Surprisingly, York only had five competitors available on the day as three members of their Archery squad were unable to travel on the morning of the event, putting their team at a disadvantage before the action even started. Even the York coach, Lottie Boatman, who has had ten years archery experience, said that she was ‘not optimistic for a result’. Despite this almost guaranteeing Lancaster victory in the team events the archery commenced.
The action was all interlinked with scores being taken for novices and seniors and scores were collated for individual males and females as well as a collective team score.
The day began with archers shooting at a 60m target and as the morning went on the archers became more consistent with their aim. Both teams were shooting consistently by the fourth round of arrows outlining the skill that the individuals possessed.
In particular, John Lane began firing accurately for Lancaster with many arrows finding the inner ten target whilst Deborah Bell, also of Lancaster, was becoming increasingly accurate.
The action then moved on to 50m before the archers fired at a 40m target with the accuracy levels of each person becoming increasingly impressive.
Despite the non-attendance of team members, York did win the Novice female event 502-323 whilst the Senior female event was also taken by York with scores ending 690-572 earning York two points in the overall Roses competition.
However, Lancaster’s Men did reply by taking the Novice and the Senior by scores of 599-462 and 791-743 respectively. As for the team events, Lancaster took honours as expected due to their numerical advantage by taking the Novice mixed team and the Senior mixed team events comfortably.
Overall, the archery event was taken by Lancaster earning the University eight points out of a possible ten available outlining the dedication and success of the team and individuals
