FROM family ties that bind to family eyes that win.

If there's anywhere in York where the eyes have it, it has to be Acomb's Ingleby household.

Father Geoffrey and daughters Laura, Kathleen and Jessica, are all dead-eye shots in the world of archery.

Members of the Ebor Archery Club, they have rounded off a quite startling outdoor season.

Ingleby senior was the latest on the treasure trail when he gained two new national records in the final outdoor event of the calendar year - the Rutland County and Open Archery Championships in Lincolnshire.

Ingleby, a 46-year-old engineer with British Telecom, shot 120 metres in the single one-way Fita clout event, then 251 metres in the double event. Both records - subject to ratification - smashed the previous best.

That double glee followed record-breaking exploits in the British championships, where Ingleby set a new 180-metre class record.

But it's like father, like daughters in the Ingleby clan.

Earlier this year both Laura and Jessica won the Yorkshire under-18 and under-13 championships respectively, while Kathleen was second in a high-class under-16 field.

Their speciality is clout shooting, which aims arrows from longbows into the air towards targets painted on the ground as opposed to the shorter, and more expensive and technically-equipped bows, from which archers aim at upright targets.

Said Ingleby senior: "Clout shooting more accurately simulates how archers would fare in battle. And in that discipline everybody's just got a bit of wood."

His dalliance with so-called 'bits of wood' has expanded across 32 years. As his expertise grew so did his daughters' skill.

All four train with Ebor AC at its York Civil Service and Sports groundin Boroughbridge Road. For details contact Ben Turner tel York (01904) 798640.

Updated: 12:25 Wednesday, October 31, 2001