The weekend’s Traditional Archers Australia national muster hosted by the new Tenterfield Traditional Archers club was deemed such a success that members voted to do it all over again, on a permanent basis.
Archers came from Western Australia, Brisbane, Bundaberg, Sydney, Armidale and places in between to compete for national honours, with local club member Marian Rogan snaring third place in the ladies traditional recurve section.
Mrs Rogan was among 75 competitors at the muster, a field more than double that of last year’s national event held at Mudgee. Tenterfield’s central location and other attractions drew a unanimous vote as the ongoing venue for the muster, a credit to the local club and its hosting abilities.
Most competitors camped at the Tenterfield Showground, where evening meals were provided by the local Rotary club. Tenterfield Traditional Archers provided breakfast and lunch at the course, generating some financial gains for both clubs.
Mrs Rogan who, along with husband Bob, spearheaded the creation and growth of the club said just about every business in the CBD contributed raffle prizes and trophies for the event. In turn they had the opportunity to provide promotional material for a goodie bag of local information provided to each participant.
Prizewinners were encouraged to personally thank the business who sponsored their prize and Mrs Rogan said she saw many down the street on Monday doing just that, and spending more in the process.
Participants competed in a number of events over the weekend including a 3-arrow round, a 1-arrow round, a rolling disc competition, speed rounds, a realistic ‘hunting’ round which Mrs Rogan said was real fun, and moving pig and deer targets on a flying fox arrangement.
While the scores were being tallied, they also played in ‘hog hollow’ targeting a life-sized family of wild pigs. The hog hollow challenge was done as a memorial to its creator Cleve Wood, who recently passed away.
Mrs Rogan said the range of challenging and fun events is what draws people to field archery.
“It’s not Olympic-style archery where you just stand on the line and shoot at a round target,” she said.
“It was a very successful weekend.”
The club is about to undertake a membership drive to encourage more people to try the sport, perhaps with the result of having a strong local showing at next year’s muster.
