EASTER Sunday’s good archery conditions prompted Blue Lake Archers to shift from the planned 40 metre event to the longer distances of a WA 60/900 round.
Wild weather the previous Sunday forced a rare cancellation of events and the five attending archers were keen to stretch out to the longer distance event that kicked off at 60 metres.
While local archery was a no go last week, Ian Harris, Garry Jacques and Ben Kilsby competed in passable conditions in the Lord Mayors team shoot at Archery SA’s state venue at Mylor in the Adelaide Hills.
It has been several years since a team of three from the local club had nominated for this annual event.
There was a record number of entries this year, with 34 teams spread across six divisions, the BLA team was in the highly-competitive first division compound bow section and finished a credible 10th in the field of 16 teams.
This week’s local archery was played in reasonable wind conditions, which promoted excellent scores from the group, particularly the two front runners for the day, Len Bayley and Kilsby.
Bayley carded a new Personal Best and was almost joined by Kilsby, who also put in a blinder, falling one point shy of equalling his PB for the round.
A pair of perfect 60-point ends were recorded on the score sheets, one to Kilsby at 50 metres and one for Graham Lock at 40 metres.
Kilsby easily claimed the bragging rights for the best off-the-bow score for the afternoon that included nothing outside the gold centre of the target face during the 50 and 40 metre distances.
Once handicap margins were factored in, the day went to Bayley, who hopped past the benchmark of 900 for the round, leading Kilsby home to the tune of thirteen points.
