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Last Sunday, 14 brave souls ventured into the icy winds blowing across the field in Sway to take part in the annual Chapatti Shoot. Simon tried his best to keep everyone warm with Hot Mulled Wine and there were plenty of minced pies, cakes and other Christmas leftovers to keep the carbohydrate levels up.
As usual, there was some keen competition to win the coveted 'Wellie Boot' prize.
Mark Hopkins was the eventual winner of both the Wellie Boot and the Gents Cap. (Get your needle and thread out Mark, you need to embroider your name on it!).
Sandie was the top scoring lady which won her the "Embroidered Waistcoat".
Well done to everyone for turning out on such a bitter day. Happy New Year to everyone.
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After his recent disappointment of being rejected of any funding by the Hampshire Talented Athlete Scheme (run by Hampshire County Council) and the news from Archery GB that he would not be representing Great Britain in the under's Youth Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia January 2009. Michael Hopkins aged 15 (and a week!), travelled from his home in New Milton to the National Sports Centre in Lilleshall, Shropshire to compete in the Junior National Indoor Championships on the 7th of December 2008. Some 190 juniors attended the 2 day weekend event.
With a point to prove Michael competed in the boys under 16 recurve class, shooting a five dozen arrow "Portsmouth" 20yrds round with a maximum score possible of 600 points. His objective was to beat the 3 boys (2 in the under 18 class) that would be competing in the youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.
His first dozen arrows jointly scored the opening round high of 118 points with a fellow U16 Ashe Morgan from Cheltenham. After the second dozen, Michaels score dropped to second place trailing by 2 points. Michael clawed back in the third dozen to an equal score of 349. The fourth dozen saw Ashe take a 3 point lead. By now Michael had realised this was going to be a really close competition and he 'had to pull out all the stops'. Michael's final dozen yielded a perfect score of 120 points! Was it enough to win? A nail biting wait for the competition awards "second place goes to Ashe Morgan 580 points". "Yes! I've done it!" jubilantly proclaimed Michael who finished with a score of 581 to take the trophy for the under 16's Boys Junior National Indoor Champion 2008.
The 2 Youth Olympian's in the U18 class scored 579 & 566. Fellow under 16 class Youth Olympian finished with a score of 567. Michaels score of 581 was only beaten over the weekend by a mere 1 point, shot by Tom Barber(2 years Michaels senior), who actually went to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as the reserve for the GB men's Team and is expected to compete in the London 2012 Games. Tom only came a frustratingly 2nd in this U16 competition class in 2006 with a joint top score of 577 but less 10's.
"If one of my 9 scoring arrows had been a 10, I would have beaten Tom on 10's and also won Overall Top Junior Indoor Recurve Archer 2008, but I don't mind coming 2nd to Tom, I'm happy with what I achieved."
Because of Michaels November birthday, it was his last chance to win the under 16's trophy, so it was a great achievement!
Michael was also in the winning Regional team - SCAS and collected the trophy on their behalf.
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