Blue Lake Archers

Blue Lake Archers hosted one of the many venues around Australia running the Archery Australia National and State Indoor Championship 2026. The championship was held over Saturday and Sunday. 22nd and 23rd of August.

Provisional results for the archers that attended the Mount Gambier Venue:
Louise Abbott BLA, Open Female Compound National 13th. State SA 3rd.
Pat Coghlan VHAC, Open Male Compound, National 5th, State SA 1st.
Ben Kilsby BLA, Open Male Compound, National 33rd, State SA 6th.
Paul Freeman BLA, +60 Male Compound, National 22nd, State SA 4th
Peter Hennig GHA, +70 Male Recurve, National 2nd, state (Victoria) 1st.
Ian Harris BLA , +70 Male Compound, National 7th, State SA 2nd.

All results are pending final confirmation. At this stage a Nation Silver medal, two state Gold medals, a state Silver medal and a state Bronze medal appear to have been earned by the archers competing at the Blue Lake Archers venue. Well done everyone !

National State indoor championship reminder entries close in a couple of days on 22/7/26 at 11.59pm.
Mt Gambier venue 22nd August 2026 scoring at 2pm for Aust 18 double round. Sunday 23rd of August 2026 scoring starts at 10am for the WA18.

Hi all, cautionary tale of arrow damage from our shoot on Sunday that could have been dangerous if Paul had not spotted this and fired it on the next end. Nock had taken a hit, seemed to be minimal damage, but carbon fibre sheath on shaft had split and came away from the metal tube core. Original damage only visible as very thin crack, when checked it opened like a banana !

Blue Lake Archers recently held their annual invitational tournament on the 17th and 18th of January, continuing the theme of a Field Archery and Indoor Archery combination for the third year. Both events were arranged as a higher profile Qualifying and Ranking Event (QRE). All scores in QRE’s are off the bow only and scores are utilized by archers toward gaining selection into state and national teams. Field Archery was held on Saturday complimented by a Sunday morning indoor event.

A turnout of 20 archers representing various South Australian and Victorian clubs entered the Field event and many also nominated into the Indoor event. This year Adelaide Archery Club (AAC), Greater Hamilton Archers (GHA, Vic) Great Southern Archers (GSA), Southern Vales Archery Club (SVAC) were all represented. The archers are divided into Gender, Age and bow types, a total of fifteen divisions were covered across the Field archery entries and twelve divisions in the indoor archery entries. The competitors age groups covered from under 18 to those over 70.

The temporary Valley Lakes Field Archery course comprises twelve target butts positioned amongst the bushland of the area at the back of Brownes Lake. The archers make two circuits of the course to score a total of 24 targets.
Saturday morning the archers began their journey around target butts located throughout the lush bushland. Field Archery presents many challenges to the archers with varying terrain, four target face sizes and varying distances. The natural terrain is utilized to ramp up the difficulty with uphill, downhill and across the slope sections, some targets are in heavy shallow while others are in bright sunshine. Depending on the division the archer competes in, the shortest shooting distance is five metres while shooting at the smallest target faces, and up to 60 metres when using the 80cm target face.
The warm conditions Saturday were not uncomfortable but the availability of natural shade throughout the course and some seating courtesy of the Disc Golf range was appreciated. Cold bottled water was provided by the club at various locations on the course to ensure the archers stayed hydrated. At the conclusion of the competition and excellently catered lunch prepared by the Gambier City Lions club was arranged for the archers.

Sunday morning the archers who had nominated for the indoor event reconvened at the Malseed Park indoor venue for the less taxing terrain of an indoor competition that rounded out the weekend. A World Archery 18 metre indoor round required 60 arrows to be scored. Eleven archers competed and the event concluded around midday, allowing the visiting archers to travel home at a reasonable time.

