By Bill Mackieson
Over the weekend of the 8 and 9 July, the Yering District Archers hosted the National and State Indoor Archery Championships at Wandin East.
The club hosted 70 archers varying from aged 10 to 70+ competing for National and State rankings over a two day period.
This is an annual event for the club in which more than 800 archers compete in all states and territories.
One of the senior members, Ron Baddeley, shot in the recurve 70+ division obtained a new state record for Victoria and is a champ in his own right.
His ranking is now number 1 for Victoria and number 3 nationally.
“I was pretty pleased with the result,” Baddeley said.
“I started archery at 70 and didn’t start out very good, it was a lot of practice to get here,” he said.
The septuagenarian archer recommends the sport to anyone who is interested and said Yering District has been a supportive club to learn and grow in.
“Especially for teenagers, if you wanted to shoot for the Olympic Games it is a great sport to get into,” he said.
Baddely said that he likes the competitive side of archery and has enjoyed developing his skills.
“You’ve got to practice, it’s not a straight forward thing,” he said.
Baddely will head to Queensland in six months, with his eye on the gold medal for the state championships there.
One of the junior male compound bow members under 14 division, 11 year old Ethan shot extremely well with a state ranking of number 4 and nationally number 8.
The club could say ‘watch this space’.
Ethan said that the event had lots of people but he didn’t feel nervous.
“I had lots of fun, I’m proud of how I did for my first big indoor archery competition,” he said.
The youngest and oldest shooters, were national champions and overall Yering District Archers performed excellently and should be proud of the dedication and practice that the members contribute to the local club.
The club were most grateful Mr Ray Barrett Chairman of Bendigo Bank in Wandin/Seville branch, who as our sponsor made the event happen and extended thanks also to Cr Tim Heenan, Shire of Yarra Ranges for making the venue available and supplying the amenities.
The event was opened by one of our ongoing supporters, our Federal Member Mr Aaron Violi, who along with Ray Barrett, fired the opening special ‘golden arrows’ cheered on by all present.
