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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Driving down the Waikareao Estuary expressway on a Sunday morning, I always glance over when passing Graham Park to see how many local archers are in action on the archery range.
Curiosity, a major attribute of amateur historians, got the better of me recently, and I went online to find out more about the archery group that fires its arrows at distant targets on Sunday mornings.
What I found was that what is today known simply as Tauranga Archers evolved from a group of archers who began local archery competitions in 1949. The organisation underwent several name changes, including Ashby Archers and the Tauranga Archery Club, before settling on Tauranga Archers.
Early venues included Jordan Park, Green Park School, Tauranga Domain and the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic before the club arrived at its current home at Graham Park.
Graham Park is a perfect venue for the sport, whose participants come together for their main competition once a week. Nestled below Edgecumbe Rd and near Waihi Rd, the venue’s relative seclusion, accessed by a steep walk from Edgecumbe Rd and requiring motorists to cross the expressway, provides an exclusivity that suits the sport perfectly.
Tauranga City Council information describes Graham Park as a reclaimed waterfront reserve built over extensive salt marshes and mudflats that once lined Tauranga Harbour.
Archery is a martial art with origins dating back about 20,000 years. Civilisations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Persia and Greece relied heavily on archers in battle.
In Asia, cultures such as the Huns and Mongols mastered horseback archery, while medieval England gained military prominence through the use of the longbow in battles such as Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415).
Archery has origins stretching back thousands of years, with evidence of bow-and-arrow technology dating back at least 10,000 years and possibly much earlier.
The widespread adoption of firearms gradually rendered the bow obsolete on most battlefields.
Organised shooting contests began to emerge, including the first recorded modern-style archery competition, held in Finsbury, England, in 1583, which attracted thousands of participants.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, archery became an elite social and recreational pastime in Britain. The National Archery Association was formed in the United States in 1879.
Archery made its debut at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, but its initial Olympic tenure was short-lived. The sport was dropped after the 1920 Olympics due to a lack of standardised international rules.
The formation of the World Archery Federation in 1931 laid the foundation for archery’s return to Olympic competition under uniform rules. That return finally came at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
One of the more unusual Olympic archery venues was used during the 2012 London Olympics, when the world’s best archers took aim at targets set up on the hallowed turf of Lord’s Cricket Ground.
A review of the Tauranga Archers website shows the club places a strong emphasis on introductory instruction, focusing on safe range practices, correct stance, and shooting and aiming techniques, all delivered by qualified instructors.
The local archery organisation also believes in building a solid foundation through an age-group pathway for intermediate and secondary school students.
Tauranga Archers runs a number of have-a-go days for prospective members, with its promotional material emphasising that newcomers will always receive a warm welcome at Graham Park.