Knife, Axe, Tomahawk Throwing Association UK Tournament, 2011

The 14th August 2011 saw 21 throwers from all over the world descend on our throwing ranges at the Paintball Commando site, near Brotherton, West Yorkshire. Yes, I know that sounds grand but we were graced with the company of John Grabowski from the USA and Gaetano D’Avenia from Italy who, at short notice, took the trouble to attend and throw with us..

The weather was brilliant in that it was not too hot but there was no rain !

Due to the lack of target rounds that are large enough to accomodate the European and IKTHOF rules’ targets we had to improvise using sets of the old style, smaller, 3 ring targets for the knife throwing. We used the larger targets that we had for the tomahawk and Flying Angel competitions.

As a lot of our throwers are just starting to learn how to throw it was decided to do away with the necessity of standing behind specific distance lines. Rather, beginners were encouraged to take part in the competition from wherever they felt comfortable, so long as they performed the specific discipline i.e 1 1/2 spin hawk.

After an hour or so’s practising the tournament started in earnest.

The knife, hawk and Flying Angel competitions took till about 3.00pm. The Snooker/ Knife ( Snife ) game was then played which incorporates the colours, as in snooker. That was good fun.

After that the long distance knife, hawk and Flying angels competitions took place. This was accompanied by a lot of oooh’s and ahh’s when hits and misses took place.

To round the afternoon off we had an Anything throw. This involves throwing up to 10 obscure items, including a crowbar, wheel brace, trowel, lawn rake head, pair of pliers and garden shears, spinning them and making them stick. Now that was good fun.

Finally, the scores and positions were given out along with fridge magnets to mark the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions. Everyone received an ” I LOVE KNIFE THROWING ” key ring.

We had been given a Trench Hawk by Cold Steel. This was presented to the overall Champion of the Day who was Richard Sunderland.

This was a great day where a lot of like minded people got together and had a lot of serious competition and fun. A day to remember.

Photos courtesy of Martin Hainsworth.