The Indoor Worcester Archery Round

The Indoor Worcester Archery Round

I don't remember shooting the Worcester Archery Round before, but fellow members assure me that I have It's rather unusual, which makes a nice change.

60 arrows at 20 yards onto a 16 inch face which - wait for it - is black & white. AND there are two of them - one above the other!

What's more, each end is just 5 arrows and it's 5-zone scoring - which works out as a maximum 25 possible for each end and max possible score for the whole Worcester round is 300. The white circle is the 'gold' and scores 5. You start by shooting 30 arrows (6 ends of 5) onto the top target and the next 30 onto the bottom target. If you hit the wrong target those arrows do not score.

I like Worcesters, probably because they are different, and it's why I always look forward to the Arundown Worcester Triple in February.

Here's a link to the Arundown club's site: http://www.arundown.org.uk/
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Poor Turnout to Start of Our Indoor Season!

Poor Turnout to Start of Our Indoor Season!

As the nights draw in, it's always difficult to reset my routine to  shooting indoors, mainly because of timing. But then again, it doesn't rain indoors, which has to be a plus!

Our winter calendar was sent out ages ago, but on Sunday, those that did turn up at Tideway, Newhaven, were wondering if anyone had actually read it.

It was the first session and that means equipment has to be transferred from the field to the school. By the time I got there at 1pm, everything had been all but set up and it was just left to pin faces to the bosses. Then we all waited 45 minutes for the scheduled 2pm start - and no-one else came!

We were expecting lots of our new members to come along and enjoy a different kind of shoot.

Oh well, perhaps next week.

Meanwhile, if you see this -

READ YOUR CALENDAR AND ARRIVE AT LEAST 30 MINUTES BEFORE STARTING TIME!!!

The rule for all is set up the hall before you set up your bow, then when it's all over, take down the hall before taking down your bow. Many hands make light work.

We all look forward to seeing you next time - how it works will all be explained, so come along and enjoy!
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Beginners CAN Win the Burntwood Trophy!

We have a special annual competition in the Newhaven Archery Club. It's called 'The Burntwood' and was set up by Jane Skinner about 5 years ago. The trophy is very different, (see pic) and in addition the winner and runners up get a very cute archer teddy.

The Burntwood Trophy and Archer Ted

What is especially unusual is the match itself and the fact that even a beginner can win it - I'm living proof as I won it myself last year - my first full year of archery (I was very surprised when they called out my name!).

This is because it's a handicap shoot, which means that people with a big handicap but very low score, can leap-frog the more experienced archers with low handicaps and very high scores. But you need to have a handicap registered to win - so you must have shot a few full rounds and logged them with the Records Officer.

The round itself is also unusual. Based on a distance of 30 metres but on 4 different target face sizes - starting with the 40cm, then 60cm, 80cm and finally the big 122cm. Each is 3 dozen arrows, so 12 dozen overall for the round. So it's an all-day shoot. Bring your lunch!

So, to all beginners I say - come along and have a go. You have every chance of leaving with a trophy under your arm and a teddy in your pocket.

I look forward to seeing you there - bring your own refreshments. (All-day match.)

Sunday, 30th September setting up from 08.30 with assembly at 10.00 and sighters at 10.15.
Make sure your wet-weather gear is to hand as only lightning or smog will cancel the event.
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The Joys of Archery Handicaps

The Joys of Archery Handicaps

Today we had our NAC Summer Championships. Not too many of us, sadly, but we enjoyed the day. A complete mix of young/old and all bow types either shot the whole day or came just for the afternoon.

I think there were some people who were VERY surprised to go home with their newly won trophies! It does come as a big surprise when a beginner shoots their very best, but doesn't achieve a very high score - yet is called up as the 1st place winner.

It happened to me last year when I won the Burntwood - a trophy which I must return in 2 weeks' time and try and win it back. However, with the beginners now having registered their handicaps, I will be hard-pressed to do that.

That's the joy (or bane) of the handicap system. It puts everyone on an even playing field, just a few points difference in handicap can result in someone with a lower score leap-frogging everyone else and winning!

That's why we encourage our new beginner members to shoot proper rounds and send their scores in to the Records Officer every time. You can only get a handicap once you have shot at least 3 proper rounds. Well worth doing if it means you may be the next proud (and very surprised) winners of the top awards.

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Upgrading my bow

I've finally decided to bite the bullet and upgrade my bow - limbs & riser. I was going to just buy new limbs, but when I got them they didn't fit my riser, so I ended up having to upgrade that as well.The new riser is a bit lighter - so back to finding sight marks again!

