Archers target past members for 50th anniversary

Andrew Mathieson
EVER since witnessing the first bow and arrow drawn, the uninitiated have linked the antics of a group of merry Geelong archers with the folklore of Robin Hood.
But archery has been flying across the region’s landscape and hitting its target for the past half a century.
Geelong Archers will celebrate its 50th anniversary this weekend at Deakin University’s Jarvis Oval, the home of a series of national champions and Olympic competitors as well as an Australian archery president for 16 years.
Club reunion organiser Bill Vale expected hundreds of past members of the Geelong club to rekindle more than a few funny yarns of their halcyon days.
“We’ll have a couple of targets set up, so any of the oldies who want to put a bow back they can,” Mr Vale said, “or should I say see if they can pull a bow back and shoot an arrow”.
Two of the “oldies” central to the reunion will be Owen Bourke and Rex Sloane, who founded the club on May 5, 1960, after sitting enthralled watching a television documentary on archery.
Back then a bow alone would cost a week’s salary and nobody really knew the rules.
But archers new to the sport quickly found out the reality didn’t match the sense of nobility depicted in Sherwood Forest.
“A lot of people think it’s easy,” Mr Vale said.
“But once we put a bow in their hands they figure out it’s not as easy as it looks.
“They think you don’t need stamina but, I’ll tell you what, get out on a hot day and you’re shooting 144 arrows and walking up and down the target every six arrows, you need to be fairly fit.”