Rayleigh Town Archery Club had a quadruple celebration on Saturday at its base in Runwell.

The club not only hosted the Southern Counties Archery Society’s junior championships for the 10th year, it also celebrated the 150th birthday of the sport’s governing body, the Grand National Archery Society, and a year until the London Olympics.

It also marked the completion of works to improve the club’s facilities at Runwell Sports & Social Club, in Runwell Chase.

Around 110 youngsters from across the south of England took part in various categories with compound, recurve and bare bows.

Essex took the county team prize, with Rayleigh Town finishing second to Chelmsford Tudor Rose in the club team competition.

Ten counties and 30 clubs were represented, with the other south Essex clubs including Billericay’s Mayflower Archers and Basildon’s Racketts Archery Club.

The county councillor responsible for the Olympic Games in Essex, Stephen Castle, opened the event, which is the second largest junior event in the country after the national championships.

Regional Championship results 2011 Junior Gent Recurve: Michael Simpson (Crown Archers). Junior Lady Recurve: Stephanie Jackson (Fakenham Bowmen). Junior Gent Compound: Adam Outram (Darenteford). Junior Lady Compound: Daisey Clark (Chelmsford Tudor Rose). Club Team: Chelmsford TR (Luke Baharie, Grace Butterfield, Sophie Cole). County Team: Essex (Lauren Bann, Louise Devlin, Luke Baharie, Scott Jamieson).