This news article has been submitted to the Victor Times but will not be published until next week. To stay within a reasonable time frame of the event, it has been added to our Blog page now.

The Victor Harbor Archery Club is alive and well, coming out of the doldrums of winter shooting and looking forward to enjoying more clement weather conditions as spring and summer approach.

Together with improved shooting conditions, Archery Clubs around the State will be holding their end of year championships and Archery South Australia will hold their final State Championships and Tournaments for the year.

On October 1st two such tournaments were held at Archery SA’s home ground at Mylor Oval. The Tyro Tournament is held yearly for novice archers who have been shooting for less than 18 months. It is a chance for such novices to enter a tournament and experience first hand, the rules and conditions that apply in competitive archery events.

The second Tournament - held together with The Tyro - was the AJ Barter Masters and Veteran Archers Tournament. Open class archers in all divisions consist of the young to middle age group who enjoy peak physical and mental prowess in the sport. It is also the largest and most competitive group. From age 50 to 60 archers can enter the Masters division and from 60 to 70 the Veteran group. Finally there is the Veteran + for ages 70 and over.

For the observer, archery has a peculiar method of labeling distances and arrows shot in different classes and competitions. Both the Tyro and AJ Barter Tournaments shoot a Short Canberra round which consists of three distances – 50, 40 and 30 metres with a total of 90 arrows used [30 for each distance]. The highest possible score for this distance is 900 if one happens to shoot all 10’s!

The Victor Harbor Archery Club had only one competitor in this combined tournament. Lydia Strutton in the Veteran + Recurve division came first and her shooting partner Lorraine Nicoll [Adelaide Archery Club] shooting Longbow, was second.

Conditions were ideal for archery last Sunday and the archers enjoyed coming together to learn and test their skills while renewing past friendships or making new friends. Please ‘come and try’ archery at the Victor Harbor Archery Club – new members are always welcome. The VHAC website – www.victorharborarcheryclub.com - will provide most of the information needed both about the club and courses on offer.