Author: Mackenzie Geyton

Lisa Owen was last week presented with her certificate and badge for taking part and coming first in the Short Metric 2 round as part of the inter county postal match between Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.

Lisa’s shooting has come on leaps and bounds over the last year, congratulations.

Usually the two counties have a in person match, but due to covid it was decided that we would do a postal match whereby any archer in the two counties can shoot the specified rounds and submit their scores.

The event was a great success with a total of 80 scores submitted across 5 bow style categories. In the same event Susan Corless took the highest compound score and Mick Lovell was second in the barebow category (by a mere 4 points).

Northamptonshire took the overall match win by 941 points – congratulations to the whole squad. The full results can be found here.

On Sunday 3rd October the County squad were out in action again, this time joined by NAC’s Mick Lovell shooting barebow. The County match was a three way challenge, between Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire hosted by Buckinghamshire at Silver Arrow Archery Club. 

The team shot Western rounds and I hear that it was a very bluistery day but the team shone through and Northamptonshire took the overall win! Congratulations to Mick & the whole team.

You can find the full results here.

Saturday 2nd October was the final session of our most recent beginners course. The day was a very damp one, but this didn’t dampen the spirits! These photos tell a great story, and we are very lucky to have a shelter to shoot from under.

There are many moving parts that go into making a beginners course happen – from enrolling the beginners on to a course once dates have been set & agreed, collecting the money, arranging coaches and supporting archers. But that’s not all! There is also the equipment preparation before hand to ensure the bows are ready for use, setting up and packing away the targets and ensuring the supplies of tea & coffee are flowing (especially on a cold and wet day!). Finally and no means least each and every one of our members at Sywell making our beginners feel welcome to NAC!

Thank you & we hope to see them joining the club soon!

Susan recently headed to Lilleshall to compete for the title at the UK Masters which is an invitational event that you have to qualify for by achieving Master Bowman or Grand Master Bowman classifications. This event is usually held on the first weekend of June, however it was decided that extra time would be allowed to qualify due to Covid-19. The title is awarded to the archers who come out top over three separate elements to the weekend.

On the Saturday archers shot a WA1440 round, Susan shot an overall PB, and distance PBs at 70m and 60m and placing her in 3rd for Day 1. We had really great weather for the Saturday, which is a blessing at Lilleshall.

On the Sunday the wind has returned to its home at Lilleshall, and archers shot a WA50 round in the morning where Susan came 2nd, taking her to the head 2 heads in a strong position. In the head 2 heads Susan had a bye in the first pass taking her into the quarter finals where she took the win by a single point. She also took the win by 3 points in the semi-finals, taking her into the gold medal match, and she took that by a single point, placing her in 1st place for this element.

Overall this placed Susan first for the whole event, taking home the title of UK Masters Champion, as well as winning overall distance award for the 60m section of Saturday and part of the winning regional compound team.

Congratulations

Sunday 26th September saw the return of the annual Northamptonshire County Championships, hosted by Wellingborough. 

Usually York, Hereford and Bristol rounds are shot to decide the County Champions, however this year due to the fact that many archers haven’t been shooting again for that long it was decided that WA720 rounds would be shot which are a shorter 6 dozen arrows at a single distance.

From Northampton Archery Club we saw Mick Lovell and Ioannis Chrisinas enter to battle for the title. 

Mick shooting barebow took on 4 others in his category and was crowned County Champion after a clear win of 18 points.

Ioannis shooting recurve took on 10 other archers and finished a respectable 4th in his category.

The full results can be found here.

Congratulations to both archers and thank you for representing NAC!

On Sunday Ioannis Chrisinas represented Northamptonshire County Archery Society at the annual EMAS Senior Intercounties Event. This event is a team competition between the 5 counties which make up EMAS. Ioannis shot the highest score for the county in the gents recurve division – congratulations!

It is unfortunate that Northamptionshire were unable to field a full team – partly due to archers not having returned that long since clubs have reopened and therefore hadn’t been competing, and other event clashes around the country. The full results can be found here.  

Hopefully next year the county is able to field a full team for this event.

Congratulations again to Ioannis for making the team, and if anyone else is interested in representing the county, you can find out more here.