It was a great 2013 National Indoor Championships for Northants archers, held on Sunday 8th December in the Jaguar Hall of the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
Lizzie Cantopher and James Mason of Northampton AC represented England on the day in the Home Nations event. Both helping their national teams to win their respective team matches.
The England recurve team, including Lizzie shooting for her country for the second year running, won the Easton Cup with 2344 points, over Northern Ireland 2151, Scotland 2146 and Wales 1076.
The compound England team with James won the Scottish Trophy with 2251 points, over Scotland 2217, Northern Ireland 2213, and Wales 1680.
Lizzie’s ranking score of 532 put her in 17th place in the ladies recurve main individual competition. In the first round of head to head matches she faced 16th ranked Angelina Measures who unfortunately for came through the match 6-2 to progress to the next round. Susan Corless also of Northampton AC finished 24th in the ranking round with 518. She went on to meet 9th ranked Nicola Turner in the first round, but Nicola come through the match 6-0.
In the gents recurve competition, Bradley Denny of Archers of Raunds shooting in his first senior national indoor championships, finished in 20th place in the ranking round with 556. In the first round Brad came up against England team member and 13th ranked Michael Judd, who unfortunately out shot Bradley 6-0 to progress. Bob Kaminski of Wellingborough OAC finished in 86th place in the ranking round with 514.
Jon Bull of Targetcraft Archers, finishing the ranking round in 22nd place in the gents compound event with a score of 573. Jon met 11th ranked Tim Nash in the first knock-out round, who he beat 7-3 to progress. In the next round Jon came up against 6th ranked Chris White who was in formidable form, shooting a clear round to win the match 6-0.
Alan Course of Wellingborough OAC finished in 103rd place in the gents compound event with 529.
Archie McDougall Targetcraft Archers finished in 14th place in the gents longbow ranking event with 279. Archie went on to beat 19th ranked Luke Hagon in the first round 6-4. In the next round her meet 3rd ranked David Cartwright narrowly losing the match 6-4.
The great triumph of the day came for James Mason. Having already had a great day representing England for the first time, James went on to become National Indoor Gents Compound Champion! His ranking round score of 582 placed him in 9th place in a very close top 15 field. In the first round of head to heads he beat 24th ranked Rodney Groom 6-2. In the second round James beat 8th ranked Stuart Wilson by the same score of 6-2. In the quarter finals James found himself facing no.1 ranked James Bingham. The match proved very close indeed, both reaching 5 set points each, so it had to be decided by a one arrow shoot-off. James held his nerve to progress into the semi finals to meet 4th ranked Matthew Arnold. Once again the match was extremely tight going to 5-5 and had to be decided by a nerve racking one arrow shoot-off which again went in James’ favour. Every compound archer must imagine what it would be like to face Chris White in a head to head final match. Chris dominated this event for many many years which makes this final even bigger for James. Unbelievably, this match was also tied after several hard fought sets 5-5. Once again a one arrow shoot-off, and once again amazingly James held it together to win the match and this time win the title too.
Northamptonshire would like to congratulate all the archers who took part in this years event. A special well done to Lizzie Cantopher for representing England for the second year running. And of course a special congratulations to James Mason on what was a truly momentous day.
