Despite the snow, there was a good turnout of Leamington archers yesterday for the annual Meriden Open American competition, the first local shoot of the outdoor season. They returned with an impressive proportion of the medals.

In the men’s recurve event Leamington’s Brian Tustin finished on 756, narrowly missing out on gold, which went to John Reace (Newport Pagnell) 758. Club mates Paul McCarthy and Perry Hughes took the second and third class medals respectively with 674 and 688. Other Leamington men shooting were Paul Roberts 712 and Pete Hunnisett 696. The Leamington men, Tustin, Roberts, Hunnisett and Hughes lifted the recurve team award with a total of 2852, just 12 points ahead of Meriden. Denis Folkard won the recurve barebow gold and Dawn Leide with 740, finished in third place in the ladies’ compound event.

There was only a small junior entry for the unofficial rounds at suitable distances according to age. Bethany Roberts won gold in her group with 740, and Caitlin McCarthy took second place with 700. Michael McCarthy was second in the under 12 boys’ group with 380.

Father and daughter team, Paul and Bethany Roberts, won the recurve nominated pairs award with 1452.