“Just want to say thank you to Wellingborough OAC for opening its range for the county last Sunday 11th October, to give archers in the county a chance to have a go at the Postal 2020 shoot!
It was great to catch up with those that attended and the weather was great. Again a special thank you to the team Paul, Peter & Helen and those that I can’t remember the names of.”
Martin Ross
County Team Captain
Dear All,
As the heading suggests, in collaboration with Bedfordshire, we have arranged a socially distanced intercounty match. Details as follows.
We are hoping that all NCAS clubs and archers will be able to take part.
1. Round to be shot: Short Metric, including all the junior rounds (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5).
2. Eligible archers: All genders and ages. If a junior please give your age and round/distance shot.
3. Bow Styles: All
4. When to be shot: All scores to be in by 2nd November 2020
5. How round is to be shot: We realise that with 6 dozen arrows to be shot that may well take a while, with the night’s drawing in, possibly not all 6 dozen can be shot on the same day. We ask that if you cannot complete the 6 dozen at one session, please shoot them in 2 sets of 3 over 2 sessions if needed (not just one dozen per session)
6. Record all the scores as you would normally, X`s, 10`s and so on. Please submit the final score totals only (not each individual arrow value) in the normal format, including the following information. Archer, Gender. Club. Bow Style. Senior/Junior (if junior age and which round shot). Example: J Doe. Female. Middle Earth. Longbow. Senior. X 59. 10 13. Score 720.
7. All the scores will be on trust. We will be watching you.
8. We are at the moment working on a collating system for the scores. When that is up and running there will be information as to how you can submit the scores.
Here’s another cheeky question if any club can offer up targets slots for archers to shoot this would be great. I would pimp Long Buckby AC out but we’ve got no access for the next 10 days to do with the refurb of car park.
If clubs don’t want to offer not a problem I also understand this too.
If the clubs could let me know asap if they will be taking part and we can expect scores from your archers. Either via the club county rep or directly to me.
Martin Ross
NCAS County Team Captain
Having returned the club and members to shooting in May one of the biggest issues we have faced has been mental health.
The fear and uncertainty that has come with the pandemic and the unknown situation it has created.
The stress of lockdown followed by the new stress as lockdown was eased and how we try and live in this new normal.
Having restricted numbers and social distancing has been especially hard for the juniors who haven’t been to school, seen friends or family and now with the booking system couldn’t really shoot with their club friends either.
As club safeguarding officer seeing the toll that this has all taken is hard and as someone who suffers with mental health and knows what archery brings me to help with that I felt it was important to look into ways that we, as a club might be able to help.
Spending some time talking with my husband, Paul Sharpe, who as a club coach ordinarily supports the juniors, I then reached out to Gaynor Hutchinson who is a senior coach at Aim4sport and this is where many of our juniors go for different levels of coaching.
A plan was agreed and we have now held two monthly sessions at the club with Gaynor, Paul and myself to allow the juniors to attend coaching sessions with their peers and relax with parents encouraged to leave them and come back later.
We are seeing most improve, relax, communication has definitely improved and so many more smiles!!!
As part of this they wanted a competition, most compete regularly under ordinary with a number pulling on their county shirts.
With this in mind we arranged a 720 for the 23/8/20 thanks to the return to competition being released.
However, at the last minute, due to local events it appeared we would have to cancel as the sports ground that includes the WOAC field has been barricaded.
Gaynor, Dave and their club members stepped in to offer the range at aim4sport for the event to go ahead.
Yesterday saw 8 of the juniors on the shooting line take part in their first competition since February.
With the Aim4sport club members moving over and sacrificing their distance shooting to allow them to take the main range.
As with any competition there were smiles and frowns but even those who were not happy with their scores were thrilled to be on the line.
I cannot express enough the pride in seeing those juniors step up yesterday, remembering how they first walked into the field in May and our gratitude to everyone at aim4sport for sharing their facilities to allow the juniors to have their event.
Having always believed that relationships can be created to help us all within our sport and most certainly that the spirit of pulling together is key to the current circumstances – this has most definitely been proven this weekend.
Helen Sharpe
Wellingborough Open Archery Club
Just over a week ago, one of the steel containers at WOAC was attacked and the locks cut off with an angle grinder. The lawnmower, generator and bush cutter were stolen and the thieves carried them away across the field to a waiting vehicle in a farmers field.
Last night (5th August.) they returned and broke into the other containers. Using the same methods and point of entry and exit, we have to consider they were the same thieves. This time they stole all the club bows, arrows and shooting equipment.
Looking at all the features of this incident we have to conclude that the thieves were either archers or acting on behalf of archers. They stole armguards and stands which were not kept with bows, they even took bow stringers. (To a non archer a stringer is just a rolled up ball of tape). They even stole a roll of fifty, unopened and unused target faces. (to a non archer this is just a rolled up tube of paper). In fact, except for bosses, pretty much everything you would need archery.
While this will not affect what we do at WOAC, if it happens to another club it could well be a severe problem. I urge all county clubs to pay extra attention to their club premises, security generally and how they store/deal with club bows.
Don’t let this happen to you.
John Marshall
NCAS Chair.
“After a lot of hard work and patience, we finally had our very first shooting session together as a club, on the morning of Sunday 2nd August 2020.
Literally just three weeks ago, we were very close to knocking the idea of a 2020 start on the head. Very little seemed to be going our way, with only a few months left of the outdoor season, and very little possibility of finding a suitable indoor venue during current restrictions, it was starting to seem pointless. A sensible pause and wait, until the ground works are finally complete next year, allowing us start the club properly at our permanent Towcestrians range.
Thankfully, an opportunity to use Dadford Road Campsite came along for us at just the right time. Despite the added complication of the spectatorless Grand Prix being held at Silverstone on the same first two weekends, and possible access restrictions, our first session took place.
The afternoon before was spent putting the target stands together, measuring out and marking the field with the distances and shooting lanes, in order to comply with current Archery GB guidance for shoot under social distancing.
A big thank you to all involved in getting us here, to the clubs who have donated their time and spare equipment, and to our new members for making this possible.”
Dean Edwards
Chair – Towcester Archers
