Namoi Valley Archers was represented by a ten member team at the 2010 IFAA Australian Championships held in Orange over the long weekend. The tournament was conducted over four days with competitors shooting 2 Field, and 2 Hunter rounds. Each round required competitors to shoot 4 arrows at each of the 28 targets with marked distances ranging from 10 to 80 yards. The tournament was held in extremely difficult weather conditions with Friday providing frigid temperatures with a maximum of just 6 degrees. Karen Hudson scored an emphatic win in Bowhunter B grade putting together a very consistent performance to score a memorable win. The club scored gold in both the B grade and C grade Recurve Freestyle Limited events with Ken Thompson shooting well to take the B grade while Mark Stevenson showed his recent hard work has paid off grabbing the gold in C grade. Bernie Hayne enjoyed a great tournament scoring his first national IFAA gold after scoring a wonderful win in Freestyle Unlimited C grade. Hayne jumped to the lead on round 1 and outscored his opposition in every round. Greg Donovan turned in a fine display in a very competitive Freestyle Unlimited B grade event shooting really well to finish third. Matt Wittman turned in a very admirable performance among the country’s elite archers finishing a very creditable 7th in A grade stringing together some very impressive scores. Darrell Hudson had a titanic battle in Recurve Bowhunter B grade over the four day tournament, eventually finishing second to South Australian Alan Murray in a memorable contest. Sebastian Donovan turned in a brilliant performance to win Junior Freestyle Unlimited A grade underlining his growing reputation as one of the country’s best young archers. Zac Hayne is another youngster on the rise and his win in Freestyle Unlimited B grade is further evidence of his improvement over the last year. Shane Thompson rounded out the medal haul with a silver medal in Junior Freestyle Limited Recurve with a typically determined performance.
The club held a Delta round on Sunday for those archers not competing at Orange with archers competing in perfect winter conditions. John Clark finished the day on top in the sighted division after a very spirited battle with Stuart Dolbel with Warwick Shepherd in third. Tamworth veteran, Neville White, finished the day as the top barebow exponent with Ann Stubbs also shooting well to finish second with Greg Scott in third.
Scores
Sighted – John Clark 1060, Stuart Dolbel 1040, Warwick Shepherd 975, Andrew Springall 860, Denise Stevenson 670, Andrew Stubbs 340, Kim Stubbs 292, Michael Rulen 240.
Barebow – Neville White 810, Ann Stubbs 630, Greg Scott 440.
Junior – Jarrod Stubbs 690, Aaron Keech 330, Stacey Scott 375, Patrick Cameron 370.