At the same time as I was eBaying for bits and bobs, I came across someone who makes bowslings. As I bought most of my main equipment 2 years ago, my old sling is started to fray, so now I have a rather smart black/green one. I've put a link to the supplier in the links page too, http://www.customcord.co.uk/

A very busy month coming up - NAC Champiosnhips, an inter-club match vs Plumpton and the Burntwood - for which I am defending my title (so to speak).

Here's a tip: even if you are a beginner from this year's intake, rattle off a few proper scoring rounds and you may win the Burntwood! You just need to have a handicap registered. That's how I managed it last year. I had an awful score, but my handicap leap-frogged me to the win. Go for it!

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Olympic Archery Tickets

Olympic Archery Tickets

Apparently there are some more tickets available and when last I checked they included one of the finals afternoons. I've decided I'm going to watch on TV or my mobile if they stream it. Should be good.
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Olympics 2012 Archery Tickets - All gone!

I've just checked the tickets website and there are none available for any of the archery events. Not to worry, hopefully there will be some good coverage on TV. Unfortunately, I left it too late to buy any for myslef, but I do know a certain member who was given a couple for his birthday - lucky man! (Paul - you know who you are - enjoy for all of us!)

While I'm here - a warm welcome to all the new members who have joined Newhaven Archery Club having successfully completed the Beginners course last month. I enjoyed helping trainees 'on the line' and look forward to seeing you at Firle soon.

The revised NAC website is still 'under construction', so you may notice some discrepancies in the dates and some bad links. I'm not doing it, but the person who is is beavering away personfully.

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Olympics 2012 Archery at Lords

Olympics 2012 Archery at Lords


I'm going to see if I can make it to one of these events, and if I can't make a final, I'm sure the preliminary competitions will be almost as good (and hopefully I can record the finals to watch later anyway).


So, here are some useful links for you:

Main Olympics Archery page
http://www.london2012.com/archery/

Competition Schedule
http://www.tickets.london2012.com/schedule.html
where you can download the schedule pdf - fortunately, Archery is first on the list!

Tickets go on sale at 11am on 17th May 2012
http://www.tickets.london2012.com/timeline.html
scroll down to find archery under the date

How about an Olympics 2012 Pictogram badge? I've just ordered mine:
Click here (official site)

Or visit the official Olympics 2012 shop:
http://shop.london2012.com/

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The Selby League - Archery

The Selby League - Archery

Every year for the outdoor season, clubs are invited to submit their best scores to the Selby League - like a football league competition for archery clubs.

For compound, recurve and barebow, The shoot is a Short Metric, which is 3 dozen arrows at 50 metres on an 80cm target (10 zone scoring) and a further 36 arrows on the same size target at 30 metres. It's a longbow shoot as well, but they do 4 dozen - 2 dozen (at 80 yards and 60 yards respectively - I think!). Maximum possible score is 720.

The top 3 scores for both (longbow and the rest) are sent off to the league as a total score.

It's a bit difficult finding out much information about this league, so I do need to ask a club member to be sure I have got this right, but it was a good shoot this afternoon, my first and I scored a total of 314. Bearing in mind that I've just changed my string (from 18 to 16 strand) and haven't shot these distances before, then it's a start - and I will do better next time when I hope it won't be so blooming cold.

Many of us were dressed up in 4 or 5 layers of clothing for much of the afternoon - I was pleasantly warm after just a couple of ends.

June 2012 Update - my latest score is 342 (with not-so-good arrows). And it was much warmer!
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Changes to this blog

I have just made a change and moved what was the main/home page to it's own section now called Links - local and beyond.

This means that I can now make this front page more dynamic and hopefully more interesting.

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NEW LINK - - - NEW LINK - - - NEW LINK - - -

Check out Aim Archery - the south coast's newest archery shop! Only 18.5 miles from Firle field.

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Next up, let me announce the Newhaven Archery Club 2012 Open Day - Saturday 21st April from 10am to 4pm.
Directions may be found in the NAC website - click here (It's a very small private road.)

Hopefully it won't rain, but we only cancel if it's really pouring down. This is the build-up to our next Beginners Course which for this year is being run over 2 consecutive weekends - 19th & 20th May and 26th & 27th all 2-5pm.

More details may be found on the NAC website and by contacting the Club Secretary - newhaven_archery@yahoo.co.uk.

I'll be there at the Open Day and the training, so do come and find me.

Finally, if you are a club member, even though not officially started, some of us are going to the field evenings and weekends. I like to go Tuesday and Friday evenings, and if I know someone else will be there, I go Saturday or Sunday for a couple of hours as well. I try to make the most of the weather, but as you know, we may not shoot alone.

New members - start building up your scores