Mushroom Magic!
Sway bowmen's biggest tournament of the year is the Mushroom shoot. You would be forgiven for wondering why they would want to shoot mushrooms, they're pretty inoffensive right? Actually the shoot was given its name because the field where it was originally held was full of mushrooms and although the club now has a large, beautifully kept range (with its own conservation area but no mushrooms!), the name has stuck.
This year saw 57 archers from 10 clubs across the South compete for attractive new trophies with wooden mushrooms in their design. Visiting archers come back year on year, some from a distance (West Wight archers being our furthest visitors this year) and some from much closer. Helen Smith from Waterside archery club near Exbury said, 'We love this shoot, it's like a home from home. We come for the hugs!'
All archers shot 'Western' rounds which comprise 4 dozen arrows at the first distance and 4 dozen at a second (closer) one. Competition distance was 80/60 yards, with archers aged 50+, new archers and juniors shooting closer combinations.
Sway members took gold in:
Open recurve – Matt Cooper
Open longbow – Brian Vaughan
Women’s barebow – Teresa Shelley
Junior women’s recurve – Skye Ecclestone
Open 50+ recurve – Nick Phillips
Women’s 50+ longbow – Karen Freeman
Women’s 50+ barebow – Victoria Hopkins
And Silver in:
Open 50+ longbow – Mick Hayman
Women’s 50+ barebow Carole Rawlings
They also performed well in the team competitions, taking Gold (Matt Cooper, Nick Phillips, Alistair Reeves and Richard Seaby)and Bronze (Skye Ecclestone, Jonathan Gay, Colin Powell and Joe Powell) in the recurve cartegory and Gold in the Traditional team event (Victoria Hopkins and Carole Rawlings).
As Victoria Hopkins said, ‘There’s always a great atmosphere at this shoot. I love the enthusiasm of the competing archers.’
Keith Gunn, from Sway, chipped in, ‘and there was even an ice-cream van!’.
