FIVE Bride Valley Archers were members of the victorious Dorset & Wilts Junior team in the Regional Inter-Counties match at Burnham-On-Sea.

In a very closely fought contest, the Twin Counties finished just ahead of a very strong Gloucestershire team, which included several National champions, with Somerset third and Devon and Cornwall fourth.

Jade Cullingford (Longbow), William Stazicker (Barebow), Daniel Wilkinson (Barebow), Reuben Kingston (Recurve) and Ben Eve (Recurve) all shot superbly to help the team to victory.

Other highlights of the day included Cullingford setting a new National record of 547 points for a Short Junior Windsor round and Eve winning an Olympic style head-to-head knockout competition against all of the region’s top Recurve archers.

The success comes on the back of Cullingford (Longbow) and Kingston (Recurve) both winning titles at the Dorset & Wilts County Championships at Devizes.

The former’s score of 704 for a Bristol 5 round was just short of the National record and she has high hopes of breaking it next season.

The club also had some great results in the summer Nationals, an Archery GB competition for all juniors in Great Britain.

First places were claimed by Cullingford (under-12 Longbow) and Kingston (under-12 Longbow), second places by Belle Marshall (under-14 Barebow) and Hannah Corfield (under-16 Longbow), and third places by William Bilbe-Smith (under-10 Barebow) and Jason Larcombe (under-16 Longbow).

The club is an active member of the ‘Ontarget’ scheme run by Archery GB to promote development of the sport and is currently applying for official recognition as a specialist club for both young people and performance – both areas in which the club has excelled.

A recent ‘Ontarget’ grant of £1,000 has allowed Bride Valley to purchase several new targets to set up an excellent Field Archery course, which will allow extra indoor shooting sessions through the winter.

The club is very keen to promote junior archery throughout West Dorset, so all are welcome to try the sport.

See the website bridevalleyarchers.com for further details.