A young Burnham-On-Sea archery enthusiast is celebrating success this week after winning several top medals at a national competition.
Darragh Joyce, 13, who is a member of the Burnham Company of Archers and is a pupil at Highbridge’s King Alfred School, took part in the Archery GB Youth Festival.
He won three gold medals and the trophy for the highest ranked archer during the tournament, which is the sport’s flagship event of the year, and is run at Lilleshall in Shropshire.
Darragh competed in the U14 cub division, shooting a recurve bow at a target 50m away.
His father Adam told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The weather was so bad on the Sunday, with wind driven rain across the shooting field that the morning practice session was cancelled. With the rain weakening, but not the wind, the archers shot a 72 arrow ranking round. From a possible score of 720, Darragh scored 618 and was Ranked 1 in his category. With no competitive rounds scheduled for Monday a separate competition was organised for the U14 archers which Darragh also won.”
“On Tuesday it was mixed teams in the morning which consists of teams of two archers shooting against each other in a knockout format. Each archer shoots two arrows in each set giving a maximum total of 40 points. The team who wins the set gains 2 point, while if it is a draw both team receive 1 point. 4 sets maximum are shot and the first team to 5 set points wins the match and progresses. After 4 sets, if the score is tied at 4 all there is a shoot off where each team shots 2 arrows and the highest score wins. As the highest ranked archer Darragh was partnered with the lowest ranked archer, whom he constantly encouraged throughout their semi final to eventually win through 5-3, seeing them progress to the final which was held on Thursday.”
“Tuesday afternoon saw the individual head to head matches. In this each archer shoots 3 arrows giving a maximum score each set of 30 points. As with the team matches, a win in a set gains 2 points with 1 for a draw, but there is a maximum of 5 sets, and the first to 6 set points wins the matches. Darragh won his quarter final 6-0, but was pushed harder in his semi final eventually winning 6-2, progressing to the final to be held on Friday morning.”
“Wednesday was team matches which consist of teams of 3 archers all shooting 2 arrows each and run along the same lines as the mixed teams. In this Darragh was partnered with 2 more top ranked archers. Despite one set where all the team shot badly they had soon progressed through to the final, again to be held on Thursday.”
“Thursday and Friday saw the action move to a purpose laid out finals field just outside the main building at Lilleshall where the action was watched by a crowd along the terrace beside the shooting. First up on Thursday was the mixed team final. Darragh and his teammate took the first set but then lost the next two to trail 4-2 with one set remaining. With some excellent shooting they took the last set taking the match into a shoot-off. An excellent first arrow by his teammate left Darragh with the task of scoring a 6 or more to take the match, an opportunity which he took. Two hours later he was back on the finals field with his team and some solid shooting by all the members saw them win the match 6-0.”
“Friday morning and the individual final was a much more tense affair. The first two sets were halved, and then in the third Darragh dropped an arrow into the 6 giving his opponent a chance to take the set, which he did with a 10. Not giving up, Darragh then fought back to take the next set and even the scores at 4-4 with one set left. In the final set he then brought out his best shooting of the finals with 2 x 9’s and a 10 with his final arrow to take the match.”
“Overall, this meant that Darragh had taken 3 gold medals and the trophy for highest ranked archer giving him a highly successful week. Next up he will be travelling out to Ireland to compete in the Junior National Championships where he has decided to shoot up in the higher age group which is the U18s.”
Darragh shoots at Burnham Company of Archers based at the BASC ground. Anyone wishing to find out information for getting involved in or trying archery can contact the club via details on their website here.
