Fortunately, the hot summer had chosen this weekend to make a break, otherwise the third Throwers Meeting at the Little Big Horse Ranch would have been quite sweaty. Being as it is, the event was held in perfect t-shirt conditions.
As usual, the first throwers from the south of Germany arrived on Friday. They could still see the color drying on the targets and of course try out the training target that had a generous backstop to catch missed throws. The camp fire was put out by rain, so the dinner sausages had to be eaten in the waterproof "saloon", where you could join in on throwing related discussions till late at night. The accommodations for the night were the brand new Indian round hut, the tent or the "living room in the hay". Throwers from farer away, like Michel Dujay from southern France, enjoyed the comfort of a nice hotel in town.
After the breakfast on Saturday, everybody started his training throws, and more and more throwers arrived, among them many faces familiar from previous meetings. Last preparations were made to get the competition targets ready, which were aligned in a semi-circle this year to make the area easier to overlook for the spectators. Philippe Catania and wife arrived from Corsica, so everybody had a chance to warm up his French and English.
After lunch, a goulash soup from the campfire, Christian Prestin explained the security rules and opened the competition. There was no special event for women this year, experiences from previous events show that they tend to throw better than men! The well proven order for the events remained unchanged: knives short, knives middle, axes short, axes middle, knives distance, axes distance. At each of the seven targets there was a referee and a secretary who were recruited among the non-throwing participants and competent spectators. This minimized the number of non-throwing helpers necessary. In the brakes you could abuse the training target, enjoy a coffee from the bar or go to the table of the jury to examine Dieters knives and the videos from our shop that were exposed there for sale.
Thanks to the organizers, all events passed without problems! The big thing were the distance events, where we had two new records this year. Holzfäller Jack just walked to the 16 meter line, threw and planted the axe in the target... The rest of the throwers could just struggle for the second and third place :-) At the following award ceremony, it was evident that some throwers were again in top places at multiple events. The day ended relaxed around the campfire with animated chats till late at night.
Sunday started gemütlich with breakfast and fun throwing, that is everybody could try out other knives/tools or crazy throwing styles. Quite some throwers sadly had to travel home already. Noon then saw an event very important for our sport: the foundation of the first European Throwing Club! Even though the negotiations had to be done with simultaneous translation German/French, the fourteen founding members could finally agree on name and statute, and the European Throwing Club Flying Blades (Eurothrowers) came into existence! The goal of the club is to network axe- and knife throwers throughout Europe and to assist in organising events. Additionally, the public shall be informed about our sport.

Many thanks again to Christian Prestin and the whole team from the LBHR who organised this event! Next year, the torch is to be passed on, so that the Big Throwers Meeting can perhaps be held in another country.

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The official list can be found at the LBHR. The results are also in the database at StickingPoint.

Knife short

Place 1	Michael	65 points
Place 2	Thomas	58 points
Place 3	Franz	57 points
Place 3	Daniel	57 points
Place 5	Philippe	56 points
Place 6	Dieter	50 points
Place 7	Steffen	49 points
Place 8	Jenny	47 points
Place 9	Holzfäller Jack	42 points
Place 10	Doc	41 points
Place 11	Nadine	40 points
Place 12	Michel	34 points
Place 13	Sigrid	29 points
Place 14	Frank	27 points
Place 15	Hacker	25 points
Place 16	Matze	22 points
Place 17	Medi	21 points
Place 18	Peter	19 points
Place19	Heiko	11 points
Place20	Christian T.	8 points
Place21	Christoph	5 points
Place22	Annette	0 points

Knife middle

Place 1	Michael	41 points
Place 2	Franz	38 points
Place 3	Daniel	35 points
Place 4	Dieter	32 points
Place 5	Michel	30 points
Place 6	Philippe	30 points
Place 7	Holzfäller Jack	26 points
Place 8	Thomas	24 points
Place 8	Hacker	21 points
Place 8	Medi	15 points
Place 11	Doc	13 points
Place 11	Christian T.	13 points
Place 13	Matze	8 points
Place 14	Sigrid	3 points

Knife distance

Place 1	Philippe	11,30 meter
Place 2	Michael	10,70 meter
Place 3	Dieter	8,43 meter
Place 4	Michel	7,95 meter
Place 5	Hacker	6,78 meter
Place 6	Daniel	5,04 meter
Place 7	Christian T.	-
Place 8	Holzfäller Jack	-
Place 8	Franz	-

Axe short

Place 1	Thomas	62 points
Place 2	Michael	60 points
Place 3	Franz	58 points
Place 4	Alleswerfer	56 points
Place 5	Daniel	53 points
Place 6	Standing Bear	45 points
Place 7	Medi	44 points
Place 7	Schredder	39 points
Place 7	Dieter	34 points
Place 10	Holzfäller Jack	31 points
Place 11	Doc	22 points
Place 12	Jenny	21 points
Place 13	Frank	9 points

Axe middle

Place 1	Michael	48 points
Place 2	Dieter	46 points
Place 3	Holzfäller Jack	34 points
Place 4	Alleswerfer	26 points
Place 5	Doc	24 points
Place 6	Standing Bear	23 points
Place 6	Medi	23 points
Place 8	Daniel	20 points
Place 9	Franz	12 points
Place 10	Schredder	11 points
Place 11	Frank	10 points
Place 12	Thomas	6 points

Axe distance

Place 1	Holzfäller Jack	16,09 meter
Place 2	Franz	11,85 meter
Place 3	Dieter	10,22 meter
Place 4	Daniel	9,54 meter
Place 5	Michael	9,35 meter
Place 6	Schredder	6,96 meter
Place 7	Standing Bear	-
Place 7	Frank	-
Place 7	Thomas	-

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• Only knives with a rigid blade, longer than 23cm and narrower than 6cm (referee can allow other knives after a test throw of the participant).
• Axes with one and two blades heavier than 500g. Axes should be such (handle and head clearly distinguishable). With double-edged axes, only sticks with handle down count.
• Participants younger than 18 years must be accompanied by a parent. Every participant has to have a third party liability insurance.
• 2,50 Euro starting fee for each event.
• Events: 3m (short) knife and axe, 5,50m (middle) knife and axe, given are the minimum distances, no mandatory spins (spin rule can be decided at the event); distance event knife and axe;
• At the short and middle distance events, one has 21 throws (seven targets, three throws at each). The knife will be scored after every single throw. One may leave it in the target. Before the three throws at each target, one may do a test throw, the participant has to declare in advance if he wishes to do so.
• You may only throw after the commando of the referee! Exception is the throwing in the training area, which may be used in competition brakes if and when the main referee declares it open for throwing. Here, every thrower is especially responsible for the security of his throws! Anybody throwing without permission in the training area or at other targets and anybody throwing in competition without waiting for the commando will be disqualified and not be allowed to compete in any event of this competition.
• Scoring: Bullseye black 6cm 4 points, first ring red 20cm 3 points, second ring white 40cm 2 points, third ring red 50cm 1 point.
• Knives will be straightened (90°angel to the target) before scoring, if two rings are touched, the higher counts.
• The counting point with axes is the middle of that part of the blade that sticks in the target. Here again: In dubio pro reo.
• Heights of the targets: 1,35m up to 1,75m.
• The referee is always right. If you do not observe the rules, especially those meant for security, you will be sent off the place.
• Special regulations (for example regarding techniques, tools, styles) must be granted by the main referee and approved by the majority of the competing throwers that are affected.