Field World Archery 24 target marked, possible score 432 points.
Under 16 Female Compound
Mia Lange SVAC 265

Under 21 male Compound
Ryan Bird SVAC 383

Open Female compound
Louise Abbott BLA 325

Open Male Compound
Ben Kilsby BLA 373
Jesse Cole SVAC 357

Open Male Recurve
Jordan Womacks AAC 309
Harley Colson AAC 221
Jaemes Philip BLA 108

50+ Male Compound
Jason Lange SVAC 327

60+ Female Compound
Shirley Biggs GSA 233

60+ male Compound
Tim Roberts GHA 233
Grant Cole SVAC 287
Paul Freeman BLA 251
Peter Donhardt BLA 202

60+ Male Assisted Crossbow
Greg Mitchell GSA 193

70+ Female Longbow
Carol Ashley 80

70+ Female Recurve
Barbara James 157

70+ Male Compound
Ian Harris BLA 251

70+ Male Longbow
Norm Biggs GSA 115

World Archery indoor 18 metre, Possible score 600 points.
Under 16 Female Compound
Mia Lange SVAC 421

Under 21 male Compound
Ryan Bird 582

Open Male Compound
Ben Kilsby BLA 559
Jesse Cole SVAC 540

Open Male Recurve
Jordan Womacks AAC 539

50+ Male Compound
Jason Lange SVAC 533

60+ Female Barebow recurve
Shirley Biggs GSA 324

60+ Male Compound
Paul Freeman BLA 534

60+ Male Assisted Crossbow
Greg Mitchell GSA 412

70+ Male Compound
Ian Harris BLA 540

70+ Male Longbow
Norm Biggs GSA 374

Blue Lake Archers invitational shoot if now open for entries.

Contrasting weather conditions greeted Blue Lake Archers during the past two Sundays on the Corriedale Park outdoor range. As winter draws to a close variable weather is always on the cards, a sudden but thankfully short burst of rain almost derailed Sunday 17/8/25 after only one scored end. Only a trio of members had nominated into a possible damp event, Ben Kilsby, Paul Freeman and Graham Lock stayed on the range after the beginner’s session had concluded, slotting a quick 60 arrow event into the scoring app. The burst of rain left the archers drying off their archery gear over the next few ends but failed to stop the competition. Freeman adapted best to the conditions, winning the afternoon by six points from Lock.

The most recent Sunday was a glimpse of the improving weather to come, a bright sunny afternoon removing the memory of the quick drenching the previous week. Some club members used the calm conditions to put in a solid session of practice while Freeman and Lock chose to put in scores on the main range with another short 60 arrow round. Freeman revelled in the calmer conditions to make it two wins on the trot, leading Lock home by an increased margin on the previous Sunday, a healthy 16 points the final gap.

Upcoming events: indoor archery at Blue Lake Gymnastics Club, Malseed Park Friday at 7 pm followed by outdoor archery at Corriedale Park 12.30pm Sunday.

BLA Short Sunday Outdoor round 17/8/25, handicap scored benchmark 600 points
Paul Freeman 587,( 526 off the bow, score rating 75)
Graham Lock 581, ( 534 ,Score rating 78 )
Ben Kilsby 575,( 562, Score rating 90)

BLA Short Sunday Outdoor round 24/8/25 handicap scored benchmark 600 points
Paul Freeman 612,( off the bow 551 ,Score rating 85)
Graham Lock 596 , ( 547 ,Score rating 83)

A pre springtime working bee, indoor and outdoor rounds and a result that went down to the wire entertained Blue Lake Archers in their recent activities. .

Friday night archery results seen Paul Freeman pick up a win in the first round and Ben Kilsby gaining the top spot in the follow up round to continue his run of top of the podium results in recent events.

As the wet weather and slowly increasing daylight hours promoted the grass on the clubs Corriedale Park archery range to green up, the lines used to delineate the range’s distances and target lanes had almost disappeared and needed a refresh. A string line and spray pack were deployed by the club members to reinstate the lines.

After the working bee was complete, the remainder of the sunny afternoon was utilised to run a quick competition. To keep the timeframe reasonable a short 60 arrow Soggy Sunday event was selected despite the mismatch in the rounds name and the actual conditions. Three of the members stayed on the field after the working bee to post competition scores.

The initial practice round produced a small surprise with the three archers realising all were using arrows almost identical in colour scheme, this made for a challenging afternoon for Ben Kilsby who was tasked with calling the arrow scores.

As the day wound down Kilsby, Freeman and Graham Lock tallied the final scores. Kilsby and Lock had tied for the best handicap adjusted score, both finishing on 592 points. The win went to Kilsby in the tie break countback to make it three wins from the four recent events.

