Archery will come to Lord's Cricket Ground next month for the first time in the London venue's 220-year history when it plays host to an international triangular tournament featuring Great Britain, China and India.
The August 6 event, which features both men's and women's teams, will give the ground experience of the sport ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London when Lord's is due to stage the archery competition. Devised and organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owners of Lord's, and the Grand National Archery Society (GNAS), the competition will take place after the completion, the previous day, of the Archery World Cup in Dover, on England's south-east coast. Keith Bradshaw, MCC's secretary and chief executive, said Saturday: "I'm delighted that we will be staging this genuinely historic sporting contest. It will be particularly exciting to welcome Chinese competitors to Lord's for the first time."
The Australian added: "It's all part of our policy of increasing public interest in archery in the approach to 2012. We're also committed to giving British archers every opportunity to train and compete at Lord's in the run-up to the London Olympics, to give them the best possible chance of going for gold in the Games themselves."
GNAS's Alf Davies said: "Working together, MCC and GNAS have been developing this idea for many months. I'm delighted that we've now got the go-ahead from each of the three competing nations."
"I am sure it will be a great thrill for each of the archers to take part in the first-ever archery contest at Lord's - one of the world's greatest sporting stages," he added of an event where admission will be free. "It will also give them invaluable experience of competing at a ground which will host the Olympic archery competition in five years' time."
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