Sunday 29th January saw the 2022 Annual Award presentations for South Wansdyke Archery Club held at our indoor shooting location Pratten’s Social Club. Thank you to all those who came to celebrate with our winners, it was great to have you there and hopefully most people won something in the raffle!

Three archers received improved classifications:

Here are our award winners:

Congratulation to Kim Gay (1st), Phil Beale (2nd), Janet Ross (3rd) and Clive Jarrett (Highest Score). All medal winners at our November indoor handicap. Competition was tight, with 23 points between 1st and 7th place.

Today’s fun shoot, organised by Sophie Young (thanks Sophie) was well attended by some new and some long standing members alike. Here are a few photos of the shoot, with everyone getting in the spirit!

On Saturday 15th October, SWAC invited Bitton Archers to compete in a Head to Head clout competition at Farrington Golf Club. Despite rain during setup we were treated to sunshine throughout the morning, but with a stiff head wind to keep us honest. A couple of sighter ends saw everyone try to get the distance, 140yds for the ladies and 160yds (the rough was a bit too close this year) for the men. Competition commenced for the 6 end round. All bow types were in evidence, compound, recurve, barebow and longbow.

Afterwards everyone met for a beer and a bite to eat in the club house, where the presentations were made for each bow type and the overall winner. The medals were presented by our previous SWAC Chairman Jim Linfield. Overall the honours went to Bitton Archers with an average score per archer of 24.25, beating SWACs average of 23.40. Congratulations to our friends at Bitton, we hope to see you again next year.

With the beautiful August weather South Wansdyke Archery Club saw a busy month for our 252 progression awards.  Newer members Phil Beale and Andy Hamblin attaining 20 and 30 yards awards shooting barebow.  Dean Broadway continued his great progress attaining his 40 yard award, also shooting barebow.  Phil’s success continued into September where is achieve the necessary score at 40 yards as well.

The club had representation at the 133^rd Writhlington Flower Show, to provide visitors with the chance to Have-A-Go.  The team of coaches saw a steady stream of people willing to give archery a go, with most shots hitting the target, followed by a general sense of achievement.

Competitively, several members competed in the Bath Hereford 2022.  A Hereford shoot is 6 dozen arrows at 80yards, 4 dozen at 60 yards and 2 dozen at 50 yards.  Clive Jarrett was runner up in the Gentlemen Recurve category, winning The president’s Cup and the silver medal, missing out on 1^st place by 17 points.  Andy Young placed 4^th.  In the junior ladies recurve, Sophie Young won the Red Shield and the Gold Medal with a score of 1058, this was tied highest score of the day in all recurve categories, including senior men.

As we moved into the latter end of the summer, the club had four representatives at the Great Western Archer Society Intercounties event.  Clair Crook (Ladies Compound), Sophie Young (Ladies Recurve), Janet Ross (Ladies Recurve) and Clive Jarrett (Mens Recurve).  The shoot was held at Exmouth Archers, between Somerset, Dorset & Wiltshire, Devon & Cornwall and Gloucestershire.   Our four archers helped Somerset place 2^nd with 24323 points.  The winners were Devon & Cornwall with 25944.

This autumn see a return to indoor archery and the clubs attempts to retain it senior and junior indoor county league trophies, the club hosting a head to head Clout shoot with Bitton Archers, a fun shoot at Halloween and the introduction of 8 new archers through our regular beginners course.

Well done to four of our club members (Sophie, Janet, Clive and Clair) who represented Somerset at this weekend Grand Western Archery Society Intercounties Tournament hosted by Exmouth Archers. Somerset were ultimately runners up to Devon & Cornwall.

With the summer at its peak, South Wansdyke Archery Club is a busy as ever.  New members have joined, progression awards have been achieved and gold medals!

First up, our junior ladies competed in the Junior National Championships on the 2^nd July, at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.  Harriet Crook placed 6^th overall in the U16 ladies recurve and Sophie Young was 5^th overall in the U18 ladies recurve.  Our junior ladies also closed the month out at the weeklong Archery GB Youth Festival, 26^th-30 July, also held at Lilleshall.  The meeting consisted of ranking rounds for individual and team events, leading to head-to-head knockout stages to decide the medals.  Harriet reached the final 16 round where she was knocked out by eventual quarter finalist, Sienna Foster of Ballyvally Archers.  Sophie qualified 2^nd for the knockout stage and got a bye through the first round.  Despite a very nervous quarter final match, which went to a sudden death single arrow, Sophie gathered herself, shooting well, to ultimately claim the gold medal defeating Lauren Rawlings (Bowbrook Archers) 6 – 2 in the gold medal match.

