Life Member

Jim Burton

Few Amateur sportsmen have given and achieved as much for their sport as Jim Burton has for archery and the Gisborne Archery Club.

It all started during the Second World War when Jim, as secretary and founder of the Miniature Rifle Club, suggested archery as an alternative when the shortage of ammunition put a stop to the club's activities. And so was born the Gisborne Archery Club, and for Jim a sporting career which was to make him the most outstanding archer of modern times.

In 1943 he won his first championships, the local and national titles, and started a winning run which was to last 23 years until his retirement from competitive shooting in 1965.

In those 23 years he won every club championship, and every national championship he competed in (14 in all), except two, in which he was placed second and third. Internationally he soon asserted himself as a modern-day marvel, taking eleven world titles over a period of 14 years.

Perhaps his most outstanding performance was in the Seefab Cup, an international postal shoot conducted by the Swedish Archery Association, which he won six times out of seven (he was placed second the other time). The trophy is presented permanently to any person winning it three times, and with his six victories, Jim performed an unprecedented feat by winning it outright twice.

While more than occupied with his active participation in the sport, Jim still found time to do his share of administration work, both for the archery club and for the rifle club with which he had remained actively associated. Today he is chief project trustee of the Archery Club, is patron of the Gisborne Miniature Rifle Club and Wairoa Rifle Club, is president of the East Coast Rifle Association and Gisborne Rifle Club, and has been secretary of the H.B. Rifle Association for 30 years.

His election in 1950 to life membership of the Gisborne Archery Club was a fitting and true tribute in recognition of his contribution to the sport and club.

Also an accomplished rifle shot (he still holds two N.Z. records), Jim is pictured with his trophies after the 1948 N.Z. champs at Trentham where he won the N.Z. Grand Aggregate Cup, the Service Championship Belt, and the Australian Aggregate Cup.