Return of Record Status

It's been a long time since Arundown hosted a Record-Status shoot, the most recent being the third of the World-Record-Status FITA Star events we held in the 1990s. Prior to that there was an unbroken run of 30 UK Record Status Hereford tournaments, first held at Arundel Castle, and every one overseen by the legendary International Judge John Kember-Smith.
Now, thanks to Serena, we're off again. When our new Judge, Mark Davis, called for a show of hands at the end of the prize-giving, it looked like an almost unanimous vote for more like this.
The main purpose of this shoot was to provide a Record-Status Portsmouth shoot in the South for the benefit of the Juniors hoping to get selected to shoot for England in the Home International event at the National Junior Indoors in December. To start with the shoot was going to be limited to 16 archers per session because we could only book the Dining Hall, but Serena took the initiative and found that the Basketball Club was going to be away on Saturday 17th, so it turned into a proper Sports-Hall shoot, with a full target list of 80 archers on the line.
Most of the 52 individual entrants shot a double round. 25 were Juniors, and the young ladies were in a clear majority - 16 girls to 9 boys. There might have been one more boy, except he'd become an adult the day before. The shoot attracted many of the South's top Junior Recurve Archers and we were also joined by a top British Cadet International, and of course our resident Zimbabwe International.
Mandy Linn presided as Lady Paramount, and Mark was assisted by brand-new Sussex Candidate Judge Julie Pede, who we know as a frequent medal-winner at our indoor tournaments, but no longer able to shoot because of an injury. As well as directing the hall set-up, Robert was given the responsiblity of timing the ends and operating the whistle signals by shuffling three stop-clocks around on something that looked rather like an Oware board. Set-up, face-changes and kitchen were handled by John, Iain, Craig, Richard, Gavin, Rich, Alice and Marc. Several of the Mums and Dads pitched in too, a special mention for Jules who not only baked a mountain of truly-scrumptious cakes for the Canteen, she also did her thing at Reception, like she she does so well at the K2. Karen and Ben helped Rod with scores, and Caitlin's mum kindly headed off to Sainsbury's to get more supplies.
A great first performance as serious Tournament Organiser by Serena (we're counting the Charity Vegas Shoot last year as a bit of fun). It wasn't that straightforward to get this airborne, but it took off like a Dreamliner. Look out for a proper Report on the shoot, with a Gallery of the medallists - once the website has been re-vamped.
In the meantime, here are some pictures.
As usual, click on any pic to blow it up full size in a gallery. They look better big!