It was a beautiful June day at Mountain Green Archery Club on Owairaka Mt Albert on 29 June when archers gathered for the first District Doubles tournament.
All archers, regardless of what they normally shoot, were given a club recurve bow without sights (which the barebow shooters were very excited about), and a set of aluminium arrows. This was designed to level the playing field as the archers ranged widely in experience and type of bow they regularly shot.
The pairs ranged from married couples to parent/children combinations, as well as several sets of best friends, and even a pair who had never met before that day but really wanted to shoot the tournament!
From 9.30am archers shot a “Short Queen Adelaide” round – 36 arrows at 30m on a 122cm face, then 36 arrows at 20m on a 122cm face. Ten zone scoring was used. There was a lot of grumbling to start with and panic from those who shot with sights that they were going to miss the target completely, but after two sighting ends almost everyone was hitting the target with confidence and forgetting that they even bothered with sights normally! The relief of shooting at 20m was palpable however as it was a lot easier than 30m.
We stopped for lunch – thanks to Mtn Green for putting on a BBQ – and had a fun “mini-clout” shoot: closest arrow to the flag at 40m with a tiny compound bow – which was won by Bjarne Morris.
After lunch mixed-team matchplay rules ensued as archers got into their pairs for the guts of the tournament – the elimination matches. There were some surprising upsets and knock-outs in the first few rounds, making the spectators bite their nails and wonder who was going to come out with the trophy!
The bronze match was between team CAndy (Caro Geelen and Andy Russell) and team Silver Arrows (Dave Manning and John Deck), and was won on a shoot-off by the Silver Arrows.
The gold match was between team Goldfinger (Nuala Edmundson and her mum Katheryn Stevens) and team Bow-hemian Rhapsody (Kerry Hoole and friend Hajar), and while Goldfinger held their own, it was Bow-hemian Rhapsody that took the gold medal and the trophy.
Thanks to everyone who came and made the day such a fun one. Thanks to Mountain Green for hosting, and thanks to Auckland Archery Club for donating all their bows and arrows!
