European Archery Festival
Brixham Archers compete in the European Archery Festival 2014.
The largest target archery event ever to take place in Britain was recently held at the International Centre in Telford.
Over 860 archers from 42 nations attended this first event of this size.
International, Olympic and world event archers were to be soon shooting alongside grass roots club archers in this huge centre.
The format of the competition was to have several “Qualifying” and “Seeding” rounds of 60 arrows shot at small targets at 18 meters distance. Then the seeded archer went forward into Head to Head knockout rounds.
This arrangement saw ordinary club archers mixing and shooting against the top internationals – perhaps even on the same target. There were several opportunities to shoot over the three day event.
Three members of Brixham Archers booked their places a few months ago.
Malcolm Grant – shooting a “Compound bow”, Mark O’Halloran – shooting a “Recurve bow” and 16 years old Olivia Bevan – shooting in the junior “Recurve bow” class.
The enormity of the event seemed to effect the nerves of both Malcolm and Mark, who both shot slightly below their average capabilities.
However, the task of retaining the honour of Brixham Archers went to young up and coming Brixham Archer, Olivia.
In the final days’ event on the Sunday Olivia shot superbly on the new and novel very small target.
Shooting five sets of three arrows (1 arrow in each of the three rings) with scoring zones of 11,10, 9, 8 points, Olivia scored a total of 141 points. This was enough to take Olivia to third place in that particular event. Olivia was more than thrilled to be awarded a £350 set of arrows!
Malcolm and Mark scored 139 and 140 respectively in their similar rounds.
Brixham Archers are often running beginners archery sessions. Anyone interested in attending a course should contact the club’s beginners course booking secretary -Amanda Allan on 01803 552673 or through the club’s web site:
www.brixhamarchers.co.uk
