January Challenge
Archery GB are running their annual January Challenge again. See link below for details. This is an informal postal competition in which anyone can submit their best Portsmouth score shot in January. Please note you don’t need to submit your own scores, I can upload everybody’s best Portsmouth score(s) en masse at the end of January so you don’t have to do anything but turn up and shoot a great Portsmouth! If you are fairly new to archery then there is a separate beginners section for those who have been shooting for less than one year. Also if you have been shooting for 25 years or more there is a “senior” group which is usually sparse, so let me know if you were chucking arrows in 1995!
Note : if for any reason you don’t want your scores submitted then let me know by the end of January.
New Year Shoot : Outdoors
As well as our usual indoor shoots we will be having an extra shoot outdoors on the 1st January to shake off the holiday excess and start the New Year afresh.
The round is a nice easy St. Nicholas: 4 dozen at 40 yards followed by 3 dozen at 30 yards (6 arrows per end.) Yes, it is a full size outdoor target face which will seem huge after those tiny indoor circles.
Arrive at 10am for a 10:30 start [note a tad later than normal, in case some of you have over-celebrated.]
The Wednesday evening indoor shoot will still take place as normal.
And don’t forget we will be outdoors again on Sunday 5th for the next Frostbite! [9:30 for 10am start.]
Grand Prix
It is the indoor season again, and once more we will be running the Grand Prix competition. To “enter” all you have to do is shoot a Portsmouth, WA25, Worcester and Vegas round at least once each this season. The highest score you achieve in each of the four rounds is added together to give you a grand total.
The competition is divided into categories based on bow type, gender and age group. If you shoot more than one bow type then you will be in more than one category, so more chance to get on the medal list. The top three total scores in each category win gold, silver and bronze Grand Prix medals.
If you are uncertain of what the four rounds are then ask at a club shoot or read “An explanation of indoor shoots” found on this website’s “member info” page. And don’t be afraid of those little targets! They make you concentrate more and thus shoot better. 😉
Indoor Season Approaching…
Just a reminder that we go indoors from 1st October. Club shoot times are as follows:
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday @ 19:00 to start at 19:30
Saturday & Sunday @ 09:30 to start at 10:00
In addition we have the following:
Sunday 20th October: Portsmouth (Handicapped)
Sunday 27th October: Halloween Shoot
Sunday 17th November: Worcester (Handicapped)
Friday 20th December: Christmas Shoot
Sunday 19th January: Portsmouth (Club Champs)
Sunday 16th February: Vegas (Handicapped)
Sunday 22nd March: WA25 (Handicapped)
Tuesday 31st March: Archery Darts
The club is now incorporated
At the AGM on Monday November 26th, the members present voted unanimously to transfer all assets of St. Neots Bowmen to a newly formed company limited by guarantee called “St. Neots Bowmen Archery Club Limited”, and to adopt the company’s proposed Articles of Association (replacing the Club Constitution). This is called “incorporating the club”, and it means that the club is now a separate legal person from the members or the committee. Many other clubs have done this before us, it serves primarily to reduce the financial liability of members and officers in case something goes wrong (hence the “limited liability company”).
For the members, nothing much changes on a day-to-day basis. We will continue to shoot as we’ve done before, and the club is still run by the committee, a group of volunteer members endorsed by the AGM. Committee meetings are shown in the calendar, and all members are invited to attend and participate in discussions.
What this does mean is that all current members of the archery club (“St. Neots Bowmen”) will need to officially become members of the company (“St. Neots Bowmen Archery Club Limited”). For those of you who will be coming to the indoor range at Alconbury, I will put a “Member Register” on the main table. All you need to do to become a member of the company is to put your name down and sign. I will shortly also be sending out an email about the incorporation, with instructions on how to send in your membership confirmation via email. You can contact me via “secretary at stneotsbowmen dot club” if you have questions around the incorporation.
At the AGM the members endorsed a committee consisting of: Dan Wischhusen (chairman), Marc Bax (secretary), Adam Taylor (treasurer), Andy Blake (records officer), Sarah Cox (child protection officer), Roy Buck (equipment officer), Sunil Kalra and Stacey Taylor. You can reach the full committee via “committee at stneotsbowmen dot club”. For individual contact details see the “Contact & GDPR” page.
A special thank-you goes to Phil Sargeant, who stepped down as treasurer after more than 10 years in the role. We do sincerely hope to see Phil back on the shooting line sometime soon!
Agincourt shoot: A little different
Dunstable Bowmen is again organising a special Agincourt shoot (on the 603rd anniversary of the battle). It takes place on Sunday October 14th, from 11am at their field at the London gliding club, Tring road, Dunstable. Targets are likely to be once again Frenchmen (well, shop dummies partially hiding behind a castle of bosses), and there will no doubt be a hostage or two in their midst (negative points).
Format is a bit fluid, but usually the distances are up to 120yds (which should be reachable with light arrows and a 24lb club bow – but there will also be targets at shorter distances if it turns out you can’t reach 120yds). Only for unsighted, non-compound bows. Show up and pay on the day (GBP 8), and a good soup and bread lunch is included. There’s usually also some home-brewed ale to be had…
Medieval dress optional. Let Marc Bax know if you fancy coming along.
First and third Saturdays
Starting from Saturday June 2nd we will prioritise coaching, tuning, practice and other forms of archer development on our afternoon club sessions. On some of these Saturdays we may have visiting coaches from other clubs or from Archery GB. We’re doing this because we’ve heard from a number of members that they would appreciate such weekend sessions targeted at improving their shooting.
You can still shoot a scoring round but will have to fit in with the rhythm and range requirements of the other archers present.
The Saturday “archer development” sessions this outdoor season will be on June 2nd and 16th, July 7th and 21st, August 4th and 18th, and September 1st and 15th.
Try clout shooting!
On Sunday June 3rd the annual SCAS/BCAA Clout archery championships will take place again at Manshead school in Caddington, near Dunstable. Last year four of us participated, with both Mary Louca and Marc Bax snatching the county barebow clout champion title.
In clout archery you don’t shoot at a paper face on a vertical straw boss; instead the target is a flag in the ground at a considerable distance (140yds for ladies, 180yds for gents), and your score is measured by how close your arrow lands to the flag. At our range in Offord we sometimes do a mini-clout using the very light jelly bows, as our field is not large enough to shoot a regular clout (NEVER try this with anything but the jelly bows).
The clout shoot is usually a good day of fun with most archers not being that serious (but you can be if you want to). If you’re interested please let Sunil Kalra or Marc Bax know – or put your name on the form on the notice board in the hut.
Presidents & Pairs in Offord
On Sunday June 24th our club will host the annual BCAA “Presidents & Pairs” shoot at our field. This is an informal shoot organised on behalf of the Bedfordshire County Archery Association, of which St. Neots Bowmen is a member. The round shot is a Western round (4 dozen arrows at 60yds followed by 4 dozen arrows at 50yds) – with shorter distances for juniors or novice archers who can’t reach 60yds. The main “pair” awards are decided on handicap-adjusted scores, so novice archers have a good chance of doing well! read more…
Thursday club coaching
Over a number of Thursdays between now and December 7th will be holding open club coaching sessions. These will be opportunities to improve your shooting under the guidance of our coaches and experienced archers without the pressure of keeping score. You’ll have the freedom to experiment a bit, work on your form, and sort out tuning of your equipment.
Coaching is available for all members.