How to add another string to your bow
Massey Archery Club have more than eleven world champion archers on their honours board, but they’re looking for more.
‘‘We want as many people in the community to enjoy archery,’’ club president Lyall Lainchbury says.
The club, based on Red Hills Rd in Massey, has more than 300 members from Huapai, Kumeu, Henderson, Hobsonville, Massey and across Auckland.
‘‘We have an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life,’’ Lainchbury says.
From five-years-old to 85, archery is a sport for everyone but not many think of as a sport, the 70-year-old says.
Lainchbury, who got into the sport six years ago after watching his son and world champion Mike compete, has three world championship titles.
‘‘Watching him win titles appealed to me. But the sport is just as frustrating as golf,’’ he says.
Club members, and husband and wife team, Mike and Linda have competed in the league rounds in Europe, the United States and Australia.
The pair have 10 world championship titles between them.
In the recent International Field Archery Association (IFAA) World Championships held in Australia over five days in October 2016, twelve club archers took home 25 medals.
Lainchbury says the club is the only archery club that own their own land and spend time teaching archery to schools.
‘‘We’ll do work with any school that asks us. We bring the schools in to shoot as much as we can.’’
He recommends starting in the archery introductory course to see if you like the sport.
‘‘You’ll know if you want to do archery from the moment you longbow, recurve bow and compound bow shooting of mainly field archery, but also target archery.
In April, they will host the 2017 World Masters Games field archery division.
Head to masseyarchery.org.nz for more info about the club.