Upcoming events: indoor archery at Blue Lake Gymnastics Club, Malseed Park Friday at 7 pm followed by outdoor archery at Corriedale Park 12.30pm Sunday.

Recent results
Australian Indoor 18 metre, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points
Ben Kilsby 299 (off the bow 299, score rating 114)
Paul Freeman 295 ,(283,Score rating 86)

Australian Indoor 18 metre, round 1, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points
Paul Freeman 302,( off the bow 290 ,Score rating 94)
Ben Kilsby 298, (298, score rating 110)

Australian Indoor 18 metre, round 2, handicap scored, benchmark 300 points
Ben Kilsby 298 (off the bow 298, score rating 110)
Paul Freeman 289 ,( 278 ,Score rating 81)

Soggy Sunday Outdoor rounds, handicap scored benchmark 600 points
Ben Kilsby 592 (off the bow 579, score rating 101)
Graham Lock 592 (545, Score rating 82)
Paul Freeman, 394 Retired

Archery Australia’s National and State Indoor Championship was the sole focus for Blue Lake Archers and two visitors on Saturday the 5th of July as eight archers participated in the championship offered at the Mt Gambier venue. Six local members were joined by two archers from Adelaide’s Cressy Archers. The archers are divided into age, gender and equipment style divisions, the local archers represented the club across four different divisions, the visitors added another two divisions to the mix. A first for the club when running the National indoor Championship was a target Crossbow Arbalist on the shooting line .

To decide the championship various clubs throughout Australia offered venues to run the competition and all results were corelated electronically to decide both National and individual State championships. Mt Gambier was one of the three venues in South Australia. Approximately 843 archers from across the country registered to compete over the weekend of the 5th and 6th of July, the local club electing to offer their venue on Saturday the 5th.
The competition is decided on the combined scores an archer achieves from a Double Australian 18 metre as the first session and followed up by a World Archery 18 metre to complete the contest. The final tally has a maximum possible score of 1200 points, all results are for off the bow only, there is no handicap score applied in the championships. The state level finishing position are derived from the nation totals by filtering the archers into their individual state, effectively a two for one deal.
It was a long day on the range for the archers, practice commenced at 11.30 am and the final end was scored around 5.40 pm. A total of eight archers signed in, with two late withdrawals from the ten originally registered. Joining the local archers were Marianne Rieckmann and Trevor Hancock from Adelaide’s Cressy Archers. For the local archers it was a unique opportunity to compete in a national sporting event in the familiar surrounds of their home venue.

An amusing moment occurred during the AA 18 metre round when rare Robin Hood arrow was accomplishment by Allan Oschar , as it happens Archery Australia official, Paul Hawes, was visiting the range and photos of the achievement were quickly sent by Hawes to Archery Australia’s head office to publish.

From the local venue five podium finishes across the eight archers competing on the day were achieved at National and/or State level. Trevor Hancock (Cressy Archers) had the best finishing position, ranked 1st at National and State level. Ian Harris was 1st at State level in his division. Louise Abbott, Marianne Rieckmann (Cressy Archers) and Ben Kilsby all claiming 3rd in their respective divisions at state level .

Rieckmann was also a member of the ArcherySA Barebow team who claimed a National 3rd place in the Recognised Governing Body (RGB) Barebow team’s event.

Upcoming events: indoor archery at Blue Lake Gymnastics Club, Malseed Park Friday at 7 pm followed by outdoor archery at Corriedale Park 12.30pm Sunday.

Results for National and State placings, possible score 1200 points. (Results are provisional at the time of writing).

Open Female Compound
Louise Abbott 1152 , National 6th, State 3rd.
Open Male Compound
Ben Kilsby 1166, National 20th, State 3rd.
Brayden White 1078. National 68th, State 12th
Open female Barebow recurve.
Marianne Rieckmann 834, National 13th, State 3rd.
60+ Male Compound
Paul Freeman 1079, National 18th, State 6th.
Allan Oschar 976, National 24th, State 8th.
60+ Male Crossbow
Trevor Hancock 1152, National 1st, state 1st.
70+ Male Compound
Ian Harris 1062, National 6th, State 1st.

Teams events
RBG Barebow team
ArcherySA (Adam Sims, Cathey Brimage, Marianne Rieckmann, Laurance Carson) National 3rd place.