THERE were some top performances from Blue Lake archers over the weekend, which included an Elite Gold ranked score from Ben Kilsby.
A pair of Australian 18-metre indoor archery rounds produced two different winners on Friday night.
The initial round had Peter Donhardt in dominant form.
His off-the-bow scores matched it point for point with Jeff Puckridge and Paul Freeman.
Puckridge managed to hold off Donhardt to claim the bragging rights for the best off-the-bow score by a slim three points, but did not fare as well when the handicap margins were added to determine the winner.
Donhardt was the easy winner on the adjusted scores and he claimed the round honours 10 points clear of Puckridge.
Form and equipment gremlins hit Donhardt in the second round and his rivals were quick to capitalise.
Puckridge and Freeman both upped their efforts considerably over their first round scores with Puckridge ultimately taking the win by six points over Freeman.
Archery-friendly conditions on Sunday afternoon led to some solid competition.
The difficulty was ramped up when it was elected to use the smaller 80cm target face.
The Holt round chosen saw 90 arrows shot at a single distance of 50 metres, the maximum range used for the 80cm face.
The fine conditions produced a sea of personal bests recorded on the day.
Kilsby had his best outdoor archery score rating ever.
His tally of 866 off-the-bow from a possible 900 points translated to a huge 22 points over his handicap score benchmark.
Under the Archery Australia archer’s classification system, that put Kilsby in the rarefied atmosphere of the Elite Gold classification.
Puckridge had not competed in the round previously and his 786 off-the-bow score set a formidable task to beat in future attempts and he exceeded his handicap score benchmark by seven points.
Donhardt and Freeman rounded out the personal bests list with their own successful attempts.
Fittingly Kilsby won the day, 15 points clear of Puckridge.
Upcoming events: Indoor archery, Blue Lake Gymnastics Club, Malseed Park, Friday 7pm; Outdoor archery, Corriedale Park, Sunday 12.30pm.
RESULTS
Australian Indoor 18 metre, round 1, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points: Peter Donhardt 294 (270 off-the-bow) 1; Jeff Puckridge 284 (273) 2; Paul Freeman 278 (266) 3.
Australian Indoor 18 metre, round 2, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points: Jeff Puckridge 297 (286 off-the-bow) 1; Paul Freeman 291 (279) 2; Peter Donhardt 261 (237) 3.
Holt outdoor round, handicap scored, benchmark 900 points: Ben Kilsby 922 (866 off-the-bow PB) 1; Jeff Puckridge 907 (786) 2; Peter Donhardt 883 (639 PB) 3; Paul Freeman 869 (748 PB) 4.
