Results can be found here: WD202results.pdf
On the 11th and 12th July, Overton Black Arrows hosted their annual field archery competition in the Warren and Peter Hastings woods. This year was to be a celebration of 50 years shooting at the warren, with a hog roast, live music and a fun clout shoot. All that will have to move to next year!
We had been working with AGB for the last few weeks to agree a format by which we could pilot the first field competition post-lockdown. The major change was staggered starts – meaning we could bring people onto the site in a managed way, get shooting groups together, and keep them together (and away from others) for the whole day. No catering, but extra hygiene station with wipes and gel were on hand, along with a whole bunch of signs telling people where or where not they could be!
The course was laid out as 12 unmarked and 12 marked targets, in three loops of eight – one loop in the woods, with some tricky long shots through trees and two loops out on the slopes of the warren. No difficult 60m downhill shot this year, instead an ‘easy’ 47m uphill shot instead. The “Peter Turner challenge” shot was a 55m uphill target in the woods.
The weather was slightly windy on Saturday, but sunny, and very hot on the Sunday. In all, sixty-eight archers competed over the two days, and Hampshire archers broke 9 county records for the WA combined round.
We have had some amazing comments from archers who were VERY happy to be out and shooting – in turn, the club is very grateful to those archers that attended and pleased that the event was such a great success.
We have had some good write-ups from others:
Asgard Archery (thanks Matt!): https://asgardarchery.com/2020/07/14/watership-down-open-field-competition/
