Archers Talkin’ Archery – Leeanne Halliday

More quick interviews with archers here in the north and elsewhere. Archers Talkin’ Archery is back!

1 – What is your favourite animal?
Turtles

2 – What club are you a member of?
Ballyvally Archers Banbridge

3 – What is your preferred shooting style?
Barebow. Although I’ve not tried any other style as yet.

4 – How did you get into archery?
My daughter started archery in September 2022 and after taking her every week to club nights and going round the field courses with her for almost a year I decided to give it a go myself in June 2023 and got hooked straight away!

5 – Who is your favourite fictional archer?
Legolas.

6 – What is your favourite competition type?
It has to be 24 target field shoots. I love the variety of target faces and distances and getting to shoot outdoors in some amazing venues!

7 – Would you rather do archery whilst riding a unicorn or a Pegasus?
Definitely a Pegasus, sure everyone knows unicorns aren’t real!

8 – What is the oddest thing you have seen during a competition?
I hadn’t been shooting long and at my first 3D competition I completely missed the target and my arrow hit the brick wall behind it and snapped in half! A judge witnessed it and couldn’t believe it had happened, I’m still not sure if he was impressed by the 2 pieces of arrow he was holding or by my obviously terrible aim!

9 – What is the best shot you have made in a competition?
I recently scored 6 5 5 on a very tricky 10 metre bunny on a downhill shot which was obviously a complete fluke but I’m taking it as a win!

10 – Which fictious archers would you want on your side for a team match?
Legolas, Katniss Everdeen, Merida and Hawkeye.

11 – What are your goals in archery?
I’m still fairly new to archery, only shooting for 18 months so if I’m honest my goal is just to try and hit the target every time!

12 – What is your proudest achievement in the sport?
To be honest, that would be watching my daughter shoot and compete in the British Field Championships back in May and winning a gold medal in her category!

13 – What is the best advice you have been given in archery?
To just go out there have fun and enjoy it.

14 – How do you think you would have fared in the stone age with a bow and arrows?
Not very well against a sabre tooth tiger to be fair but maybe more successful against a giant sloth.

15 – What is the one thing you really enjoy in the sport?
I love the social aspect, getting to meet and build relationships with other people of all different levels within the sport.

16 – What one thing in the sport irritates you the most?
There are no actual sports facilities in Northern Ireland dedicated to any form of archery .

17 – What would you like to see in terms of improvement within archery as a sport?
Dedicated facilities.

18 – What do you think would make a great mascot for the sport of archery?
That would have to be the Greek God Apollo.

19 – Who is your most fervent supporter?
That would be my daughter Jamie. We shoot together a lot and she gets so excited when I’m doing well or win a medal and she also gives me advice if she thinks I’m not shooting well.

20 – If you could shoot another bow style, what would it be?
I would like to give longbow a try. Although I’m very short so it could be interesting!

21 – What is your favourite shooting venue?
That has to be Greenmount campus in Antrim.

22 – What would make a great 3D target?
We were at another clubs shoot earlier this year and got to shoot a dinosaur. That’s a pretty awesome 3D target!

23 – What would get more people into archery?
More publicity and a bigger media presence would help.

24 – What lesser-known competition type should be a more popular/frequent event?
Clout isn’t a very frequent competition here in Northern Ireland and I’ve never done one but it does sound like a lot of fun and I would love to take part sometime.