The Evesham stage of the ArcheryGB National Tour has drawn to a close, with participants from all over the country competing for the gold medals. This fifth leg of the tour, which took place on the 15th and 16th of August, saw some remarkable performances despite some truly tough weather conditions.

An enormous thanks must be extended to the members of Evesham Archery Club who turned up in the days proceeding and during the competition to mark lines, build tents, lay out the field of play, organise score sheets, and pack away. Come rain or wind, volunteers were always willing to show up and help to run this amazing, national event. Their dedication and diligence shone through in the glowing reputation the club maintains as a result of this yearly fixture.

Evesham archer and tour competitor Luke Wilson commented, “I’ve never experienced wind this atrocious shooting here before. When even the world number one is struggling, it really comes down to the comradery archery inspires to get us all through.” It all started on the Saturday with the men's and women’s recurve competition. With gusts expected of over 40 miles per hour, it was doubtful whether the event could even continue. The risk of archers being blown off the line remained a constant threat!

Chair of Judges Sue Richards, responsible for upholding the safety and fairness of the event, decided in negotiation with Evesham tournament organiser, Laurence Fletcher, and ArcheryGB representative, Robert Potts, to continue the event despite the harsh wind and rain predicted for the afternoon. To combat this, it was decided that all qualifying events would be halved from the usual 72 arrows down to 36. The event still enabled archers to claim ranking points though.

Despite the harsh winds archers still continued to perform, finishing the qualifiers and getting down to the first set of 1/32 head-to-head elimination rounds before it was decided that the competition was no longer safe, causing a halt to shooting for the day. Ultimately, Megan Havers came out as the top woman, followed by Bryony Pitman in second, and Penny Healey in third. Healey is presently ranked world number 1 and Pitman at world number 2. The horrific nature of the weather cannot be overstated, with many national-level athletes pulling out because of it.

In the men’s competition, world-ranked number 35 Patrick Houston lead the field, with the U.K. number 7, Connor Hall, and U.K. number 4, James Woodgate, comprising second and third respectively. Sunday saw the turn of the Compound and Barebow archers to battle the ferocious gale. It was decided that the event would continue with the full 72-arrow qualifier. However, the wind was still determined to make archers’ lives difficult.

With gusts blowing archers’ sights from target to target in some instances, world number 1, Ella Gibson, led the women’s compound division and the field, with world number 18 Domagoj Buden leading the men’s compound at the end of the qualifiers.

Over on the other side of the field, Barebow men were topped by Ralph Barwise. Rounding out the leaders was Patricia Hotchkiss for the women’s Barebow. In the men’s compound medal matches, second-place seed and U.K. number 14, Luke Davis, took gold, tailed by eighth seed and fellow GB teammate Ajay Scott who ultimately took silver. In a twist, nineteenth seed Justin Twigg climbed the head-to-heads to claim bronze.

In the Women’s compound, Ella Gibson again took the gold medal with some truly impressive shots through the impudent wind. She was followed by third seed Layla Annison and fourth seed Hallie Boulton for silver and bronze. In the Barebow men’s competition, the seeds and the medals stayed the same with Barwise claiming the gold medal.

Daniel Kilgallon claimed not only the second seed but also the silver medal. Finally, third seed Mark Turner took the bronze. In the Barebow women’s competition, the story was the same again, where first seed Hotchkiss claimed gold, second seed Anastasia Wilson claimed silver and third seed Nadine Parker claimed bronze. Overall, the performance of all archers present was more than admirable.

A final huge thank you is extended to the judges who helped to run the competition. They were the aforementioned Chair of Judges Sue Richards, assisted by Adam Dougherty, Andrew Stanford, Graham Potts, Jasmine Simpson, Jo Orbell, and Margret Marsh.