The first weekend in December and archers arrived for the National Indoor Championships at Hall 2 of the National Agricultural Exhibition Centre at Stoneleigh for the Junior Indoor Championship, Back 2 Back tournament and the Senior Indoor Championship.
I was there as DoS and also had Mike Peirce and Steve Johnson as fellow judges so a good turn out from the ECAA before the archers even arrived!
With 1200 archers attending over the weekend it was a busy time with the Juniors starting on the Saturday with their Indoor Championship. There were lots of people to say hello to and some very good shooting with the following archers winning medals.
Recurve - Junior Gentlemen U16
1 TATE Jonathan Clacton A
3 VOBE Ollie Deben AC
Recurve - Junior Ladies U16
3 BANN Lauren Rayleigh Town AC
Recurve - Junior Gentlemen U12
3 BIRDSALL Samuel Rayleigh Town AC
Recurve - Junior Ladies U12
1 NEWBY Imogen Braintree B
3 STRUGNELL Sydney Braintree B
Compound - Junior Ladies U18
3 MALLION Emily Mayflower A
Barebow - Junior Gentlemen U16
1 SMITH Ollie Deben AC
Barebow - Junior Gentlemen U12
1 BIRDSALL Samuel Rayleigh Town AC
The seniors were also shooting in the Back to Back competition at the same time – which made for a few false starts as the buzzers went off and in this Daisy Clark made it through to the Ladies Compound Finals where she lost to Sarah Prieels.
We were all back again bright and early on Sunday for the Senior Indoor Championship which took up all 64 bosses in the hall. It was great to see so many of our archers there and if I didn’t manage to say hello to you it was because I was a bit stuck on the top of the DoS stand – I’m sure you heard me and were fed up of my voice by the end of it.
Again lots of good shooting Michael Judd, Alex Body, Jonathan Tate, Nicky Hunt, Phil Glover, Daisy Clark, Sophie Brown and Helen Harris all made it through to the finals.
It was a long weekend but good fun and I hope to see you all there again next year – as I’m on the timers as DoS again!
Photo © Chris Evans
Richard