A historic competition to find the sharpest shooters on The Hill, has been won by the John Lyon Archery team following a tense match against Harrow School.

The Silver Arrow trophy, which has been fought over since 1986 will remain at John Lyon for the fifth year in a row following the narrow 857 to 838 victory at the match on Thursday 7th June.

The competition, which first existed as an open competition in 1684, but was abolished in the 1700s for attracting “unsavoury characters” to The Hill, was revived in 1986 and is now competed for annually by the neighboring schools, with teams of boys of different ages shooting. In the modern era the competition has been won by John Lyon 27 times, with Harrow winning five.

Switching to a new date in the summer term meant this year’s competition moved from the indoor range to outside at the Harrow School fields for the first time.

Mr Edward Collard-Walker, who coaches the John Lyon Archery team, said: “Dealing with the wind – and even a spot of rain – was a new experience for John Lyon’s archers, but they were not fazed and performed magnificently under pressure. The competition was extremely close this year with the difference between the two teams being a mere 19 points, or two good arrows.

“With many of our regular archers unable to attend due to GCSE exams, our final team consisted of three Year 12s, one Year 11 and one Year 7. The scores were neck-and-neck throughout the competition and it was only after the final tallies were triple-checked that the winner could be revealed.

“It goes without saying that our boys were ecstatic at retaining the Silver Arrow, but our friends at Harrow should be congratulated for such a tightly fought contest.”

John Lyon team and scores
Tom Kandler (Year 12) – 226
Nathan Cuttica (Year 12) – 223
Daniel Konotop (Year 12) – 204
Ygor Colmerauer (Year 11) – 204
Abbas Asaria (Year 7) – 178

Special thanks go to Keith Burton from The Bowmen of Harrow, for coaching pupils and overseeing the competition.