While most of the country was looking forward to the football, 130 archers attended the Overton Black Arrows Watership Down Field Archery weekend.
As with the All British Champs we set up a COVID aware event that included staggered start times, plenty of hand santiser and groups of four archers.
On Saturday we hosted both the Southern Counties (SCAS) & Hampshire Archery Association WA target Field Championships at the Warren in Kingsclere. Anyone who knows the area will know it is steep and slippery at the best of times but was made tougher by the rain in the morning.
We had a great course set out on the hills and in the woods with 24 targets of differing distances and sizes and of course our 60m downhill shot continues to provide the ultimate field archery challenge. Despite the weather we had a great days shooting with some great scores in the various categories including our own archers, Richard Buckner, Steve Allam and Bill Jones. Special mention to Hannah Callier who came 2nd in Hampshire and 3rd in Southern Counties in her first field competition, well done Hannah.
On Sunday we held the Southern Counties (SCAS) 3D Field Championships with 24 foam animal targets set up around the range. Our course designer Susie Allam designed a challenging course in the Warren which included everything from frogs, a panther, a polar bear, a stegosaurus, hornets, a wolf and our latest addition a 5ft tall Velociraptor called Vernon.
This type of shooting is very tough as for each target you have to gauge the distance and only get two arrows, it requires great distance awareness and accuracy. Sixty Five archers took part and although a more overcast day, thankfully it did not rain. Again we had a great day with archers enjoying the layout and variety with some very challenging shots including a 33m cross slope shot to Vernon and a 35m uphill shot to our new blue deer.
Some great scores were recorded with OvBAs Richard Buckner claiming top honours in the SCAS recurve category, Steve Allam, 3rd and Rob Aldridge 4th. Mike Bone was 2nd in the Longbow and Jodie Buckner was 1st in the U18 recurve. One big upset is that our U15 barebow archer Ollie Hicks beat one of the top adult barebow archers in the UK, so well done Ollie.
Overall it was a great weekend with Hampshire claiming 32 of the 48 medals. We would like to say thank you to all the archers who came along, you made it a great weekend and to all the OvBA members who helped set up and take down the course, without helpers events like this cannot take place, so thank you. Vernon is now safely put away waiting for the next event.
All results can be found on our website www.overtonblackarrows.org/competitions