Georges September News Letter
September has been an eventful time at the butts, aided by some wonderful shooting weather, with a lot of warm sunshine and not too much wind.
At the start of the month it was our turn to host the annual challenge match against The Wakefield Archers for The Speak Trophy. This match is a team shoot to defend the honour of Robin Hood. Like Nottinghamshire, Wakefield claims Robin Hood as their own,and because the Speak Trophy results stood at six wins each, we were determined to re-capture the trophy and gain the lead once again. After some good shooting by both clubs,Sherwood claimed the day!With a combined score of 3463 for our 5-archer team we had a winning margin of 530 points , so Robin Hood is home again! Our winning team consisted of Martyn Smith,Peter Burns, Jon McLaughlin,Steve Gamble and Dave Seymour. Steve’s score of 588 for the Albion Round of 3-dozen arrows at each of 80.60 and 50 yards was a new Notts longbow record. Juniors Charlotte Smith,George Smith and Adam McLaughlin shot as seniors and will claim club records for their scores.
On the second Saturday we hosted the British Longbow Society Sherwood Meeting once again. Clashes with other shoots meant that the numbers were low , but the shooting was to a high standard and we were pleased to have the Society’s President, Treasurer and Year-book Editor shooting with us.This is one of only five York Rounds shot by the Society[100,80 and 60 yards] and as such we are proud to have it at our ground.
Our final Beginners’ Course of the year is now completed, and twenty-five more new archers are qualified to join any archery club . We hope they will stay with us and enjoy shooting indoors as we move to Joseph Whitaker Sports Centre at Rainworth for the winter.
Our final event of the month was our Club Championships. When the members were assembled, before shooting started, we held a short memorial ceremony to mark the passing of 16 year old Sam White, one of our former junior members. Our President spoke about Sam’s brave fight against his cancer and about how he was determined to live life to the full. Then , as is our custom, a black arrow was shot the length of the field As the arrow flies it gives off a shrill whistle which fades away as it falls to the ground at the end of its flight, marking our loss of a fellow archer.
Our Club Champions for this year are Claire Collier and Martyn Smith [Recurve], Susan Stankovic and Lee Waterfield [Compound], Jenny Place and George Brown [Longbow], Tace Fox[Novice], Reece Buckland [Junior Longbow] and Jamie Collier [Junior Recurve]
George Brown