CHRISTMAS PARTY AND PRESIDENTS RESULTS, SUNDAY 18TH DECEMBER
Canberra 60,50,40
meters x 90 arrows
Kane 813, Mat 792, Lee Kinross 773, Ossie 766, Josh 728,
Declan 570.
Short Canberra 50,40,30 meters x 90 arrows
Lee Archibald 762,
Laurette 753, June 722, Ben 718, Johan 712.
Newcastle 20 meters x 90 arrows
Annie 661, Eve 624,
Thomas 423.
Photo of our Presidents Cup 2016 Trophy winner and highest score on the day, Kane Smith, with medalists Thomas, James, Lorette, Ossie, coach Bags and President Ian O'Neill. Photo: Declan
Thanks to all our club members, who all chipped in with setting up and putting away targets, volunteers; cook Grant McGuire,Alana Dodson. Well done to all archers.
The club will close for X-Mas day and re-open on New Years Sunday.
CONGRATULATIONS TO NOVEMBER COME 'N TRY PARTICIPANTS AND HELLO JOE ZOMBIE
Zombie Joe, is a 3d archery target, named after his creator and is set to rise for a bit of fun at next years Ironfest
Some of our successful November course participants, Allie, Tim and Kirsty were trained by instructor Josh Dodson and are now hitting the target at 25 metres. Well done guys.
CONGRATULATIONS TO MATULA FAMILY FOR PASSING COME 'N TRY CERTIFICATE
Congratulations to the Matula family for passing our latest Come 'n Try Certificate course. We look forward to helping more archers start their journey in archery on October 30th. See our Newcomers section for details of how to enroll for our Come 'n Try classes.
THANKS TO JO RILEY FOR THE BEGINNERS ARROWS DONATION 25/09/16
Penrith City Archers member, Jo Riley, donated 30 matched arrows, suitable for our beginners bows today. Thanks Jo, they will be used.
THANKS TO "ON TARGET ARCHERY" FOR OUR NEW ROUND TARGET CENTRES
Just a plug here for Michael Larven, who has supplied foam centres for our round target butts at a good price for years and was able to ship 4 centres for us in time for our last competition. Michael was based at Sydney Olympic Park for many years, is still able to supply good quality round blue memory foam butts and centres from Port Macquarie NSW. email Michael at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details.
PHOTOS AND RESULTS FROM 50/40/30M COMPETITION 4TH SEPTEMBER
Photos above by David Tobin
Results from Short Canberra.50,40,30m on 122cm face. 4th September
Div Name Score
7 Kane Smith 831
11 Ossie Antaw 812
11 Lee Kinross 808
11L Lee Archibald 780
11 Peter O'Neill 761
11L June Hampton 748
11 Ian O'Neill 746
11L Jo Riley 746
11L Laurette Lideros 701
10 Kim Maston 375
10 Catherine Wilkins 345
10 Tashan Speede 265
6 Alexander Lamond 191
Thanks again to all involved especially June Hampton and Lee Archibold for organising the event, and our judge Jim Barber for officiating and running such a smooth show, with his originally designed sound box. Thanks to Grant McGuire and Corey Smith for assisting with cooking and setting up. Well done to all archers involved. Kim your medal will be at the clubhouse, hope you enjoyed Fawlty Towers.
and some more photos (from Bags)
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING ARCHERS 12/6/16
For completing their Archery Australia Level 1 course over 2 weeks with instructors Josh Dodson, Ian O'Neill and Mat Bagley; Charlie Taubman, Aiden Soedjarwo, Samuel Soedjarwo, Matthew Macken, Samuel Macken, Anthony Balog, Ziggy Dalglish, Jasper Dalglish, Stefanie Dalglish, Quincey Elliot-Smith, Megan Sprague, Dan Houlihan, David Collien, Natalie Collien, Charlie Collins, Kenneth Anderson and Johan van Hooff.
Beginners Group photo with instructors Mat Bagley and Ian O'Neill. Photo thanks to Agoes Soedjarwo.
ARCHERY EQUIPMENT STOLEN by Jennie Curtin, courtesy of Blue Mountains Gazette, published Wed, May 4th 2016
Losses mounting: Club treasurer Joshua Dodson outside the shed at Browntown Oval, Blackheath, which has now been broken into more than a dozen times.
More than a dozen break-ins in the last four years have left the Mountains Archers in despair.
In the most recent – in March – the thieves unpeeled the corrugated iron casing of the Blackheath clubhouse and broke through the gyprock walls to get inside. They stole about $5,000 worth of bows, targets and arrows.
It meant the club had to urgently buy replacements in time for Ironfest, where they charge money to fire arrows.
The festival is their major annual fundraiser but club secretary and coach, Mat Bagley, said that this year: “Basically any profit we made went to pay for the equipment.”
“We’ve put all kinds of locks on the doors, special locks that are covered so you can’t snip them off,” he said.
“But this last time they just punched holes in the fabric of the building. They just ripped the cladding off the shed, punched holes in the gyprock and climbed in.”
Treasurer Joshua Dodson said the worst thing about the thefts is that the equipment stolen is that used by members of the public having archery lessons – club members have their own gear.
“This equipment is the way the public can come and experience archery and we’ve just been wiped out,” he said. He estimated that, even with the success of Ironfest, club funds have dropped by $2,500 because of the robberies.
He said council had been helpful in upgrading the locks, but it had rejected their requests to put a secure shipping container on site to use for storage.
A council spokeswoman said it had upgraded the locks and security “a number of times”. And there had been discussions with the club about alternative storage of the equipment, including use of a shipping container, trailer, storage unit and purpose-built safe.
“The option of a shipping container, as preferred by the club, is not supported at Browntown Oval as it does not comply with council’s development controls for that site,” she said.
Mr Bagley said it was frustrating.
