Phachey Sernya lifts traditional archery tourney at Yangthang

YANGTHANG [SAMDONG], 23 Feb: Phachey Sernya lifted the trophy of the traditional archery tournament organized by Yangthang Archery Association by beating Assam Lingzey Church in the final match played here on Wednesday. The winner scored 36 points while the opponent scored only 13 points.
Area MLA, Tumin Lingee constituency-cum-Chief Whip, Ugen Gyatso Bhutia was present as the chief guest accompanied by Zilla panchayat, Saraswati Regmi, SDF Cheli vice-convenor, Tika Devi Nepal, ward panchayat, senior party members and government contractors as the guests of honour.
The final rounds of the one-sided match turned interesting as the guests of honour announced Rs. 1,000 to players who shot the target and Rs. 5,000 to those who shot thubjey [two consecutive targets by the same player].
Though none of the players were able to shoot thubjey but Phachey players managed to earn 2 points by hitting the target once to win the tournament.
The chief guest also announced Rs. 2000 each for single target hit and Rs. 10,000 for thubjey. As the tournament was already over, the committee decided to organize extra rounds with new rules. Two top players from each team were selected and given 5 arrows each.
In this too, no one scored thubjey but Saroj Rai, team captain of Assam Lingzey and Samcho Bhutia of Phachey bagged a target each winning Rs. 2000 each in cash.
Then, both of them were given three arrows and the one to hit the target first was to receive a cash prize of Rs. 6,000. None of them shot the target and the chief guest distributed the amount to both the teams equally.
During the tournament Ms. Pubry Bhutia was felicitated for her utmost dedication towards the promotion of traditional archery in the area along with her late husband Tashi Bhutia. She was handed over a shawl and citation by the chief guest.
In his address, the chief guest expressed happiness and gratitude towards the organizing committee. He said that by organizing such tournaments, the committee had done a great job for preserving and promoting age-old traditions of the state.
“Now traditional archery has been inducted in PYKKA, I will do whatever I can to promote this game in the area,” he assured.
Later, Samcho Bhutia of Phachey was awarded Man of the Match trophy along with a cash prize of Rs. 1,000. Pema Ongyal Bhutia of the same team bagged the Man of Series trophy along with Rs. 1,000 cash prize.
The winners trophy alongwith a cash prize of Rs. 10,000 was handed over to Phachey team captain by the chief guest. The runners up were handed over a trophy and cash prize of Rs. 7,000.
The chief guest from his side handed over cash prize of Rs. 3,000 to the match umpire, Tashi Bhutia for free and fair judgement.