St George's Archery Club stars shine once again at Archery GB's National Clout Championships

St George’s Archery Club’s clout team shone once again as they joined a field of over 150 archers from across the country for Archery GB’s National Clout Championships.

Clout is a form of the sport where archers shoot from long distance, attempting to drop their arrows as close as possible to a 12-inch square flag surrounded by a 12-foot radius scoring zone.

Carol Fairbrother won the ladies’ 140-yard barebow national title for the 15th time, rounding off an unbeaten year in which she has also retained her Yorkshire and Northern Counties crowns.

Former junior champion Jess Hardesty-Dean claimed the bronze medal in her first season in the senior ranks, while Sue Hobson rounded off her maiden year in the sport with a sixth-placed finish.

Longbowman Clive Woolley retained his national title, winning the 180-yard shoot by a margin of more than 20 points.

Ian Harris then secured his best-ever finish in the 180-yard barebow championships, claiming a silver medal in the process.

Meanwhile, Martin Hobson continued his excellent start in the sport by taking fourth place and finishing only three points short of the medals in what is his novice year.

Under-12 longbow archer Matilda George, shooting at 80 yards, competed against juniors aged up to 20-years-old and added clout silver to the national target titles she won earlier in the year.

The St George’s barebow team of Fairbrother, Hardesty-Dean and Harris also retained the national barebow club team trophy, winning it for a record ninth time.

And, the club’s longbow team of Woolley, Caron Kolowiecki and Dave McLaren bagged the team longbow trophy for the first time since 2012.

Associate members Josh Hainsworth, who won the junior recurve title along with Ray Chaplin (50+ recurve silver), Geoff Ingleby (50+ barebow silver) and Laura Hainsworth (longbow bronze) rounded off a superb day’s shooting for the Allerton Park-based club.