Louth's CúChulainn Archers claim four medals at Craigavon competition
Paul McCooey and Peter Gilmore won gold medals for CúChulainn Archers at Craigavon Archery Club’s Double Flint Competition, while Shay Barry and Niall Reynolds claimed silver
CúChulainn Archers members were once again at competitions in various locations recently. Six members of the club were at the second leg of the Millennium Winter League in Dublin.
This competition is a WA 18, but using what's called a Vegas Face. This target face is a three-spot, but unlike the usual World Archery 3-spot, a narrow target with the three vertical faces - one top, one middle, and one lower - normally used in indoor competition.
The Vegas face is a triangular target with one face on top and the other two on the left and right at the bottom. It may not sound much different, but in competition, it matters a great deal.
In archery, there is a saying that even changing your socks makes a difference to how you shoot, so changing from the traditional face definitely makes a difference. However, archers relish the challenge and it is always a really enjoyable if somewhat frustrating event.
CúChulainn's archers’ finishing positions in Leg 2 were as follows:
Adria Quinn, Senior Compound Women, 1st Place Gold medal; Peter Gilmore, Master Barebow Men, 6th Place; Shay Barry, Senior Men Compound, 11th Place.
The final places in the league will be dependent on the best 4 results out of the 7 Legs of the League, so the table changes from week to week.
As each leg consists of just 60 arrows, there is time for two sessions in each competition day. This makes it easy for people to get the seven scores necessary and makes for a really popular competition.
CúChulainn also had it's Inhouse League, however this competition was a club competition and a Handicap was awarded to each archer so the best in the club and the newest beginner had an equal chance.
The field was levelled out with the beginner able to add points to every three arrows, whereas some of the more experienced archers in the club had to subtract points from every three arrows, meaning that they had a minus handicap.
The League had many different competitions and took place over many months and in outdoor and indoor locations.
The results were as follows: Adult Freestyle Unlimited: Adria Quinn, Gold after a shoot-off with second place; Niall Reynolds, Silver; Éamonn Rogers, Bronze; Anastasia Karpenko, 4th; Fiachra Judge, 5th; Shay Barry, 6th.
Adult Freestyle Limited -Paul McCooey, Gold; John Bellew, Silver; Anne Cummings, Silver; Ann Marie O'Connor, 4th; Adult Barebow; Carl Tormey. Gold; Nicola McCann, Silver; Alan Nugent, Bronze; Pat Lynch, 4th; Lisa Burke, 5th; Willie Burke, 6th
Junior Barebow - Aoife McCann, Gold; Gerard Quinn, Silver
Junior Freestyle Unlimited - Gerard Flynn, Gold
Congratulations to all the trophy and medal winners; it was great to see so many of the club, especially beginners, take part.
Congratulations and thanks to Adria Quinn for organising and running the Inhouse League and to Éamonn Rogers for making and donating the trophies.
Also in competition - this time at Craigavon Archery Club competition, were Shay Barry, Paul McCooey, Peter Gilmore and Niall Reynolds.
This competition was a Double Flint round, which is very popular as archers have to change distances every four arrows.
This is a real challenge, as you can go from 20 feet to 25/30 yards but not in a straight line, as your first four arrows could be at 20 feet and your second four could be at 25 yards and then back to 15 yards etc.
The last four arrows are what is called a 'Walk-up ‘, where you shoot one arrow at each distance in a non-sequential manner.
You also switch from top target face to bottom target face and from left side to right side at different times during the competition - all making for a fun day.
Results from Craigavon were as follows: Peter Gilmore, Veteran Barebow Recurve, Gold; Paul McCooey, Adult Freestyle Recurve, Gold; Shay Barry, Adult Freestyle Unlimited, Silver; Niall Reynolds, Veteran Freestyle Unlimited, Silver
Congratulations to all who competed. CúChulainn Archers holds Beginner Courses in Dundalk and Drogheda throughout the year. Enquiries to [email protected]