Report by Bob Kerr
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Shetland Archery Club last weekend successfully played host to the first outdoor target event of the Scottish outdoor season - the North Atlantic Archery Tournament held on Clickimin rugby pitch in Lerwick. Involving 16 archers from Faroe, 3 archers from Orkney and 9 Shetland archers, the event was a smaller scale trial run of the archery event for the 2005 NatWest Island Games that will take place on the same site next year.

Saturday's format included a FITA Qualifying Round of 6 dozen arrows at 70 metres in the morning, followed by Individual and Team Head-to-Head events in the afternoon, also at 70 metres. The head-to-head format proved popular for all concerned, with team mates spotting for each
other and lots of noise from the crowd. Over the six Head-to-head events during the afternoon, both Shetland and Faroe claimed three event titles each. The Men's Compound Head-to-Head was an all Faroe affair, with Per Holm Anderson narrowly beating Schandorff Vang by just one point, 108 to 107. The Men's Compound Head-to-Head event was also won by a narrow margin, with the Faroese Team of Schandorff Vang, Per Holm Anderson and Sigrid Vang taking the trophy by just three points, from Shetland's team of Billy Finnie, Ryan Leith and Sara Leith - 197 to 194.

With a score of 194, Shetland's archers, Keith Lobban, Lindsay Nicol and Bob Kerr, took the trophy in the Recurve event beating Faroe into second place, with 164. In a tense final in the Men's Recurve Head-to-Head match, Shetland archer Bob Kerr beat Hans-Jørn Neilsen from Faroe, by 101 points to 94. Bob's score was all the more decisive as it included a perfect end of 30 during the 12-arrow decider.

In the Women's Compound Head-to-Head event, Shetland's Sara Leith beat Sigrid Vang from Faroe by 96 points to 89; and in the final for the
Women's Recurve event, Annika Vang beat Faroese team-mate Rakul Dam, 57 to 47.

This was the first time that an event of this size had been held in Shetland and was hailed a success by all archers who took part. Spokesman for the Club, Ryan Leith commented - "It has been a lot of hard work to organise the logistics for the event but we have all enjoyed having a local event with a high standard of competition from visiting teams."

This event was one of the first events to emerge from the Faroe-Shetland Cultural Agreement signed between the Faorese Government and Shetland Islands Council in November 2003. Shetland Archers have regular exchanges with Orkney archers and also now hopes to have in reciprocal tournaments in Faroe in the near future.

Shetland Archery Club wished to thank Willie Morland, Equipment Officer for the Scottish Archery Association and Shetland Transport for the supply and delivery of archery targets for the tournament; Mrs. Sandra Jamieson for undertaking the role of Director of Shooting for the day; and the Community Development Service of Shetland Islands Council for their assistance with the field preparation. "

(members of the Faroes team)