“It’s just one of those problems where council seems constrained by their policy.”
Mr Dodson said the club appreciated the better locks, but they weren’t proving successful in stopping the robberies.
“Council needs to come to the party – I don’t think it’s a big ask to have a container,” he said.
But there is a glimmer of hope. After the March burglary, the robbers rolled their car before they left, strewing some of the stolen gear in the grass and leaving pieces of blue car paint at the scene. A club member made inquiries with local wreckers and it is understood the range of suspects has narrowed.
MOUNTAIN ARCHERS HELP ANOTHER 500 COME 'N TRY PARTICIPANTS AT IRONFEST 2016
Mountain Archers, with Jameson Archery and Bargy again pulled a steady stream of Ironfest revelers to the sign on tent and shooting line at this years Ironfest. Thanks to all our wonderful members and volunteer families for again making this such a success. We had about 30 helpers, coaches, and families, tent erectors and dismantle-rs, not to mention arrow collectors and safety personnel, helping, which was a great effort from all involved, thankyou :).After the most recent dismaying break-ins to our shed at Browntown Oval, this years fundraising event almost didn't happen due to the theft of 20 of our beginners bows and arrows. Thanks to club photographer David Tobin, who took these photos on Sunday 17th April.
Ian ,Josh, Kane ,Warren and Alec, use a brief moment of calm to reserve some nocking points
Bags assists a young archer with the PSE shoot thru bow
Cathy, Nick, Alyssa and Kevin await an influx of archers with a full desk of arrows
Bowmasters Chris and Kane ready to assist archers with choice of bows
Our indefatiguable Director of Shooting, Jim exactly where he needed to be
Yes Cathy, it really does not let up all day!
On target!
Jim with metal detector on arrow clean-up.
ANIMAL FIELD DAY 13/3/16 A FUN DAY HAD BY ALL.
Last Sunday, we had a fun Animal/Field shoot competition for club members at distances between 10 and 40 metres. Organised by Lee Archibald and June Hampton, pictured above it was a very enjoyable round and something we will have to do again in a couple of months.
Photos and scores below. Photos thanks to club photographer David Tobin.
Div |
Name |
Score |
11 |
Mat Bagley |
341 |
7 |
Kane Smith |
323 |
11 |
Lee Archibald |
272 |
11 |
Anton Zawadeckj |
222 |
8 |
Declan Maguire |
157 |
9 |
Warrick Yeo |
153 |
11 |
Ian O'Neill |
151 |
10 |
Kevin Girard |
137 |
3 |
Jack Hughes |
136 |
10 |
Adam Hughes |
83 |
10 |
Ruth Myers |
45 |
2 |
Alana De Bortoli-Dodson |
41 |
10 |
Chris Johnson |
38 |
6 |
Alexander Lamond |
34 |
2 |
Lucy Hughes |
25 |
2 |
Zoe Benetatos |
13 |
10 |
Kaye Benetatos |
5 |
2 |
Tara Hughes |
0 |
16 ARCHERS PASS FEB/MARCH COME ' N TRY COURSE
Congratulations to the following archers for gaining their certificates over the last 2 or 3 weeks; Jacinta Kinross, Lee Kinross, Andrew Noble, Madilyn Noble, Adam Hughes, Lucy Hughes, Tara Hughes, Ruby Hughes, Angela Balog, Cathy Debono-Stocksick, Curt Stocksick, Marlina Stocksick, Sebastian Stocksick, Caelan Myers, Lachlan Weymouth, Philip Weymouth.
2016 GRACED WITH AN EAGLE
We had an auspicious start to one of our recent Sunday morning archery practises at Browntown Oval with a visit from one of Mt Victoria's wedge tailed eagles. One of our longstanding members, a longbowman of good repute, was heard to say he saw it take a rabbit from the oval before practise!
NEXT BEGINNERS COURSE
Will commence 21st February and conclude 6th March. We have 10 beginners lined up for this course, so it is currently full.
RAPS SHOOT
There will be an interclub Mountain Archers and Penrith Archers Retired and Pensioners shoot on Wednesday 23rd and 30th March. We don't usually hold organised shoots on Wednesdays, so just letting everyone know.
FIELD TARGET CLUB COMP
Lee Archibold together with our club committee hope to hold a 3 arrow end "Hunters Round" Field type competition, using our regulation shooting and waiting line on the 13th of March. Lets try and see all club members there.
GEAR REVIEW ON FASTGO TARGET
About a year ago Mountain Archers purchased a single centre Fastgo Target from Dennis Carson from Armidale Archers. Dennis was good enough to bring it down to SOPA to save us on freight cost. It has been a very cost effective and favourite target, especially for the compounders to shoot at. With an average of 3 archers on it, most weekends, it has become a firm favourite at the club. Made of the latest memory foam it was little tight to pull arrows from in the first month or so of use, requiring a good lubrication of arrow lubricant (aae or scorpion venom). It has since weathered very well, with very little damage to layering with over a year of shooting and arrow holes healing very well after arrow removal.
Setting the centre of the target off centre helps with the wear and tear of the target. Rotating the centre of the gold frequently stops just the middle of the centre plug being worn, and will hopefully prolong its life. This of course can be replaced.
Social member, Corey Smith, holds the just worn in,(after a year) Fastgo target for inspection.
Dennis can be contacted for more information on Fastgo targets at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
IRONFEST 2016 GYPSY DREADNOUGHT IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Once again all Mountain Archers club members will heed the call to Lithgow Ironfest, to be held on April 15th, 16th and 17th at the Lithgow Showground. Have an archery experience at the Lithgow Ironfest this year. Why not, with experiences starting at just 50 cents!
Club member, Declan McGuire helping a couple of blokes to equip themselves at the 2015 Lithgow Ironfest.