ARCHER Allison Kelly has continued her remarkable summer by lifting a prestigious county title.

The Prudhoe woman hit the headlines two-and-a-half months ago, when she won the National Field Archery Society’s national championships in Plymouth.

Now she is celebrating again, after winning the 24th FITA Field County Championships for Northumberland and Durham.

Allison earned her success after a testing two days of competition at Netherwitton near Morpeth, on August 4 and 5.

“I’m really pleased,” said Allison. “My form was really good all weekend and I was in confident mood.

“But I had to be. The level of competition is always very high in these competitions, which is good for the sport.”

The varied format proved to be a thorough test for competitors, who had to be both versatile and consistent.

“On the first day, we weren’t told the distances that we were shooting, so there’s a lot of judgement involved.

“There are also different target sizes, so there was a lot of variation and it was a good test of archery.

“I scored well on both of the days, and my combined score over the whole weekend enabled me to win overall.”

Allison, who is a member of the Riverside Archery Club at Ryton, and the Butsfield Bowmen Archery Club, near Tow Law in County Durham, is preparing for more title attempts.

She added: “I have another national title competition coming up soon, and hopefully I’m making good progress towards that. It’s all about precision, and to achieve that consistently you’ve got to work hard.”

Allison, who has received sponsorship from Merlin Archery in County Durham, will spend time shooting at Border Archery at Kelso, a renowned challenging course.

She added: “The sponsorship is a big support for me, and it gives me the encouragement to keep doing the best I can.

“Winning the county title is great, although I don’t know if anything will top the national win.”