First shoot of the year. Namoi Valley Archers kicked off the year belatedly, with the previous first official shoot of the year called off due to a torrential downpour making conditions too dangerous to shoot. Some last minute work with the whipper snipper and pruning saw, and thanks to some warm weather, resulted in perfect conditions for shooting on an unchanged boundary range. With the recent generous donation of unlimited plastic for target butts by Scott Davies from Carroll Cotton, the club members have been busy packing the new butts in anticipation of a big year, this has resulted in the replace ment of some deteriorated and unusable target butts , with the chance now of upgrading the ranges for more varied shots. With all the club members keen to sink their teeth into a new year of challenges , and also a large contingent of new comers on hand, the shooting commenced enthusiastically on what turned out to be a day for good scoring. Greg Donovan has asserted his dominance in the sighted division early, with a scintillating round , which resulted in the horde following fighting it out for minor placing honours only. John Clark took out 2nd place with Bernie Hayne and Lloyd Juaja finishing 3rd, in what were, after recent form, pleasing results for them. In the barebow division Wade Hudson reigned supreme, with Neville ‘ nifty’ White taking out 2nd place and both Darryl Hudson and Wendi Murrell unable to be separated , finishing with a dead heat for 3rd.In the junior division Lachlan Boyd showed a clean set of heels with Haylee Murrell in the cubs making light work of the conditions to record a win. The next round will be on Sunday the 24th of February with an 8:30 start for a 9:00 shoot with a new concept being trialled, whereby the standard 20 target round will be split into two 10 target rounds, consisting of a 3 arrow and a 1 arrow being shot on each. Results: Men’s open – Greg Donovan 396,John Clark 388,Bernie Hayne 384,Lloyd Jauja 384,Nathan Murrell 382,Stuart Dolbel 380,Sebastian Donovan 378,Peter Bush 374,Andrew Springall 370,Gordon white 370,Brad Mulherin 368,Michael Rulen 360,Craig Poeschl 348,Waylon Allan 338,Greg capper 334,Matt Kelly 324,Mark Stevenson 306 Women’s open – Denise Stevenson 330 Men’s Compound – Wade Hudson 376,Neville White 340,Jarrod Stubbs 244 Women’s compound – Wendi Murrell 330,Karen Hudson 302,Ann Stubbs 280,Sharon Boyd 228,Kate Harris 116. Junior – Lachlan Boyd 330,Gordon Harris 216,Paul Webster 186,Callan Webster 136,Gillian Harris 126 Cub – Haylee Murrell 356,Kaytlyn Murrell 274,Connor Poeschl 268,Emylie Murrell 192 Ungraded – Mark Daley 334,Brian Taylor 238