January, to archers means the Archery World Cup in Nimes in the south of France and CúChulainn Archers make the trip there every year.

Covid put a stop to their travels over the last few years, so it was with even greater enthusiasm that the club members took to the road, sea and sky to get there this year. The majority of the club members flew to Paris or Lyon, took the train or hired a car and arrived in Nimes either one or two days before the competition.

Because of fears of misplaced bow cases (as has happened before) one of the archers, Eamonn Rogers (who was also competing), took his car, packed all the club bow cases into it, and took off for Nimes. Ferry to Fishguard, road trip through the UK and then the ferry to Calais followed by more than 1000 km of road to Nimes was the route he took, with blizzard conditions on the Massif Central this was not an easy trip!

With the French strike changing many plan, all the Irish archers plus CúChulainn members still managed to arrive safely in Nimes bar one, CúChulainn's Anne Marie Murray (barebow) didn't make it, unfortunately, and she was missed by all her clubmates.

The competition takes place over a full weekend. First comes the Qualifier then, the Secondary Competition.

Representing CúChulainn Archers were - in Barebow Neil Keeble, in Recurve Brendan Forde, in Compound men Kevin Donnelly, Fiachra Judge, John Keenan and Éamonn Rogers in Compound women Adria Quinn. All were happy to start competing internationally again.

Arriving back during the last few days, all collected their bows at the CúChulainn/ DKIT Winter Series shoot on Saturday. The shoot took place in the DKIT Sports Centre, where the weary travellers took up their bows once again and competed. Tired or not, when archers are faced with a competition they rise to the occasion, and this was the case on Saturday!

Despite only getting their bows back minutes before the start of the competition and with just enough time to make sure that nothing had shaken loose during the long trip, all took part in the competition.

In Recurve, Brendan Forde took Bronze and in Men's Compound, Éamonn Rogers took Silver. In Women's Compound Adria Quinn took Silver.

There was once more a clean sweep in Men's Barebow where Neil Keeble took Gold, Enda Murray took Silver and Alex Finn took Bronze. In Women's Barebow Anne Marie Murray, happy to be reunited with her bow which had travelled to Nimes and back without her, took Silver. Siobhan Keeble took Bronze with Kate Coan coming in 4th in her first competition.

CúChulainn Archers meets weekly and runs beginner courses throughout the year. Enquiries to cuchulainnarchers@hotmail.com