentation on how the matchplay would work for the following day. This system of non elimination matchplay involved exchanging cards.

Everyone paid attention. Except for the dinosaur.

If I didn't have  sudden desire for icecream, I'd finish Sunday's matchplay page. Maybe I'll do it later tonight.