Jack Matthews Woodchopping success in Australia
22 Apr
Over the school holiday break Jack Matthews (Head Boy) competed in The Sydney Royal Easter Show in Woodchopping.
Over the school holiday break Jack Matthews (Head Boy) and Scott Matthews (previous Head Boy) competed in The Sydney Royal Easter Show. It is Jack’s last year as an U18 competitor in this sport. They had fantastic success continuing to achieve great things in the realm of woodchopping.
The Sydney Royal Easter Show is known in the woodchopping world as the ‘Wimbledon of Woodchopping’, attracting more than 200 woodchoppers from all over the world, including USA, Canada, Spain, Ireland and of course, (besides Australia), New Zealand. The show itself, which is just like a massive A&P show, draws crowds of 90k plus, a day over the Easter break. It runs from the 11th April to 22nd April.
Jack represented himself very well, placing in both open events and U18 events. He achieved:
– 4th place in a 300 mm underhand second division,
– 3rd in a 300 mm standing block,
– 3rd in 275 mm U18 Junior Standing Championship, (where he was the only non-Australian in the final)
– 2nd in the U18 Junior Underhand Handicap.
Unfortunately, Jack didn’t get to compete in all of the events that he had entered, as at the end of one of his events, he fell and got cut by his axe in his leg, which required 14 stitches.
Scott (Jack’s brother) also had a successful few days, placing
– 3rd in 300 mm standing second division,
– 3rd in the 300 mm underhand second division (with Jack getting 4th),
– 1st in 300 mm underhand, second division.
In their double sawing event, they also made the final but just missed out on a placing.
There were several world titles held at the show, which were great to see and experience, first hand, just as the whole event was.
