Wow! What an incredible weekend it was for the 2019 Watership Down Open & Hampshire Championships. We had a fantastic turn out with 64 people competing on Saturday 13th July and 65 Sunday 14th July with archers joining us from all over the UK. Rather pleased to say we didn’t have the sweltering heat of last year with more pleasant temperatures and only the odd spot of rain. Fortunately, there was plenty of bacon sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs to keep everyone going thanks to Jason and Inner Circle Catering.
Last year saw the introduction of the “Peter Turner Challenge”. This year we continued that on one of the tricky 55m uphill shots, as the “Peter Turner uphill challenge”, the competition was fierce but we awarded certificates to two recurve archers - Jonathon Shales and Chris Baigent for scoring 15 points and to Jeff Williams with an amazing Barebow score of 13 points.
We are incredibly lucky at Overton Black Arrows to have access to the Warren which is widely regarded to be amongst the most challenging field archery courses in the country; although this year, the course we laid out was easier than previous years! The woods were available this year, which was a wonderful variation from last year, giving some interesting shots and a bit of shade. Again we had a variety of archers and styles competing, archers ranging from U12 right up to some of our regulars who have been shooting this course for over 25 years.
Our Lord Paramount again this year was William Hastings, 17th Earl of Huntingdon who gave a short speech and presented the competition medals, Hampshire Championship awards and the awards for the Peter Turner Challenge.
I am delighted to say that during the weekend we had claims for 8 UK records, 7 Hampshire County Records and 12 Arrowhead Awards
A massive thank you to the Overton Team for making the event such a great success, especially to our Chairman Steve Allam, who played a large part in the organisation of this event.
Photos by Mark Davies of Overton Black Arrows
Full results can be found on the Competitions page
Comments