Bowmen of Rutland

Junior National Outdoor Championships 2005

This was held on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday July 2nd and 3rd 2005. Four of our Juniors were shooting, 12-year-old Kirsty Davies, 11-year-old Alexandria Davies, 13-year-old Gary McDonald and 13-year-old James Mortlock. Two of our club members were in charge Pam and Bob Tonkin and one member who took on Tournament Secretary. Of course it wasn’t just those shooting or organising that were busy, parents are kept busy encouraging, mending kit, driving to and fro and most importantly feeding their offspring, junior archers appetites seem to quadruple the moment they get to the field.  

Two hundred and forty archers took part during the weekend, some shooting both days others just one, for Kirsty, Alexandria and Gary it was their first Outdoor Junior Nationals but for James it was his seventh. This year the Championships were held back at Lilleshall the home of GNAS and the National Sports Centre, the field laid out with 63 bosses was an impressive sight and proved that Junior archery is continuing to grow in popularity. The ‘Lady P’ was in fact a Gentlemen Mr. David Sherratt who is the Chief Executive of GNAS.

On the Saturday the FITA and Metric rounds are shot, these are twelve dozen rounds shot at four distances with three dozen at each, distances range from 90 metres to 10 metres depending on the age of the archers. Three of our archers shot on the Saturday, James chose to shoot up two age groups with the under 16 age group shooting a Metric I (70m, 60m, 50m and 30m), he still managed to finish in an impressive fifth place with a score of 1153. Kirsty won the Under 13 Junior Ladies Compound shooting a Metric IV (40m, 30m, 20m and 10m) scoring a stunning 1304 and Alexandria in the much larger Under 13 Junior Ladies Recurve section shooting a Metric IV (40m, 30m, 20m and 10m) finished in seventh place scoring 1063. Saturday was also the Home Nations competition, unfortunately Northern Ireland were unable to field a team this year, Wales finished in third place, Scotland second and England first.

On the Sunday the York, Hereford and Bristol rounds are shot to decide the National Champions, again twelve dozen rounds, this time shot at three different distances with six dozen at the longest, four dozen at the middle distance and two dozen at the shortest. The Bowmen of Rutland Juniors did exceedingly well winning three of the sections. James shot in his correct age group and won the Junior Gents Recurve Bristol III (50, 40 and 30 yards), with a score of 1240. Kirsty won the Junior Ladies Compound Bristol IV ( 40, 30 and 20 yards) with a score of 1240. Gary won the Junior Gents Longbow Bristol III (50, 40 and 30 yards) with a score of 315 beating the second placed archer by over 60 points and third place by almost a hundred points. Alexandria was eleventh in the Junior Ladies Recurve Bristol IV (40, 30 and 20 yards) with a score of 943. James was also part of the winning Leicestershire and Rutland County team.

The weekend was greatly enjoyed by our Juniors, the Juniors are a credit to the Club and to their families. A number of positive comments were also made about our club colours!

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