Leicestershire and Rutland County Archery Association

The L&RCAA Junior Archery Team were once again victorious in the East Midlands Inter County Team Competition. This event is the highlight of the junior regional archery calendar with teams from Leicestershire & Rutland, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire all battling to be the best.

The recurve team of Rebecca Lantsbery (Welland), Katie Abell (LAOFAC), Thea Baker (Hinckley), David Phillips (Kirby), Zak Crawford (Welland), Jake O'Reilly ( LAOFAC), Liam Hannon (Kirby) and Andrew Warner (Kirby) retained the prestigious Sydney Bond Trophy to make it seven wins out of eight in recent years.

Given the number of team changes this must rank as one of the best ever victories recorded by our youngsters. Thea, Liam and Andrew were making their Sydney Bond debut whilst Rebecca was making her final appearance in this competition. Rebecca now holds 7 of the very precious Sydney Bond medals – very probably the only EMAS archer to have such a haul.

David Phillips was the leading boy recurve of the tournament with a score of 1224 (max possible = 1296). A great performance from our youngest competitor.

Our compound team of Alex and Kirsty Davies (Rutland), Georgia Ward (Welland), James Passingham (Birstall) shot well but had to settle for second place to a magnificent Derbyshire Team. Here the winning margin was just 71 points.

Kirsty was the leading girl compound scoring an incredible 1262 – well done Kirsty.

Once again I would like to thank the parents, supporters, clubs, coaches and a whole host of helpers from across the county who encourage and motivate our youngsters, some of whom are pictured above. You have all played a part in this magnificent victory and you should be, as I am, immensely proud of our youngsters and their achievements.

In a bid to get more juniors out of their clubs and shooting in county based competitions we decided bribery was the best option!

Bribery in the form of CHOCOLATE. Juniors of any level - just completed a beginners through to county or national level - are encouraged to come along to our Chocolate shoots. The children shoot a national round according to their age and then afterwards shoot at paper plates to win chocolate.

This is a fun event, aimed at getting the youngsters used to shooting a competition in a relaxed atmosphere, and allowing them the chance to get to know other juniors in the county. A big bonding and team building time.

Many members of the Junior County Team came to notice first through the Chocolate shoots. We have an outdoor shoot in April and then three in September which leads to the winning of a team trophy.

Details are sent to club secretary's at the appropriate times.

Leicestershire and Rutland Juniors have a reputation of being a very good team and regularly beat their competitors, we are very proud of them.

If you think your youngster has potential get them to shoot two of the selection shoots and put their scores into the Team Captain.