2012 Olympics Archery at Lords Cricket Ground

With only one year to go until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have just announced the 26 venues for sporting events for the Games and confirm preparations for the Games are on track.

Venues have been chosen to showcase London and Lord's Cricket Ground (generally known as Lord's) will be the archery venue. Lord's (commonly referred to as the ’home of cricket’) is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London and is named after its founder, Thomas Lord and is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Cricket was first played there in 1814 and over the years, there has been many exciting matches with the most famous being the Ashes Series played between England and Australia.

Lord's (opposite with the Media Centre in the background) is steeped in cricket history and at first you would wonder how a large oval would suit archery, which needs the closeness of its spectators to add that excitement to the events. An archery range will be created on the outfield of the main ground and the Nursery ground. Crowds of 6,500 will enjoy the Games archery competition, with one field of play inside the stadium. After the Games, archery equipment from the training, warm up and competition venues will be given to clubs and schools across the UK.

England cricket captain Andrew Strauss has pledged his support for Lord's as the Olympic Archery venue. Andrew was at Lord's today to meet GB archers Alison Williamson and Simon Terry and to shoot some arrows at targets on the pitch. Andrew said “Lord's will be a first-class venue for archery at the London 2012 Olympic Games, just as it is for cricket. I am very excited at the prospect of watching archery in such a spectacular setting and it will be great for the profile of Lord's to be part of such an historic event.”

Sebastian Coe, LOCOG Chair said “Lord's is an exciting and important location for the London 2012 Games. It is a world-class venue and will provide a spectacular and innovative setting for Olympic Archery. I am proud of the fact that we are using so many of London's existing venues and Lord's is one of the most iconic.”

The existing layout and facilities of Lord's will be used, including the Pavilion and the Media Centre. In addition, some temporary structures such as seating will be installed to enable spectators to get closer to the action. The field of play will be positioned so that the archers will shoot from the historic Pavilion over the square towards the Media Centre. There will be eight days of competition, two team events, two individual events, with 64 men and 64 women archers taking part. There will be approximately 5000 spectators per session.

Abbey Archery will keep you posted on any news as it comes to hand.