The 2019 National Tour is under way and there was plenty of drama at stage one, hosted by Bucks or Bounty at Lilleshall.
There were battles royal in the recurve men's category and the gold medal had to be decided by a shoot-off.
Seventh seed Keith Harding of Clickers Archery Club eventually clinched the win after seeing off Jordan Botchett 6-2, Ryan Pinder 6-4, Brett Warburton 6-0, Antony Wood 6-0 and Chris Cooper 6-4 to reach the title decider. There he faced Ryan Holden who had defeated Sathish Kumar Kannan 6-0, Austin Whitmarsh 6-0, Richard White in a shoot-off, Michael Judd 7-1 and top seed Ashe Morgan 6-2. Both athletes were equally matched in the final, forcing a shoot-off. Ryan shot an eight but Keith hit the 10 to take gold. Ashe beat Chris 6-2 to win bronze.
Junior Hannah Rowley of Nuneaton Archers put on a spectacular performance to take the recurve women's honours. The ninth seed beat Fiona Hirst 6-2, Monique Pascall 6-0, Sally Gilder in a shoot-off and Thea Rogers 6-2 for a place in the gold medal match. Her challenger was second seed Jaspreet Sagoo of Peacock Archers. She had defeated Rhian Costall 7-3, Kayleigh Ivanov 6-0, Anne Smith 6-0 and Molly Peters 6-4 but could not break down Hannah, who won 6-2. Thea took the bronze medal, beating Molly 6-2.
In the recurve cadet competitions, Meriden Archery Club's Monty Orton defeated Hayden Ledwick in a shoot-off and James Woodgate 6-4 to face Charlie Medhurst of Redhill Archers Juniors in the gold medal match. Charlie had seen off Toby Wiggin 6-0, Gabriel Beese-Raybould 6-2 and Daniel Thompson 6-2 but had no answer for Monty, who won 7-1. James beat Daniel 6-2 for bronze.
Top women's cadet seed Penny Healey of Bowbrook Archers breezed past Katie Tonkinson 6-0 and Megan Costall 6-0 to set up a showdown with Charlotte Hempsall of the Bowmen of Pendle and Samlesbury. She had beaten Heike Palmer 6-2 and Lauren Rawlings 6-0 but had to settle for silver, beaten 6-0. Megan defeated Lauren 6-0 to take third spot.
In the compound categories, the men's first stage honours went to James Howell of Mayflower Archers. The third seed overcame Alistair Whittingham 136-135, Luke Ralls 146-132, Jake Walsh 141-137 and Adam Ravenscroft 143-142 to set up a showdown with Stuart Taylor of Keele University. He saw off David Lee 140-119, Rhys Harper 139-130, Neil Bridgewater 140-135, James Beckett 142-129 and Andrew Brooks 143-133 but lost out to James 140-43. Experience told as Adam claimed bronze with a 143-126 win over Andrew.
The first compound women's title of this year's tour went to Elizabeth Foster of Durham University. The eighth seed beat Chloe A'Bear 138-127, Anne Rutland 134-132, Layla Annison 137-135 and Rebecca Lennon 135-132 to face Sarah Moon. The third seen had defeated Erin Prior 143-127, Jenny Bryan 141-135 and Nat Merry 140-122 but lost the title by a single point. Rebecca beat Nat 130-127 to take bronze.
Ajay Scott of Canterbury Archers took top cadet honours beating Bob Pinder of Radnor Foresters 134-125. Michael Wood took third spot over Finnlay Barrett-Rees. Hallie Boulton of P&S beat the High Weald's Holly Hunter to gold with Sophia Boulton in third place.
In the other bowtypes category, Ben Ledwick edged out Graham Peters to take a 6-4 win.
A total of 256 archers from 133 clubs entered the competition. The rest of the stages are:
The National Tour final is being held at Caldicot Castle, South Wales on 28-29 September
You can find out more about the National Tour here.
Bucks and Bounty 2019 continued with a World Archery Double 720. You can find the results here.
Thank you to our sponsors for 2019:
