Club hot shots claim top archery awards

Members of Louth And District Archers weren't about to let the outdoor season end without picking up some more silverware and records.
Louise Smith. XnTz0_Th8AEyy6G9YLO9Louise Smith. XnTz0_Th8AEyy6G9YLO9
Louise Smith. XnTz0_Th8AEyy6G9YLO9

Huttoft’s Louise Smith competed at the Friskney Bowmen’s Dennis Ingham Shoot.

The start of competition, which was a Bristol four-round of 144 arrows at a variety of distances, was disrupted as the archers were forced to re-shoot their first set of arrows due to an error in target placement.

This did not deter Louise or break her concentration as she registered an impressive 1054/1296 to dominate the Junior Lady’s Shield class and win gold.

Peter Shaw collects the VI Open class gold trophy.Peter Shaw collects the VI Open class gold trophy.
Peter Shaw collects the VI Open class gold trophy.

Meanwhile, vision impaired duo Peter Shaw, from North Cotes, and Stuart Rodgers, of Sutton-on-Sea, had travelled to the National Sports and Conference Centre at Lilleshall, Shropshire, with coach Rich Smith, to compete in the Worshipful Company of Bowyers British Blind Sport Archery Outdoor Championships.

Day one was the main event, a WA VI 1440 (UK Record Status) round of 12 dozen arrows shot at a distance of 30m over four sessions.

The first session was at a 60cm target face, the second and third sessions at an 80cm target face and the fourth at the full-size 122cm target.

The athletes were tested even more as they had to contend with wind and rain.

Peter drew on his vast experience to win the VI Open class with an impressive score of 1167/1440, setting a new national record, subject to ratification.

Stuart, on the other hand, had a day-long battle with his British teammate Roger Rees–Evans, of Neath Archers, for the honours in the VI V1 (totally blind) class.

Stuart was unable to maintain the consistency of his scoring, ending as runner-up to take the silver, scoring 43 points less than Roger.

It was not all bad news for Stuart though, his overall performance secured him the best-improved score on last year, winning him the David Christie Memorial Trophy.

Day two saw a change in pace and improved weather conditions, but fate played a hand during the setting up of Stuart’s tactile sight equipment, a tripod leg came apart and spotter Rick Smith was forced to seek the loan of a replacement to enable Stuart to shoot.

The day’s competition was a Long Metric IV (72 arrows shot in sets of six in four minutes for each set, that being three dozen arrows at 40metres and three dozen arrows at 30metres at a 122 cm target face) handicap challenge between Team VI and Team Sighted (the spotters).

There was great rivalry between Roger and Stuart for the Blackout Trophy, but again Stuart came runner-up.

Again there was a silver lining to Stuart’s performance, his determination to over come the adversity helped Team VI out score Team Sighted to win the challenge.