Louth and District Archery Club in the medals at national disability championships

Louth and District Archery Club were ranked second at the The Worshipful Company of Fletchers National Disability Archery Championships, but won more medals than any other club.

The competition consisted of a 72-arrow shoot followed by matchplay head-to-head eliminators for the top-ranked archers to decide the medals.

Tom Folwell, a wheelchair user and Army veteran, competed in the disability compound bow category, shooting at 50m, while visually impaired archers Peter Shaw and Stuart Rodgers shot at 30m distances.

Tom won through his quarter-final match impressively, but lost his best of five-sets semi-final, putting him into the bronze medal match which he won in style.

Stuart, from Sutton-on-Sea, came up against his British team-mate, Roger Rees-Evans (Neath Archery Club) in the VI V1 (blind) gold medal match, but had to settle for silver as the more experienced Welshman took the title.

Then to top the 70th birthday of club chairman, coach and spotter Rick Smith, Peter won gold after a close-fought final in the VI Open category.

The North Cotes archer produced a near-perfect three-arrow score against the fiercely competitive Debora Wright (Pemberton Maid Marions).

* The Louth club had warmed up for the national championships by competing at the Lincolnshire Archery Society County Championships at Boston, and then the East Midlands Archery Society Area Championships the following weekend in Washingborough.

With no other entrants in his category, Tom competed against able-bodied archers, while clubmate Louise Smith, from Huttoft, did have opposition to gauge her performance.

After illness forced her to retire at Boston while in good form, the 13-year-old pledged to return stronger to the regional championships and did so to good effect.

An inspirational performance saw Louise smash her personal best score from 855 out of 1,296, to 1,114 for the Bristol 4 round.

She competes in her first National Junior Outdoor Championships, at Lilleshall, this weekend.

In August, Stuart will be hoping the European Para-Archery Championships go ahead for the VIs after qualifying for the British team.

The competition will only go ahead if other countries also register their teams.

Then Peter and Stuart will compete in the British Blind Sport Archery Outdoor Championships in September, again at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall.

* Louth and District Archery Club meet at Louth Town FC at Marshlands, Main Road, Saltfleetby, on Tuesdays from 6pm to 8pm, and Saturdays from noon to 4pm.