South West’s finest archers take part in longbow contest
Bath Archers staged one of their landmark inter-club events on Sunday, their Two-way Longbow competition, which attracted 30 archers from across the Southwest.
The event was a Western round, with contestants shooting four dozen arrows at 60 yards and four dozen at 50. Arrows were shot in batches of three, with targets at each end of the range, making it challenging as competitors’ sightmarks changed depending on which end they were shooting from, as did light and wind.
Nevertheless, there were some high scores, with some of the best archers in the South West setting the pace. The maximum score achievable was 864. Kevin Macey of Deer Park Archers came first in the men’s category, with a score of 500 points. Bath’s Stuart Ohren, Allan Lippiatt and Paul Tuffs ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively.
Tricia Pillay of Bowmen of the Deans and Val Leveridge from Coastal Archers came joint top in the women’s section, racking up 335 points each, with Bath’s Gerry Gilmour coming in 3rd.
Steve Walker, of Bath Archers, said: “It was a really good day, and our thanks must go to Dr Gillian Pratt for organising the event, Dr Jen Kinloch for discharging the role of Field Captain and Rod White who was Lord Paramount for the day.
“Longbow shooting is a fine art. Getting the arrows on the target is an achievement in itself! There were some very good scores, and it was great watching some of the South West’s top archers in action”.