Mark Nesbitt breaks the British record

He shot a magnificent 739 over the two days with a brilliant 372 on day two. This will help him well on the way to be the Great Britain number one freestyle archer this year!

EASTER SCHOOL OF SPORT - Thirty-four young archers took part in the Easter School in Banbridge Leisure Centre during the Easter holidays.

Among the young girls showing promise for a future in archery were Lauren Sleith and Ruth Campbell in the under nine class, Natasha Graham and Gina Woods in the under 11 class and Shannon Graham, Jessica Magill and Nadine Milne in the under 17 class. The next school of sport for archery will run from July 18-20.

SEVENTY ARCHERS OUT TO PRACTICE FOR NI CHAMPIONSHIPS - Probably due to the good weather at the weekend over 70 of Ballyvally’s archers turned up in the woods to practise for the next big shoots.

The first of these will be the Northern Ireland Field Championships which this year will be hosted by Ballyvally club at Loughbrickland.

INDOOR ARCHERY SESSIONS RESTART - The eight archery sessions on Wednesdays and Thursdays will restart for the summer term this week on April 14-15.

Classes start each day at 3.30pm and continue on Wednesday until 8.30pm and on Thursday until 10.30pm. There are still places left for beginners and families to have a go at this ancient sport.

NEXT OUTDOOR PRACTICE - Following the success of the first outdoor practice which attracted over 70 club archers, the next opportunity to shoot outdoors will be on Saturday April 24.

The course will be available all day and members will have an opportunity to practise for the NI Squad trips to Kendal and the British Open in Wales, both in May, as well as the club trip to shoot in Norway in June.

Juniors will be practising especially for the UK Junior Field Championships which this year will be shot in Loughbrickland. The Northern Ireland team won the Home Nations in 2009 when they beat England and Wales and they will be hoping to repeat that feat on home ground in July 2010.