What a great day!

While it was cold and drizzly outside there was a warm welcome and a buzz of anticipation inside as 50 young archers prepared to shoot it out at our 24th annual tournament. From the youngest archer aged just seven across all age bands to the seventeen year olds it was great to see so many local youngsters engaged in our sport. Good too to see a nice mix of recurve, bare-bow and compounds on the line. And, fantastic to have the support and attendance of our local, and not so local, clubs, it was great to welcome everybody along.

Our frontline ducks were all nicely in a row with Lesley Stevens taking the role of Lady Paramount, Paul Richards bringing his judging skills to the event, Matt Tracey doing a great and unexpected job by standing in at short notice (thanks Matt!) for Malcolm Fleet as Field Captain and club chairman, Martyn Paine, overseeing and presenting the day.

Shooting ran smoothly and our competitors performed like old-hands, all clearly knowing what to do and when. Shooting line etiquette was as it should be and everyone involved in archery can be proud of our local young archers for their responsible and courteous behaviour – they’d be welcome at any tournament I’m sure. Archers handled scoring well and thank you to those parents who helped here and there to keep all of that flowing.

A midway break in the Portsmouth round gave archers the opportunity to refresh themselves and for parents and archers to enjoy the delights provided by Caroline and her catering team comprising of Anna, Emma and Julie. Bacon rolls kept everyone going and for those in need of a bit of a sugar rush (quite a few by the look of things!) there was an awesome array of cakes (wasn’t there John), and a big thank you to all those who so generously provided the beautiful baking.

During the break Andy continued to sell raffle tickets while badge boy, David, met the needs of those seeking a souvenir of their day. In the meantime records officer Dean, who with his assistant Keith had the unenviable task of recording the days scores beetled off to prepare for the onslaught that would be coming their way soon enough.

The Portsmouth News sent a photographer along and we’ve already had one of his images appear in print (Mon 1st Feb, page 44). We were very fortunate to have Sean Ryan, Oliver’s Dad who also happens to be a pro sports photographer, spend the day photographing the event. He worked tirelessly to record the event and using the link to the left you can view a gallery of his work. He photographed all of the medal and trophy presentations and those images will be online soon.

When the final whistle blew and archers collected and scored for the last time, Dean and Keith swung into action, checking, adding and cross referencing until they were fit to burst. All the while Caroline and co. plied their trade and kept the cakes flowing along with the teas and coffees. Archers had the opportunity to pack away their kit, Andy sold a few final raffle tickets and it was time for the big reveal – who had won what! I’ll not list all the achievements here, you can find those on the results list, but I will say well done and nice work to: The Talisman Bowmen recurve team of Kristian, Oliver and Aaliyah for taking the team trophy! Kristian for a silver in the recurve gents U18; Oliver for silver in the recurve gents U16; Rebecca for gold in the recurve ladies U18 (okay, she’s down as FoBB but we know she’s one of us at heart); Aaliyah for bronze and Beth for fourth place in the recurve ladies U12 (excellent work girls!); and Mikey for silver in the compound gents U14.

The Mayor and Mayoress of Fareham, Councillor Mike Ford and his wife, Anne Ford, visited later in the day and presented the medals and trophies as well as taking the time to chat to club members, our archers and guests. Having taken an interest in archery during the 2012 Olympics, Mayor Ford was delighted to see some archery in action and was particularly impressed by the number of young people engaged in our sport and by their abilities. Having enjoyed their visit he and his wife thanked us for our hospitality and a welcome insight into the world of archery.

Thanks also have to go to the band of club members and parents who weighed in to set things up, stayed around to help keep things moving and took everything down and made sure things were ship-shape when the day was done.

We had lots of positive feedback on the day: people had had a good time, enjoyed the event, thanked us for our hospitality, loved the cakes and more – the perfect result!

I think it was a hit – here’s to next year!