Rhiannon has a ball at Rayleigh Open Portsmouth
It’s 2012 and it didn’t take long for Rhiannon Easton to get back on the road in the New Year – this time for the short journey to Rayleigh Town AC for the Junior Open Portsmouth on Saturday 7th January.
It’s a new year and a new bow for Rhiannon, leaving her trademark tiny training bow behind, she proudly wielded her new pride and joy (which is only about 18 inches bigger than she is) in competition for the first time. She thoroughly enjoyed the shoot and settled in well with her new equipment, achieving a score of 323 for the 5 dozen and finishing 1st in the Under 10 Section. In fact her score would have been high enough for 3rd place in the Under 12 Section and so well done Rhiannon.
RHIANNONS SURPRISING SUMMER
Around the Essex Shoots this summer on a short target at end of the shooting line, the shape of the slim figure of a little girl with a little bow, long blonde hair and a big smile has become an increasingly familiar sight. Her name is Rhiannon Easton, she shoots Recurve and turned eight years old in mid March and this is the story of her Archery Summer.
In spite of her bow not seeing the light of day during the mean winter of 2010, after a revision of basics and some practice she duly trotted out at the Noak Hill Record Status Western for her first tournament this year and made a great start winning the Junior Trophy, shooting the Short Junior Round and scoring 450.
The previous year, 2010, she had taken part in only 2 competitions, her own annual club event and later the Essex Junior Championship where at 7 years of age she shot a Bristol V in the U12s Section for the first time, having only started shooting the 30 yards distance a couple of days before. With a lot of encouragement from the other girls on her target and their parents (whom she had just met for the first time that day) she eventually managed to hit the 30 yard target and was proud to score 380 points and later she received the Lady Paramount Prize for her efforts and good attitude and her first County Bronze Medal.
What a difference a year makes. At the 2011 Essex Junior Championships, the larger entry saw her finish outside the U12 medals by a fair distance, but she nevertheless scored 801, and was told to her amazement and delight that by a single point, she could claim her first Rose Award. Armed with this encouragement she entered the County FITA Metric Championship, with adults and juniors shooting the same day, it was the biggest competition she had experienced so far. During assembly, before the mass of assembled archers she was stunned to have her name called out to be presented with a massive trophy that was far too heavy for her to carry, awarded for being the most improved archer across all classes (both adult and junior) at the Essex Imperial equivalent Competition where her score of 801 was such a huge improvement of 421 on the previous year.
Once the FITA event was underway, the weather became stormy and challenging, with the archers getting soaked one minute followed by brilliant sunshine the next. At one point the competition was almost abandoned due to the proximity of a lightning storm. In spite of a complete change out of drenched clothing, Rhiannon’s stance and technique remained rock solid and the last of her 144 arrows flew as true as her first, giving her a creditable score of 980, 3rd place in her class and her second County medal.
Later, as Rhiannon is only 8 years old it was suggested that she might have broken the U9 Essex county record for the Metric 5 and once it was looked into it turned out she had absolutely smashed it, the previous record being 684 and as a result she had broken 6 County records at the event, the first time she had shot a competition on the metric target.
Her own, Noak Hill Club Championships was a chance for her to shoot the Short Junior Western Round, she shot really well and was also able to claim the U9 County Record for this event as well by scoring 654. (Previous record was 557).
Then it was off to Grays Archers to take part in their Open Western Shoot, experiencing such a warm welcome from the lovely people at this Club. The only archer shooting on the Short Junior Western Target, she brought the entire range to a standstill when she put all six arrows in the gold to claim her first Six Gold End. She made a lot of new friends and a good score of 682 saw her with the third highest recurve score overall, the junior trophy, the Best Gold, the Lady Paramount prize and in addition she had also broken her own county record for the event.
Next came SCAS for the final and biggest event of her year, which began with all archers taking the Olympic Oath. She knew she would likely trail behind some of the older more experienced girls in her section, but she decided to aim for her next Rose Award (900) for the Bristol V. She did that in style, finishing with a score of 992 she just missed the 1000 Award, but completely happy with the result is now looking forward to trying for the 1000 Rose Award next summer.
Finally, it was early October before the results of the postal July Junior National competition came out and then she found she had finished 1st in the Girls U10 classification having scored 620 out of a maximum of 648 to bring her summer to a brilliant close.
As she will be 9 before the start of next summer, the county records officer will likely breathe a sigh of relief, but hey there’s still a Winter of frostbite and indoor shooting to enjoy first!
