Branch 3D At Wondobah Range

Namoi Valley Archers hosted the Northern NSW Branch 3D Titles on the weekend with archers travelling from Newcastle, Maitland, Taree, Kempsey, the Central Coast, Gloucester, Armidale and Tamworth for the event. Northern NSW Branch Controller, Mike Potter, praised the local club for their outstanding efforts in organizing the event which ran smoothly all weekend. Course designers, Greg Donovan and Gordon White, presented two very demanding ranges which really tested competitors abilities to the limit with cleverly crafted target placement making distance estimation extremely difficult. One of the signature targets developed by White and Donovan was a crocodile floating in the dam with archers shooting off a moored pontoon, a shot which bought many competitors undone. Gunnedah’s Wade Hudson lived up to pre tournament expectations finishing the 3 round event as the highest scoring barebow archer scoring a decisive win in the Compound Masters division. Hudson held a narrow 2 point lead over Maitland’s Mark Fotheringham after the first round but blew the opposition away in Saturday afternoon’s high pressure 1 arrow round to hold a commanding 64 point overnight lead. Hudson went on with job on in the closing round to score a great win from Fotheringham with Maitland’s Trevor Avard in third. The highest scoring sighted competitor was Namoi Valley Archer’s, John Finn, who turned in a brilliant final round performance to secure the Bowhunter Unlimited title. Finn was trailing another local club member, Peter Bush by 2 points after the first 2 rounds with Kempsey’s Brett Hodgman just a couple of points further back but in the concluding round Finn was unstoppable shooting superbly to surge away from his opposition and win by 48 points with Bush grabbing second and Hodgman third. Local archers dominated the event winning 15 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals. Karen Hudson finished the weekend as the number one female compound archer winning the Ladies Masters Compound division with the local trio of Darrell Hudson, Phil Greenwood and Peter Stubbs making a clean sweep of the medals in A grade Recurve. A feat repeated by Gordon White, Greg Donovan and Steve Jaeger in Freestyle Unlimited Flight 2. White and Donovan finished in a tie but White won the gold on a countback scoring 2 more bullseye’s than Donovan over the 80 arrows shot. Matt Sinclair scored a hard fought win in Bowhunter Unlimited Flight 2 finishing over the top of Taree’s Michael Rowsell and Andrew Jennings from Gloucester. Cub archer, Haylee Murrell was thrilled with her performance winning gold and achieving a promotion to the elite Advanced division after a top class showing. Namoi Valley Archers Results Masters Compound - Men, Wade Hudson 1. Women, Karen Hudson 1. A grade – Men, Jarrod Stubbs 2. Women, Wendi Murrell 3. C grade – Men, Ken Hill 1. Amy Stubbs 1. Recurve A grade – Darrell Hudson 1, Phil Greenwood 2, Peter Stubbs 3. Freestyle Unlimited Flight 2 – Gordon White 1, Greg Donovan 2, Steve Jaeger 3. Freestyle Limited – Mark Stevenson 1. Freestyle Limited – Denise Stevenson 1. Bowhunter Unlimited Flight 1 – John Finn 1, Peter Bush 2. Flight 2 – Matt Sinclair 1. Bowhunter Limited – David Buckingham 1. Veterans Barebow – Neville White 1. Junior Freestyle Unlimited - Zac Hayne 2. Junior Bowhunter Unlimited – Sophie Donovan 1. Cub Compound Advanced – Haylee Murrell 1. B grade – Kaytlyn Murrell 2, Emily Jaeger 3. D grade – Emylie Murrell 1.