Class(es) of 2015

The last Beginners Course of the year completed on Saturday, with a final tally of 46 new archers taught in the five courses of the year. Same as last year, we only have pictures from Saturday courses (mainly because the Friday courses are held after dark), and to be honest, none were taken during the Spring Saturday course, but some photos from October-November are below.
As you can see from the pictures, there was some pretty spectacular shooting, indoors and out - the first picture shows what John and Ethan could do after just a couple of hours.

(click on any picture to show it enlarged in a gallery)

 

Summer Postal League - RESULTS

A big thank you to all the archers who participated in this years Summer Postal League. Not the best results for us this year, but with an upgrade in leagues and not exactly the best planning by myself (!) it was to be expected...

Our Recurve Selby teams came in 6th for the A team and 5th for team B. Longbow did slightly better with the National round coming in 5th for the A team and 4th for team B. A huge thank you to the following archers for participating:

SELBY TEAMS
Graham Brown
Rod Brown
Iain Charlesworth
Doug Hendrie
Craig Marsden
Jon Nolan
Dave Philips
Jon Stafford

LONGBOW TEAMS
Mike Bassett
Marc Bevan
Graham Brown
Rod Brown
Rob Keeling
Graham Skinner

Full results can be seen here shortly.

I shall be stepping down from organising the postal shoots next year due to too many other commitments, so if anyone would like to take over planning this please do get in touch and I will pass over all the details.

Return of Record Status

It's been a long time since Arundown hosted a Record-Status shoot, the most recent being the third of the World-Record-Status FITA Star events we held in the 1990s. Prior to that there was an unbroken run of 30 UK Record Status Hereford tournaments, first held at Arundel Castle, and every one overseen by the legendary International Judge John Kember-Smith.
Now, thanks to Serena, we're off again. When our new Judge, Mark Davis, called for a show of hands at the end of the prize-giving, it looked like an almost unanimous vote for more like this.
The main purpose of this shoot was to provide a Record-Status Portsmouth shoot in the South for the benefit of the Juniors hoping to get selected to shoot for England in the Home International event at the National Junior Indoors in December. To start with the shoot was going to be limited to 16 archers per session because we could only book the Dining Hall, but Serena took the initiative and found that the Basketball Club was going to be away on Saturday 17th, so it turned into a proper Sports-Hall shoot, with a full target list of 80 archers on the line.
Most of the 52 individual entrants shot a double round. 25 were Juniors, and the young ladies were in a clear majority - 16 girls to 9 boys. There might have been one more boy, except he'd become an adult the day before. The shoot attracted many of the South's top Junior Recurve Archers and we were also joined by a top British Cadet International, and of course our resident Zimbabwe International.
Mandy Linn presided as Lady Paramount, and Mark was assisted by brand-new Sussex Candidate Judge Julie Pede, who we know as a frequent medal-winner at our indoor tournaments, but no longer able to shoot because of an injury. As well as directing the hall set-up, Robert was given the responsiblity of timing the ends and operating the whistle signals by shuffling three stop-clocks around on something that looked rather like an Oware board. Set-up, face-changes and kitchen were handled by John, Iain, Craig, Richard, Gavin, Rich, Alice and Marc. Several of the Mums and Dads pitched in too, a special mention for Jules who not only baked a mountain of truly-scrumptious cakes for the Canteen, she also did her thing at Reception, like she she does so well at the K2. Karen and Ben helped Rod with scores, and Caitlin's mum kindly headed off to Sainsbury's to get more supplies.
A great first performance as serious Tournament Organiser by Serena (we're counting the Charity Vegas Shoot last year as a bit of fun). It wasn't that straightforward to get this airborne, but it took off like a Dreamliner. Look out for a proper Report on the shoot, with a Gallery of the medallists - once the website has been re-vamped.
In the meantime, here are some pictures.
As usual, click on any pic to blow it up full size in a gallery. They look better big!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flying Fletchings at Fletcher's Field

 
Talk about inventing an Ancient Tradition! - Angmering Parish Council have decided to revive the St Peter and St Paul Fair which received its Royal Charter in 1384, thirty years before Agincourt (which has its 6ooth anniversery this October, and was re-enacted on the battlefied at Azincourt this weekend). And appropriately for us Archers, the fair was held on Fletchers Field, next to the Church.
For the first time since we were at the Eastergate Gunclub Charity Day in 2009 when the wind kept blowing the net over - not a safety problem as there was 400 yards of fields behind, but a real pain for finding arrows in the stubble - we didn't have anything solid to rig the net to, and there was a bit of a wind blowing. But in spite of having to re-learn the procedure, within minutes everything had been guyed and made really secure with the net raised high to protect the Church Hall roof.
The organisers begged the stall-holders to try to dress in mediaeval costume, and we hit the jackpot because Nik Grundtrom joined us in his full re-enactment rig, complete with breastplate, buckler, falchion sword hanging in a baldrick, and a frightening collection of arrows with beautiful replica arrowheads.
The cod Mediaeval Certificates first used at Sompting Abbotts made their re-appearance and were gleefully carried off by many a tiny Faire Ladie and Bolde Squire, including Imogen and Lloyd Mitchell from Worthing Archers, altogether about 80 punters had a plink.
This time the Arundown Outlawes comprised Hannah, Kris, Luke, Bob, Ken, Lee, Graham and Rod.
Click on any of the pictures to see them all full-size.

Meanwhile, over the Channel in Picardy, at the exact moment we were doing this, they were making rather a better fist of re-enacting the battle of Agincourt..

 

Fête-al Attraction

Once again the Arundown Archery Stall was a big draw at the Findon Revels in May, maybe slightly helped by being next to the beer tent being run by our old pal Nik Grundstrom. There was a steady stream of punters, of all ages, and a lot of enquiries about Beginners Courses, so we may be seeing some of them again.
Good support from Hannah and Kris, Ken, Charles, Bob, Iain, Rob and Rod.
And more recently on 10th June, Hannah, Kris, John, Lee, Craig and Rod put on a Have-A-Go for Arundel Young Farmers, who all turned out to be really talented. It was going to be on the school field, but there was a Activties Evening that kept us away, so it was transferred to the farm barn at Crossbush, once the sheep had been moved out. We could do with a Manitou Loader like theirs to rig the stop-net every time!
Click on any picture to view them full-size.