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!