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July 2008 - Virtual Tournament
25-27th July sees another chance to participate in a virtual tournament. Jay and Gill Butters throw in nice conditions in Wales, and Ollie Snook and Adam have a similar chance in Hertfordshire.
Both throw in very nice conditions, see below for scores.
The virtual tournament is a great way of competing in an event without any of the travelling to get there. Only 4 events are contested due to the difficulty of scoring Aussie Round and MTA on your own. Great fun.
Great resut for Jay and Ollie ! and Gill too. I wonder what are the chances of perfect weather again?
Next virtual is 12/13/14th Sept.
Ollie and Adam 26th July 2008
May 2008
How about that for accuracy !
Ollie and Adam were having an accuracy battle when the following happened !
Adam threw first, and the boomerang landed on the orange bottle being used for a marker. Ollie was about to concede the point, but at the last moment decided to throw anyway.
See picture below for result !
29th March 2008
Virtual Tournament 2008 Dates
Several of us had an absolute blast year year (See below 13th October), trying this format. If you haven't had a go, we highly recommend it.
Dates start in April, and are listed below.
Virtual Tournament (VT) 2008
Click here for a PDF detailing what to do.
25th November 2007
Martin and Adam and their families took a trip to Wales, to visit Jay and Gill Butters, which involved an inevitable bit of booming on the local school field. The 3 of us threw head to head accuracy, followed by Aussie round, which Martin seemed to win - probably because he made the rules up as he went along. It was great fun though, and we had to stop at 4:30 because it was getting so dark, we couldn't actually see the boomerangs.
The weather was completely overcast, but oddly, no wind, or at least very little. I was hoping to post a great MTA flight here, but unfortunately in the heat of the moment, my phone was on camera, rather than video mode.
Martin had given me his Carbon MTA to throw. It was a very ordinary start, then suddenly and dramatically it shot upwards, doubling its height in a few seconds. It was going out of the field.... Then as these things turn out, it then completely changed direction, coming back over the field, and descending. I caught it about 20m from launch - time 1 minute 24 seconds.
We love MTA stories - if you have any to share then please let us know...
Two boomerang throwing world records were set over the past weekend at the Beach Boomerang Tournament in Viareggio, Italy. Initially, the current World Champion, German Fridolin Frost, extended his own Aussie Round world record from 96 to 99 points (out of 100). Shortly afterwards, his fellow countryman Alex Opri followed his lead by equalling the Accuracy record of 99 points (out of 100). Alex now shares that record with another two German throwers, HG Hoffmann and Thomas Szartowicz. Coincidentally, all three of these previous records were set at the same Swiss tournament in 2005. Despite their obvious form, both were still easily beaten in the overall scoring by a masterful performance by Swiss star Manuel Schütz. Manu scored 95 in the Accuracy and Aussie Round competitions, completed Fast catch in 15.78 seconds, took an arguably disappointing (!) 68 catches during Endurance, kept his MTA aloft for 43.39 seconds, and also scored 379 in Trick Catch/Doubling (the second highest score ever, and just behind his own record of 390).
13th October 2007
7 Brits try out Virtual Tourno
A relatively new thing in the world of boomerang tourno's. Dates are posted, normally 3 days - and everyone who wants to try, has to commit to these days - any will do.
Hold a competition - even if you are on your own. Practice as much as you wish - but when you are ready - its game on. No turning back if you have a crap round. Then post your results online, and compare them to other throwers from accross the boomerang global community.
Due to the nature of single scoring, only these events are contested (although there is nothing to stop you doing others) - the events are -:
Endurance
Fast Catch
Accuracy
Trick
6 Brits met at Pickwick fields in Birmingham, and Ollie threw somewhere in a mysterious place called Northumberland.
In Birmingham....
Martin (Pickwick Rules) Laslett Mark (Please Shut up) Lisney Greg ( I have crashed my car again) McKenna Rob (Left Hand ? right Hand ?) Russel Adam (Are you sure that wasnt 20m?) McLaughlin Jim (Safe Hands) Millar
The only thing missing from perfect conditions was sunshine. Apart from that is was spot on. We did not start until 14:30 - so that meant just over 3 hours of reasonable daylight.
Well for Brits we got some pretty damn good scores - look at the Endurance results. We did everything apart from Aussie round, and we also held proper competition standards - ie line marking, and good marking out of lines. In other words - the scores were accurate.
Some personal bests were gotten - now we need to decide if these counts in the bigger scheme of things. I would suggest that they all do, except for MTA, which was unlimited, and there is no way of telling if Adam's 47 sec was over the 100m line.....
Notable scores were Marks 51 endurance .... Adams 90 trick catch ... Martin 83 Accuracy, and Adams 47 sec MTA.
We all had a great time, and had quite a few spectators at one stage.
I quite like this format - its definately better with your throwing friends though....
Until the next one..... !
Claim that Boomerang is British
Invention is far fetched
Claims have been made that the inscription on the Swastika
stone on Ilkley Moor may have been a picture of the first Boomerang. Therefore
some people have claimed that this is evidence that the Boomerang was invented
in
A picture of the engraving can be seen at: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/380
The BBS believe it is extremely unlikely for two main
reasons: Firstly the shape on the Swastika stone is only similar to
modern sports boomerangs. It is not similar to traditional V-shaped returning
boomerangs, or throw sticks. Modern sports boomerangs using more than two
blades have only been made since the 1960’s, according to the weight of all
other available evidence. The BBS has not seen much evidence of multi-bladed
boomerangs (i.e. 3 or 4 wings) that pre-date sport boomeranging, (but see
below). Secondly the oldest boomerangs that have been found in other
parts of the world pre-date the Swastika stone engraving. The oldest known
throwstick is dated around 30,000 years ago which pre-dates the 3-4000 BC date
that has been claimed for the Swastika stone. Even if throwsticks are excluded,
and boomerangs are defined as returning boomerangs, then there are other claims
to returning boomerangs from this period from
This said, however, in Scandinavian mythology there are
references to cross shaped weapons acting like returning boomerangs. Thorrs
Hammer was said to have returned to him (otherwise how would he have been able
to throw it again). The cross or Swastika shape is referred to in mythology as
a Fylfot (which is alarmingly an anagram of ‘Fly Oft’ ! The conspiracy grows !)
Please see this interesting link on Swastika shapes and boomerangs from the
So perhaps the inscription was made by a follower of Thorr, or even Thorr himself, in an odd moment sketching round one of his mates boomerangs. Perhaps the words to the famous traditional song were originally ‘On Ilkely Moor Thorr sat, On Ilkely Moor Thorr sat…………..etc..’ ! (Or maybe that is a bit far fetched as well.)
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