It is important to keep in mind that while jousting and melee were resteicted to the nobility, commoners could and did participate in archery competitions as well. Tournaments injected money into an economy where they were held, and markets tended to crop up around them. So commoners definitely attended and would be privy to the results. As far as word travelling from locality to locality, I'm not sure. But regions definitely had the equivalent of sporting stars, sometimes knights, often commoners who were skilled in archery. For example, a local celebrity sportsman (arbalest marksman in tournies) was a prominent leader in one of the most perplexing and fascinating peasant revolts in pre-Revolutionary France. Anyone interested in the story can get the book for .01 plus shipping on amazon, one of the best written history books by one of the world's most famous historians. (Le Roy Lauderie Carnival in Romans)

Georges Duby discusses the role of the tourney in Medieval France in The Chivalrous Society