St George’s Archery Club's clout team impresses at Yorkshire Archery Association Open

Clout is a form of the sport where archers shoot from long distance attempting to drop their arrows as near as possible to a flag placed in the ground and, despite the tricky, blustery conditions, members of the Harrogate club came away with an impressive medal haul.

St George’s took a one-two in the 125m ladies’ barebow championship, with current national champion Carol Fairbrother winning gold and Fiona Harris continuing her good early-season form taking the silver medal.

In the gent’s 165m barebow shoot, Ian Harris shot a score just two points off his personal best to claim third spot.

Recurve archer Danny Walsh followed up on his first place in St Georges’ own Ted Mallett Open Clout the previous weekend with second place, and Ray Chaplin completed a good showing for the club in this bow class with a seventh-placed finish.

Shooting at 165m, longbowman Geoff Ingleby shot a particularly good second half in worsening conditions to climb the leaderboard into bronze medal position. Julian Smith and Barbara Stebbens rounded off an excellent day for the club by both placing seventh in the gent’s 185m compound and ladies’ 125m longbow categories respectively.

The St George’s archers’ clout season continues later this month with the Yorkshire Championships.