20 Months Covid disruption - and it's Hallowe'en again!

 Hallowe'en Shoot actually on Hallowe'en! Great sequence of Shooting Challenges and Puzzles dreamt up by Jenny in some sort of terrifying Nightmare, and turned into a larger than life horror show by Mike and Robert and Co.

Click on images to turn them into a Gallery

 

12 month's-worth of Posts in one

It's over a year since the last post on this Blog - that's not because nothing happened, but because there were other things to do. Here's an update and a few token pictures. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them, as usual)
There are plenty more 2018 pictures in the Gallery http://www.arundown.org.uk/gallery/

February: The Worcester Tournament

We were Judgeless for this shoot, something which has happened a few times over the last thirty years, but not often. For the last few shoots since Roger retired as a Regional Coach we've been kept in order by Julie Coates, but she and Dave have moved to York, and are missed in Sussex. We aren't required to have a Judge for our non-Record-Status shoots, but we usually do. Robert Keeling was due to be in charge of the Shooting, but had to take a Sabbatical through 2018, and so we relied on our Judge Emeritus, Roger, who continues to support our shoots (he started his career as a judge at our shoots) along with Zillah, the most experienced Lady Paramount on the Planet.

Beginners Courses:

We ran two Beginners Courses in 2018, and although we had full waiting lists between the Courses, when dates were fixed only a fraction could attend, so just 15 new Archers were taught - but there were some very talented ones indeed. The standard of achievement overall was exceptional, including at least two who had some degree of impairment that did have an impact on their movement and / or strength, and yet finished up with excellent skills.

The 2018 Sussex Junior Championships 9th September:

The Junior Championships were not held in July as part of the Outdoor Championships weekend, which was cancelled because too few people volunteered to run it, instead the Senior Championships were held at High Weald, and we hosted the Juniors.
The Format change to 6-dozen Short Metric Rounds brought in more Juniors than were at the 2017 Championships. The judge was Mark Davis, and he compliment the juniors on how they'd coped with the Record Status and the Control Lights, and said they were all now ready to take part in the Junior Nation Championships and any similar high-status events.
A breezy but otherwise pleasant day. Arudown hadn't hosted an outdoor Tournament since the first Hereford at Angmering (and last of over thirty altogether) soon after we moved here in 1993.

November: The Portsmouth Tournament

And a new Judge on the block, David Strong from Petersfield. Currently a County Judge, he's in the process of getting his Regional Qualification, and living at Petersfield is closer than a lot of of Sussex is. He handled the event very smoothly, although there were some delays in the middle session, and we ended up having to get the results out, clear the hall, and be out of the premises in less than half an hour - huge credit due to Serena who processed the scores from the last session in about eight minutes flat!

All Crackers again

 On Sunday 17th of December, we held the ever popular Solstice Shoot-Up.

 This year the fun included the festive game of “Maim or Kill the Snowman” which involved, as the title suggested, different rounds in which the challenge was to either kill the snowman with a head shot or body shot, or maim the snowman with line cutters or limb shots.

Points were awarded or deducted depending on where the snowman was struck. This proved a good fun challenge for all, particularly when all the Archers were provided with unmatched wooden club arrows to shoot with!

Next there was a chance to take out any festive frustrations with a “Shoot the Elf Head” game and a team game of “Parcel Pyramid Take Down”. This proved a popular game as it seems that all club members love a bit of destruction!

Thanks to Rob for hosting and organising the event and to all the helpers who helped prepare games, those who turned up early to help set up and those who helped tidy away again. A good time was had by all and I think everyone will agree that it was the perfect way to relax and have fun in the final run up to Christmas.

Gloomy Goings-On

Hallowe'en Again!

The lights were out and the shutters closed for this gruesome little event laid on by the "Social" (or on this occasion Anti-Social) Committee - who had come up with an endless variety of creepy tricks - and a few treats - for any of us who were brave enough to give it a go. A huge amount of hard work had gone into making several complete themed sets of targets - which were just visible from the shooting line in the murky hall until you groped your way up to to see if any arrows had found the minsucule scoring zones - and that was when you appreciated the artistry that had gone in to them.
And just as impressive were the costumes, the clear winner was Karen as the zombie Prom Queen, but really they all deserved prizes, particularly Connor's staked Vampire. Refreshments were duly horrific too, most memorable being the GingerDeadmen - black with a chalk outline.
Can't wait for the next Hallowe'en to see what new nasties they can come up with!

(Click on Pics to enlarge them in a slideshow)

Grim Reaper Craig and Evil Queen Jenny

Graham Returns

After a two-year break from anything resembling competitive archery, Graham was at the Abbey Bowmen's Wand Shoot at St Alban's today, and was absolutely in the thick of, up with all the other entrants. Rod and Graham travelled up to the shoot, the organiser has been chasing us to go for years (we have a connection with Abbey via one of Arundown's earliest members, Gordon Howlett), and we finally got there. Neither of us scored, but then that was also true of the majority of other entrants, one of the organisers has worked out that over 30,000 arrows have been shot over the past nine years, and on average only one in 200 shot out of Longbows hit the Wand. There was a very strong wind, and it was rather cold, but we had a great time.

The Wand Shoot at Abbey was a bit unique when it started, but several other clubs have copied the format now. It's a cross between a conventional Wand shoot and a Clout, the distance is more like Clout, the Wand is the usual six feet tall but a little wider at the longest distance, and there is a 5-foot diameter circle around the Wand, and any arrows landing in the circle score 1 point, with 5 points for an arrow in the Wand.
Graham was using the 25-pound draw Character Bow, which in theory shouldn't be able to send an arrow the 140 yards to the Wand, but after one end of sighters which were perhaps 15 yards short, Graham got right on distance and stayed thereabouts to the end. At first we were helped by the wind which was angled a few degrees down the range, but after the lunch break it had moved so it was straight along the shooting line, and everybody found their arrows were going short. It looked a bit doubtful whether the 25-pounder would make the distance without some wind-assistance, but Graham made an adjustment and shot the bow at absolutely maximum range, and the arrows fell all around the wand, the furthest getting 3 or 4 yards beyond. We both had several near misses within six inches of scoring, but didn't quite get lucky enough.
The pictures are by Maggie Johnstone of Abbey (Thanks!), who has amazing timing. Click on them to see them larger-size.

UKRS Portsmouth No.2

After missing 2016, Serena bounced back with another opportunity for youngsters to get Qualifying Scores to represent England in the Indoor Home International in December. The problem is that the deadline for indoor scores comes right at the start of the indoor season, so there are very few suitable shoots in time.
The weekend of the shoot happened to clash with an important Academy Event so quite a number of potential entrants were not able to travel to Angmering, but all the same there were Juniors from Nottingham and Newark, and a bunch from Chessington in Surrey and from Forest of Bere in  Hampshire, plus other visitors from Portsdown and plenty of Sussex Juniors and Adults. Two Juniors for Rayleigh in Essex had to drop out at the last moment.
As usual there were some impressive scores, and we're keeping our fingers crossed for when the England Archery Federation Selectors get together to pick the team.
One difference this year was use of Visual Timing Displays, which may or may not be the reason the shoot kept beautifully on schedule so we were all cleared up and out of the building by 5pm, which made the Caretaker very happy.
Thanks to all the Arundown members who helped with organisation and kept everything going smoothly, and thanks also to Mums and Vistors who joined in, particularly in the kitchen / servery, and everyone who helped clear away.
There are some pictures below (as usual, click on any picture to blow up larger) and there is a larger selection in the Gallery section of the Arundown Website (scroll down towards the bottom of the page)