Four Northern Ireland titles for Drumquin club members

FOUR members of the progressive Drumquin Archery Club were in top form at the Northern Ireland Field Archery Association’s regional Bowhunter Championships at the weekend.

The event, hosted by both Foyle and Roe Valley archery clubs on an amazing course was a challenge for all involved, but the Drumquin quartet were in inspired form to win their titles comfortably.

By the end of the shooting, Makenna Chadwick added to her Indoor, Field and Hunter and UKIFAC, UK and Ireland Field Archery Championship titles this year, and her dad Adrian also claimed his crown, as did Joe Murphy and relative newcomer, Richard Fitzsimmons.

The latest success for the club shows the work that’s going on behind the scenes in Drumquin is working and members are hoping to build upon this year’s achievements over the coming months.

“For us as a club it proves anyone can be trained to compete at any level they want to,” explained Adrian Chadwick.

“We’ve always maintained that if someone comes in and they have the right attitude and drive then we can take them to regional level, we can take them to national level, we can take them to UK level, to European level, as we have with Makenna.

“But it’s not just about competing, we’re going to start a training programme very shortly for anyone who wants to participate or try archery can come along over three Saturdays for leisure or pleasure or competitive archery, we have the coaching ability to nurture that.”

And Chadwick is keen to stress it’s not all about results and winning competitions, as participants and members can treat archery as a past-time too if they prefer.

“We have a lot of leisure and pleasure shooters, we cater for whatever skill and ability anyone wants,” he explained. “Yes, we are competitive, but we cater for leisure and pleasure because you need to be enjoying it.”

In the build-up to the club’s new beginners programme, they are hoping to try something different at Halloween, which will be a night-time shoot.