MARCH 2010

Happy New(ish) Year. I hope that summer may be with us soon and we can make believe it really is the archery season.

Another Nationals has been and gone, this time in Hamilton. In addition to the New Zealand titles, at stake was one male and one female place for the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore later this year. This was the Oceania Qualifying Tournament. Unfortunately only Australia entered a young man to shoot against the New Zealanders.

Ben Knott from Australia is a very experienced recurve shooter and he met Yiftach Swery in the final of the match play to see which country would win the place.
Some of you may be confused because you know Yiftach to be a high class compound archer, 4th in the World Cadet Men’s Compound in 2008 and top 20 in the Junior World Championships in 2009. However Yiftach decided he needed another challenge so switched to recurve just a few months ago.

Much to the Australian’s amazement Yiftach led for the first 3 ends. Simon Fairweather, himself an Olympic gold medal winner, the Australian coach was pacing back and forth.

In the final end the wind gusts got worse and the long time recurve archer was better able to handle it. The well established compound technique of Yiftach unfortunately did not help this recurve event and the Aussie was home by one point. Fantastic effort Yiftach!

There was only one woman in the competition, Victoria Barczak. She had the odd situation of shooting one round of the match play, alternate arrows, against - no-one.
However Victoria won the place for New Zealand and NZOC has accepted the place. Now we have applied for an Olympic Solidarity grant to help Victoria reach the minimum qualifying score and get her ticket to Singapore.

At the AGM several people were elected or re-elected to the Board.

We welcome back Patrick Biggs as Vice President and Elizabeth Andrew, although she is now representing the Coaches’ Commission. New to the Board are Sandy Hughes, convener of JAMA and Alan Logan our new Treasurer. No-one else wanted to be National Secretary so I’m back for another two years. We look forward to working together to advance archery in this country.

Remember please that Ivan Powley is the Membership Secretary, so all new affiliations or renewals need to be sent to him at 45 Shandon Road, Vauxhall, Dunedin 9013.

It was not possible to generate the renewal forms from my computer. It seems that the membership programme was not compatible with Vista and all I could generate were “errors”. My apologies to those of you who waited in vain for the forms. The application forms are on the web site so please use those and make sure you are affiliated for the 2009/2010 season.
One major innovation soon to be sent to clubs is archery in schools. Initiated by Andrew Russell, and in conjunction with Sandy Hughes, clubs will be encouraged to make contact with their local secondary schools and to introduce archery to the young men and women there. Hopefully staff or parents or even senior pupils, could receive instructor training to work with the young people.

The review of the role and structure of Archery New Zealand made no progress during 2009. This was largely due to the fact that no-one took up the opportunity to be part of the committee and the 2 appointed members (by Mana and the Board) were also busy doing many other things. However by the time this Archer reaches you, or very soon after, there will be some statements, questions on the ANZ web site and a warm invitation to make your views heard. There will be an interim report in the middle of the year with some ideas of the direction ANZ might take. Again you will be invited to comment. A final report with recommendations will be circulated in time for any Constitutional motions to be promoted and the whole report and recommendations will be considered at the AGM 2011.

The Indoor Nationals has been a popular winter activity. The Board is looking for a club, group or individual to organise the 2010 event. Please contact me for details.
We know the Outdoor Nationals will be held in Hamilton in 2011 to be followed immediately by the World Crossbow Championships. However there is no bid for 2012. Again please think about the possibility of holding it at your place.

Contact me for details.

Happy Shooting

Carole A Hicks
Secretary Archery New Zealand
FITA International Judge

Minutes and Reports

Postal Ballot Results May 2009

Board Minutes Jan-Feb 2009

JAMA Commission AGM Minutes 4 Jan 2009

Coaching Commission AGM Minutes 5 Jan 2009