Archery at Lord's: China v India v GB

Date released: 26 July 2007

An international archery tournament is to be staged this summer at Lord's - the venue for the archery competition in the London 2012 Olympic Games - for the first time in the ground's 220 year history.

In another historic first, the contestants at Lord's will include teams from China.

Olympic archer, Alison Williamson, will be in the GB team at Lord's The GB team will include Olympic medalist, Alison Williamson, star at no fewer than five Olympic Games.

This triangular tournament - The npower International Archery Challenge, for The MCC Cup - will take place on the morning of Monday 6th August (from 10am to noon) and involve world-class men's and women's sides from Great Britain and India, as well as China.

Devised and organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Grand National Archery Society (GNAS), the competition will take place after the completion, the previous day, of the Meteksan Archery World Cup in Dover. As a result, the archers from the three nations competing at Lord's - which have a combined population of 2.4 billion - will be some of the world's best.

MCC's Keith Bradshaw Announcing the tournament, MCC's Secretary & Chief Executive, Keith Bradshaw said: "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."

"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 provide them with the best possible chance of going for gold in the Games themselves", he added.

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. It will also give them invaluable experience of competing at a ground which will host the Olympic archery competition in five years' time. Everyone at GNAS is looking forward to history, and new friends, being made at Lord's on Monday 6th August."

There will be free ground admission for this historic event, which has been warmly welcomed by both London 2012 and archery's international governing body - FITA.

MCC strongly recommends that spectators bring binoculars with them.

For more information about hospitality packages for the event, contact the MCC Hospitality Team.