Georges Newsletter September 2016

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Sherwood Archers

Robin Hood is ours again! This year it was our turn to go up to Yorkshire to shoot against The Wakefield Archers for the honour of Robin Hood. The Speak Trophy was presented by Bill Speak in 1971 , for an annual shoot between the two clubs to decide whether Robin was from Sherwood or Wakefield. I’m pleased to report that we resisted the challenge, and so the Speak Trophy remains in Southwell for another year. Our winning team consisted of Martyn Smith and Mac Crisp [recurve], Lee Waterfield and Susan Stankovic [compound] and Richard Gentle and George Brown [longbow]. Martyn, Lee  and Richard won medals for the best scores in each of the three bow disciplines.

Our Club Championships were held on a very rainy Saturday, but fortunately the rain was quite warm and we had a good day, even though we had to reduce the number of arrows shot because some members were soaked to the skin!

Champions for this year are Martyn Smith and Charlotte Smith [recurve], Susan Stankovic [lady compound], Richard Gentle and Jenny Place[longbow].James Tassell [Jnr recurve] and Reece Buckland[junior longbow].Charlotte won the Handicap Trophy with a score 31 points above her handicap, and Petros Kounnos won the wooden spoon for the “worst white”.Ian Fleetwood won the Novice Trophy   – we were pleased to have four of our new members shootinng in their first competition. Because of the rain, we shot a shorter round than usual, and our Records Officer reported that several records had been broken, so all-in-all a successful shoot.

Several of our members took part in the Inter-Counties Thoresby Trophy Tournament – Derbyshire archers were all-powerful, but Lee Waterfield[compound] shot well and was selected to shoot for the East Midlands against the west Midlands at the national Sports Centre at Lilleshall

Longbow archers from across the Midlands came to Southwell for the Sherwood Meeting of the British Longbow Society. We host this annual event, which keeps alive the Victorian tradition of two-way longbow shooting at distances up to 100yards , and as usual we had an enjoyable day shooting in rain and then sunshine.

Our final Beginners course of the year has introduced another group of would-be archers to our sport, and we hope to welcome some of them as new members as we go indoors for the winter at Joseph Whitaker Sports Centre, Rainworth.  Our last open  outdoor shoot of the season will be The Pie and Beans at the end of the month, and then we shall just have our monthly Frostbite club shoots.

Finally, our congratulations to Simon Froggatt who came  fourth in the National Series final at Wollaton Hall , missing the bronze medal on the very last arrow of the head-to head shoot-off. A great result nevertheless.

 

George Brown