Inaugural Archery Ireland: ‘All Ireland National Series Event’ held over the Easter Weekend at Athboy Archery Clubs range.
The series started on a crisp, dry Saturday morning with a F.I.T.A. shoot. Mr. G. Deegan (Athboy Archery Club President) acted as the sole judge whilst M. Higson (Athboy Archery Club Secretary) was Competition organiser.
The range held 21 Butts in total and catered for the 59 competitive archers present, shooting in 9 competitive categories, and 3 butts for beginners trying out their first feel of archery competition in Ireland. All in all there were 67 archers present on the day.
The categories being contested included, for the first time, two OPEN categories for Recurve and Compound archers of all ages and genders. These new categories proved the most popular with 11 archers competing for the points in the Recurve category, and 23 archers competing for points in the compound category.
The results for the first day can be found at the following link http://ianseo.net/TourData/2013/374/IC.php, courtesy of Ianseo.net.
Including the beginner’s section being won by the local club member Jane Murphy. The second and third places in that category, Martin and Linda Conway, was the start of what turned out to be somewhat of a grudge match on the following day. I see this running for some time J
Day 2 Was much colder with an additional wind-chill factor challenging the competitors and forcing a few early retirements during the day. But the eventual field numbered 60 archers despite these unpleasant conditions.
Results for day 2’s Head-to-Heads can found at the following link: http://ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=375
With closely fought finals in many classes, most notable was Keith Hanlon’s impressive haul of 89 in the final of the Open Recurve class, winning 6-0, many congratulations Keith.
The beginners grudge match ended with a reversal of fortunes for the husband and wife competitors, with Linda Conway taking the spoils this time, Martin will you ever live this down J.
The addition of P.A. to the event was also well received and the music made coping with the inclement temperatures slightly easier and eliciting comments to social media such as by B. Buckley:
“Great event guys. Music was great and nice to have between ends. The amount of helpers was great and the fact they were easily identified was all the better for archers that didn’t personally know who was who. The PA was a blessing so everyone could hear the announcements and not just the few people beside the announcer, which is usually the case and normally results in Chinese whispers of what was said. Fair play. Cant wait till the next event but hopefully warmer.”
We all hope that Bryan gets his wish and look forward to seeing as many as possible for our next event: the Athboy Open 11th & 12th of May. Details of that event and others can be found here: http://www.athboyarchery.com/Athboy_Archery_Club/Tournaments.html
Special mention should be made of the excellent field crew in their fetching fluorescent yellow bibs (contrasting nicely with the blue of their frozen fingers), great work done by all concerned.
We would also like to thank all of the competitors for their participation in what was a tremendous event, judging by the generous feedback we have received. We are all glad to have taken part in this inaugural staging of the National Series and look forward to seeing it grow as it progresses around the country.
Andy Holland
Field Captain