Bows and Arrows

Versed in archery's polite rather than practical aspects, most U. S. archers might find it difficult to transfix rabbits with their points but they are familiar with the graceful phraseology, the wayward ceremony of their sport. If someone were to shout "He! He!" they would answer in kind this time-honored hail of one toxophilite to another. Their bows are made of lemonwood, their arrows of cedar or pine. Last week, 150 of the foremost U. S. toxophilites gathered at Canandaigua, N. Y., for the 51st annual championship of the National Archery Association.

Contrary to legend, bowstrings give out a hard, flat sound, not a twang; arrows hiss rather than whistle in their flight. The loudest sound on an archery range is the thump of arrows when they reach the thick straw target. Into the gold bull's-eye of the 48-in. target at Canandaigua last week the arrows loosed by a lanky toxophilite from Coldwater, Mich., thumped most consistently. He, Russell Hoogerhyde, won the men's championship for the second time in succession, maintained a record of winning every tournament he has entered. His score -- 2,476 -- was 37 less than his winning score at Chicago last year, but he sealed his victory with an American Round (90 arrows at distances of 60, 50, and 40 yd.) of 698. surpassing his own world's record of 673 and including 15 bull's-eyes in a row at 40 yd. Second to Champion Hoogerhyde was Andrew L. Brush, a professional of Cos Cob, Conn, who scored 2,262.

Since 1919 when she won the women's championship for the first time, Mrs. Dorothy Smith Cummings has been the foremost U. S. lady archer. When she won again last week it was her seventh championship. Small, thin and wiry, she had 70 hits for a world's record score of 426 in the first National Round. Mrs. Cummings became a toxophilite at the age of nine; now in her late 20's, she shoots with placid abandon from an orthodox position with her heels at right angles to a line drawn from the gold. Observers were somewhat surprised to find that Mrs. Cummings had a close rival last week-- pretty 17-year-old Dorothy Duggan of Greenwich, Conn., who set a world's record for the Columbia Round, lost the championship to Mrs. Cummings by 22 points.

Another and startling record was set by Homer Prouty, formidable heavy-bow expert from Portland, Ore. An arrow loosed by Archer Prouty went 436 yd., 2 ft., 8 in., 12 yd. better than last year's world's record, but 30 yd. short of a mark he set in a recent Pacific Coast tournament. National Archery Association championships are held by turns in the East, Far West and Middle West. Next year's tournament will be at Seattle.

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