NIAS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Last weekend saw Ballyvally Archery Club host the N. I. Indoor championships for the second year. Over 200 archers from clubs all over Northern Ireland competed for the medals and trophies. Saturday saw the seniors compete over the whole day while Sunday saw the juniors shoot it out for the Northern Ireland titles. The championships were hosted in Banbridge Leisure Centre which has excellent facilities for the event. The event was officially opened by Councillor Junior McCrum, chairman of the Council’s Sports and Leisure Committee and thanks were expressed to the Council and to Balloo Hire who have been sponsors of the event for a number of years. With over 80 entries from Ballyvally, the local club hoped to do well. Ross McLaughlin, one of Ballyvally’s junior archers designed a special 2007 Indoor Champs sticker to sell to archers as a mememto of the event and also to raise funds to defray the expenses of running the championships.
13 OVERALL CHAMPIONS FOR BALLYVALLY
11 Overall championships came Ballyvally’s way during the two days.
In the senior section Ballyvally has three NI Champions. Peter Mulligan topped
the mens freestyle with 559 while Ashley Russell-Cowan broke the N.I. Record
as ladies traditional champion with 418. Bronagh Campbell, now a senior joined
Peter and Ashley when she won the ladies barebow championships with 417. The
4th major award for Ballyvally went to Rune Naeri who was the most improved
archer since the 2006 champs. The juniors did even better with 9 winners.
Ballyvally took both N.I. barebow titles with Kerry Sneddon [484] and John
Gribben [491] both in excellent form. Ciara Dunleavy [542] got the girls compound
unlimited title and Rian Morgan [561] came second in the boys section. Similarly
Mark Nesbitt [563] became NI Boys freestyle champion while Amy Lavery nearly
made it a 1-2 getting silver in girls freestyle. In traditional the top NI
archers were Shannon Russell-Cowan with a new NI record of 471 in girls traditional
while William Heslip came in tops in the boys section. Equally in Compound
Barebow Claire Hillen shot 419 to win the girls section and Andrew Sneddon
shot 452 to break the record and come tops in the boys section. The most improved
boy since 2006 also came from Ballyvally when Michael Ward [boys compound
] improved his score by 177 over 2006!
ROUND 9 OF BALLYVALLY LEAGUE.
With only ONE round of competitions left in Ballyvally’s indoor league
the leading archers in the 5 sections are as follows. Sam Cantley leads the
boys under 9 class with 19 points while two girls will have to battle it out
to the last arrow as they are both on 22 points. Sarah Toombs and Megan Quaile
are equal and only round 10 this week will decide which will win …or
if someone else will come through.!! The under 12’s league is the same
and is led by two girls both on 22 points. Shannon Graham and Morgan Russell-Cowan
will have to wait until this weeks shoot to see who tops the girls section.
Ewan Lynas with 21 points leads the boys but there are at least six other
boys who can challenge. The under 15 class for girls is clearly led by Shannon
Russell-Cowan with 25 points while the boys section is much closer with Peter
Lavery and Mark Nesbitt on equal 22 points. In the under 18 class Bronagh
Campbell is clear on 22 points but Rian Morgan on 19 is still one point behind
leader Adam Wilson who is on 20 points. In the mens section Gary Corbett and
Rune Naeri are leading both on 22 points and will have to wait to see the
final results of the last match this week . In the ladies section Ashley Russell-Cowan
is clearly ahead with 25 points so the competition in this section is to see
who comes in silver position….there are 5 ladies in contention namely
Ann Heslip, Jennifer Liggett, Marion Patterson Maggie Quaile and Bernie Scullion.The
silver will go to whoever does best this week! The final matches in the league
will take place this week on Wednesday and Thursday. The next round in the
outdoor league will take place this Saturday at Loughbrickland starting at
2.00pm.