Andy Young, David Aldridge and Sophie Young competed at the Cleve WA720 and Head-to-Head competition on Saturday 16^th July, a hot weekend to say the least!  Andy and David qualified 13^th and 18^th respectively. Sophie qualified 3^rd. Andy made it though to the last 8, following his first competitive head-to-head win, finally succumbing to Alec Thomas (Bowmen of Mendip) 2-6.  Unfortunately, David was defeated in the first round to Lee Edwards of Malvern Archers, 0-6.  Sophie made the semi-finals, where she was defeated and eventually placed forth.

David Aldridge stayed on at Cleve, where the following day he completed in the WA1440, 3 dozen arrows at 90m, 70m, 50m, 30m (the latter two distances on a smaller target face).  David placed a commendable 17^th.

Within the club, we saw archery progression awards for one of our newest member Dean Broadway for both 20 and 30 yards shooting barebow and Simon Whittle 60 yards shooting recurve.  Simon Whittle also gained the Archery GB Six gold end award for shooting six consecutive arrow into the gold ring at 80 yards.

The coming month will see South Wansdyke Archery providing a have-a-go stand at the Writhlington Flowers show, Sat 20^th August 2022.

South Wansdyke Archery Club sent a 7 strong team to this year’s Somerset Outdoor County Championship.  The club were proud to have the largest representation of any club present.  The Championships were held in the grounds of Dunster Castle, on Sunday 12th June.  It was a spectacular venue with the castle overlooking the shooting grounds.  The day started overcast during preparation, equipment checks and the safety briefing, but as shooting began the sun appeared and the rest of the day was bright and sunny.  However, the coastal wind was challenging as it swirled, known in archery circles as the “Dunster Breeze”, around the grounds.  This kept scores generally low.  The ladies tournament round was a “Double National”, 4 dozen arrows at 60 yards and 2 dozen at 50 yards in the morning and repeated in the afternoon.  The Men’s tournament round was a “Long National”, same format as the ladies but shot over 80 and 60 yards.

Success for the club came in the form of Sophie Young, claiming the title of Somerset Ladies Recurve Champion with 1113 points, from Saira Chaudhry of Exeter Company of Archers with 1109 and Janet Ross, also of South Wansdyke, with 988 points.  Sophie’s success is particularly special because she is Senior Somerset Champion whilst still qualified as a Junior archer.  Individually the men were less successful.  However, Sophie Young and Clive Jarrett’s combine score of 1977 was good enough to win the Somerset Clubs Pairs Trophy.

Continuing at a county level, on 26^th June, the Junior County and Open Championships were contested at Burnham Company of Archers.  Sophie Young completed the double and was Junior Girls Recurve County U18 Champion and Harriet Crook won the U16 Girls Recurve title.

Closer to home, the clubs monthly handicap competition held on the 19^th June.  It was a closely fought match.  Only 31 points separating the top five archers.  June’s gold medal winner was Clive Jarrett with 1410, silver went to Sophie Young with 1408 and the bronze medal to Andy Young with 1399.

Sophie Young (middle) receives County Champions Trophy from Tournament organiser John Bennett (left) and Lord Paramount Chris Hole (right).

News from the Somerset County Championship 2022 held a Dunster on Sunday 12th June 2022. A sunny windy day kept the scores low, but SWAC found success. Our new Somerset Ladies Recurve County Champion is our own Sophie Young, with a Double National total of 1113, and in Third Place Janet Ross. Great shooting Ladies.

We also had success in the pairs with Sophie and Clive Jarrett bring home the winning trophy.

A great day for South Wansdyke Archery Club, well done to our winners and the wider team for taking part and flying the SWAC flag.

With the Outdoor season progressing our archers have shown early improvement in their skills, with three club members Andrea Whittle, Clair Crook and Clive Jarrett achieving their 252 awards at varying distances 40, 50 and 80 yards respectively.  It has also been a busy competitive month for the Crook family with Harriet Crook claiming a bronze medal at the Cleve Junior Metric Tournament, whilst Clair Crook came away with a Silver medal at the Redruth Archers “Double 720” and a Bronze medal at the Black and Gold Archers “Hereford” Round.  Clair also attained a black rose award for scoring over 900 points for her Hereford round, during a UK Record Status event.

On the 14th May the club hosted a Have-A-Go session to celebrate “Start Archery Week”.  The event was attended by 8 budding archers of all ages.  The weather was fine and an enjoyable morning was had by our coaches and their new students. 

Looking ahead: 8 archers will be representing South Wansdyke Archery Club at the upcoming Somerset County Championship, this event is being held in the grounds of Dunster Castle on Sunday 12^th June.  A fitting venue. The club will also be present at the St Mary’s, Writhlington, school fayre on the 2^nd July.  Do come along and speak with club members and have a go at something new.