Dunedin Archery Club

Dunedin Has Many Enthusiastic Followers. If a friend should tell you that he has just become a toxophilite, don't panic. You could, of course, confuse the word with taxonomist, tergiversator, tintinnabulist, toxicologist or even tulipomaniac, any one of which should bring a glassy look to your eye and make you tremble.

But with the toxophilite, you have no need for alarm. What your friend is trying to tell you is that he has become a student or follower of archery.

Now, although the days of Robin Hood, William Tell and company are long since ended, archery is by no means dead. In Dunedin the bows twang every Saturday at Jubilee Park, where the local Archery Club meets. The 1951-52 season had an auspicious opening on Saturday, when conditions were ideal and members lined up in good numbers for some target shooting. Not that the arrows hit the targets every time - a fair number went whizzing over, below, and to the side of the target were aimed at.

Archery is not as easy as it looks as some of the new members found out. Although the target, with its diameter of four feet, looks fairly large from 30 yards distance. It seems a lot smaller when you are shooting arrows at it. In fact, perseverance is the essence of the sport for a novice.

But perseverance does bring its reward. Constant practice conduces to a wonderful degree of accuracy in the art of shooting with a bow, and to watch a skilled archer regularly hitting the nine-inch-wide bull is a revelation in steadiness and judgement.

Archers, of course, have something in common with anglers. They can tell a good story. This trait, indeed, gives rise to the proverbial phrase "drawing the long bow", but, even if some archers like to embellish their feats, it is, nevertheless, true that a remarkable degree of accuracy can be attained at distances up to 100 yards.

The fundamental requirements of good archery are early training and constant practice. From this experience, steadiness, stance, sighting, and, perhaps, most important of all, release of the arrow, are learnt and improved. Release of the arrow is the attribute that archers say will make or mar a perfect shot. Some favour the method merely of relaxing the fingers; others prefer to withdraw their fingers slightly from the string. These are points that experience decides.

Throughout the world, archery is gaining more and more adherents. The United States has for long been a stronghold of the sport, and in the past few years there has been a revival of interest in Britain, where it first became a prominent pastime. In New Zealand, too, there is a growing band of archers, whose numbers are perhaps not large in comparison with those who take part in better-known summer sports, yet indicate that the pastime has a definite hold in this country. Their enthusiasm is a factor that would be welcome in many kindred outdoor sports.

Archery, in addition, is a pastime where a woman meets a man on more or less equal footing. If Annie had had a bow instead of a gun - and practiced with it, she would probably not have been left lamenting the lack of a man.

History

DUNEDIN ARCHERY CLUB