Wyre Forest Portsmouth and World Archery Festival Las Vegas

What a week with club Archers in action from Stourport Leisure centre to the Riviera Hotel Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Both venues were situated in areas renowned for the sound of fruit machines and arcades and a number of our archers gambled and won.

While Chris Bell, Naomi Folkard and Jon Nott flew to America to compete in Las Vegas,our remaining archers put in some practice at King Charles School. I became aware that something special was brewing for Stourport as Adam Connor (JU/18 Compound) broke his Portsmouth County Record shooting a 573. Luke Bow (JU/16 Recurve) not to be outdone shot 580 a new club U/16 and U/18 record, Henry Evans shot a double Portsmouth Senior Longbow and 50+ Club Record. Also not to be outdone Kathryn Lester shooting her Longbow set a new PB for a Portsmouth. In addition to this it was bought to my attention that Petr Sedlacek's recent scores are good enough to place him in the top 25 Czech archers, a reward for his hard work and that of our coaching staff.

So as our 3 Archers shot for glory in Las Vegas, 15 Club members took to the stage in Stourport, 11 shooting for Saints and 4 shooting for other clubs. With further support from other shooting and non shooting members it was great to see that the club had supported the event in numbers as we attempted to retain the team trophy.

Matt Terry a recent addition to the squad in 2010 made his competition debut as our only representative in Session A. Although shooting below his PB Matt did enough to pick up his first award taking the E Class Recurve Medal. Well done to Matt as he had an agonising wait to see if the afternoon shooters would oust him.

Session B was packed with club members. I had spoken to various individuals prior to the start and it was very pleasing that all the squad members were committed to retaining the team title. As the afternoon developed it soon became apparent that our archers were dominating a number of disciplines and this was reflected in the scores and awards in both the Senior and Junior events. On some bosses there were interesting personal battles between squad members with our 2 County Longbow Champions having a real ding dong leading to them both setting Worcester County Open Portsmouth records plus the Czech ranked number 25 (TBC) taking on the UK ranked 25001 (not to be confirmed) in a friendly but competitive contest. With 2 of our 4 juniors competing for senior honours and the other 2 pushing hard for the junior titles the final ends became tense particulary for their coaches and supporters. As the final arrow was shot and the competition ended a tense wait began to see if we had retained the team trophy. As the awards were read out it became apparent the club and its members had, had a very good day.

We had taken 1^st and 3^rd in the mens recurve, plus the D and E class classification medals; Mens compound 2^nd and 3^rd; Ladies Compound 3^rd; Gents Longbow 1^st; Ladies Longbow 1^st; Junior Gents 2^nd. Then it was time for the Team Trophy and we had retained it. Objective achieved.

Results

Mens Recurve

1^st Luke Bow JU/16
3^rd Petr Sedlacek
6^th Dennis Michael D Class Medal
7^th Ray Crich (shooting for Roll Royce)
21^st Matt Terry E Class Medal
25^th Steve Lester (UK ranked 25001)
27^th Ivan Southall

Gents Compound

2^nd Bill Bell (Shooting for WFCA)
3^rd Adam Connor JU/18
5^th Tony Carter (Shooting for SCOA)

Ladies Compound

3rd Michelle Hall (Shooting for SCOA)

Gents Longbow

1^st Henry Evans Open County Record

Ladies Longbow

1^st Kathryn Lester Open County Record

Junior Gents Recurve

2^nd Lewis Michael JU/16

Junior Ladies Recurve

4^th Meg Bow JU/14 Club Record at U/14, U/16, U/18

Team Trophy

Luke Bow JU/16 - 570, Adam Connor JU/18 - 570, Petr Sedlacek - 564, Dennis Michael - 549.

With 2 Juniors in the Team the future is looking very bright so come on all you other juniors lets win it next year with a junior team.

Our thoughts then turned to the warmer climes of Las Vegas and the World Archery Festival. Here Naomi was in dominating form and destroyed her opposition with 3 scores of 289 for a final score of 867 out of 900 to finish 1^st. With this consistency it has put down a mark for her International colleagues as the World Cup season approaches. Also in Las Vegas were Chris Bell and Jon Nott shooting in the men's compound event. Chris shot 895 out of 900 to finish in 97^th place ahead of GBR International Liam Grimwood. Revenge for the tight loss at the UK Indoors. Surely on this form Chris must be in the running for International honours in 2011. Watch this space. Jon continued his good form of late by shooting 888 out of 900 and finished 147^th and he to must be in with a shout for International honours. Their shoots against local rivals and each other will be very exciting in 2011. So as our International Archers flew home topping an eventful weekend for the club you would think that some of our archers would take it a bit easy but it was not to be, as both Luke Bow and Kathryn Lester set County Records at practice this Wednesday gone. Luke broke the U/16 Bray 1 record which had stood since 1995 and Kathryn set a record for Longbow Portsmouth on a triple face. Both will still need to be ratified. So if this has wet your appetite remember this Wednesday is Postal League night and we need as many of you to come and shoot as possible. We currently lie in 5^th place in Division 1 a few points behind Malvern so we need the shooting line packed plus I will try to break in to the top 25000 in the UK as Kathryn can currently beat me with her eyes shut lol.

See you on the shooting line

Steve Lester
Records Officer