Taking aim at summer sports: archery, cricket and squash

By Kat Jiang | Jul 31, 2009

on Hongkou Football Stadium Squash Center, Shanghai East Asia Squash Court, Daoshun Archery (Luwan Club), Daoshun Archery (Pudong Club), Shanghai Cricket Club

A group of teenage girls take aim at the target during an archery lesson. Once used for hunting and combat, archery has now become a recreational activity.

---

For those who are not in the summer swim of things, there are other ways to keep fit, like archery, cricket and squash.

Cricket

Although cricket is wildly popular in Britain, Australia, India, Pakistan and elsewhere, it's not that popular among Chinese.

The Shanghai Cricket Club dates back to 1863 and was reorganized in 1994.

The council of the club is now trying to organize activities to create "Cricket Shanghai." It also provides indoor games and instruction for beginners.

The grounds are shared with the Shanghai Rugby Football Club at Dulwich College Shanghai in Pudong New Area.

Shanghai started its own cricket association last year, focusing on university clubs.

Cricket can pretty much be played anywhere, from a big backyard to the beach. All you need is some space and basic equipment.

If you get serious about the game, you can join the Dragons (men's team) of the Shanghai Cricket Club. The women's team is the Pearls.

Archery

Auditor Zhuang Siyue takes archery lessons at the annex building of Luwan Stadium these days and finds it calming.

"The heavy pressure from work and the hot weather exhaust me, but I can find tranquility and harmony with bow and arrows," she says. "I isolate myself from the hustle and bustle this summer."

Archery is the art, practice and skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow.

Once used for hunting and combat, archery has now become a recreational activity, and an Olympic sport.

You can practice indoors on a court or outdoors, and borrow a whole set of equipment.

Indoor ranges are 18 to 25 meters.

Archery requires the same precision, calculation and skills as shooting, but it also takes strength and speed to draw the bow and let fly the arrow so it reaches the target.

Daoshun Archery is a popular choice, an entertainment center offering American, French and Korean styles of archery and equipment.

There are courts for friendly games of badminton, table tennis and darts.

Staff provide instructions.

Squash

If you want to work up a sweat but stay out of the sun, there's always squash, an ancient racket sport played in a four-walled court by two or four players.

As with cricket, Shanghai has its own squash association that offers lessons and organizes competitions and tournaments.

Most squash courts in the city offer lessons.

The Shanghai East Asia Squash Court is the largest in Shanghai.

It's next to the Shanghai Stadium and connects with the Shanghai East Asia Tennis Courts. It offers four standard courts and provides rackets, changing rooms, showers and a canteen.