A FULL dress rehearsal for the impending National/State Indoor Archery Championships was part of Blue Lake Archers weekend of events.
A standard Friday night indoors was a walk over, with one archer taking both of the Australian 18-metre rounds.
Alex McDonnell was back in peak form, nailing consecutive personal bests, as his adjusted scores for the night both exceeded the 300-point benchmark to take the twin wins.
Jeff Puckridge and Matt Delaney were the best of the rest as they traded places for the runner-up position, Puckridge the runner-up in round one.
The second round runner-up position could have gone to any one of four archers.
There was a log jam with Delaney one point clear of the remaining three archers, all of whom tied on 299 points – Puckridge, Paul Freeman and Fiona Allison the others involved in the exceptionally-tight result.
As winter bared its teeth Sunday afternoon, any thought of an outdoor round was abandoned and the opportunity to gain another indoor practice session presented itself. The club set up the indoor venue for a World Archery 18-metre round, duplicating the set up for the afternoon event for the championships.
The round had not been run for many months and only three of the group of 13 archers present had competed in the round previously.
The session gave all the archers a chance to check their understanding of the procedures involved and any problems they may find with the target faces set where they will be during the championship.
One exception to the championship procedures was this club level event was handicap scored, while the actual championship is off-the-bow scores only.
An excellent entry list of 15 archers have nominated into the Mount Gambier venue for the championships that is held over multiple venues.
Of the 13 archers involved Sunday in the club event, several elected to retire at the halfway point.
From those who completed the event, the win for the day went to bare bow recurve archer Callum Oschar, the youngster easily leading the field home, with Puckridge again holding down the runner-up position with a personal best.
Indoor archery continues at the Blue Lake Gymnastics Club, Malseed Park, Friday at 7pm, followed by outdoor archery at Corriedale Park from 12.30pm Sunday.
Australian Indoor 18 metre, Round 1, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points: Alex McDonnell 307 (off the bow 264 PB); Jeff Puckridge 298 (291); Matthew Delaney 297 (272); Paul Freeman 294 (282); Fiona Allison 280 (189); Tamika Mullan 278 (261); Seth Delaney 232.
Australian Indoor 18 metre, Round 2, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points: Alex McDonnell 311 (off the bow 270 PB); Matthew Delaney 300 (275); Jeff Puckridge 299 (292); Paul Freeman 299 (287); Fiona Allison 299 (208); Seth Delaney 249 (182).
WA 18, handicap scored, benchmark 600 points: Callum Oschar 633 (off the bow 192); Jeff Puckridge 593 (557 PB); Matthew Delaney 590 (526); Paul Freeman 587 (542); Alex McDonnell 563 (483); Allan Oschar 552 (349); Dale Tschirpig 527 (333); Tamika Mullan 502 (451); Blade Delaney 273 Retired; Anthony Cox 224 retired; Nash Radford 56 Retired; Fiona Allison 28 retired.
