The club had 5 archers competing at the Battle of Britain Tournament on behalf of the Royal Air Force Association held at Burnham Company of Archers on Sunday 10th September.  Similar to the Bath Hereford the day started wet, with a downpour during the first end of archery, this change to hot sunny weather come the afternoon.  The round was a WA 1440, with arrows shot at 90m, 70m, 50m and 30m for the men and 70m, 60m, 50m and 30m for the ladies.  Janet Ross was recurve ladies runner up and Andrea Whittle recurve ladies third place.  Clair Crook was ladies compound runner up.  The men faired less will in the individual recurve placings, but Clive Jarret and Janet Ross won the recurve pairs trophy and the team of Janet Ross, Clive Jarrett and Simon Whittle won the recurve team trophy.

The club supported the community at both the Writhlington Flower Show and the Writhlington Fun Day this summer. Thank you to all the volunteers.  The club was well supported, many members of the public had a go and shot for gold.  Among them were our community policing and fire service, with Fire service manager Bobby Welch showing the way to Firefighter Liam, who was at a distinct disadvantage in full firefighting gear (helmet and respirator)!  Not to be outdone Community Officer Join Hardy also shot well.

Left to right: Fire Service Manager Bobby Welch, Community Support Officer Jon Hardy and Firefighter Liam Paterson, as well as our own chairman Andy Young

Congratulations to Janet Ross and Clive Jarret, recurve champions at the Bath Hereford Tournament held by Bath Archers on Sunday 13th August. The morning started very wet and everyone was ready with waterproof on. However, as the sighers commenced the weather dried and stayed rain free for the rest of the day. Janet Ross had a super tournament, with a winner score that counts towards her classification as a Master Bowman. Clive Jarret had a tough fight for victory, winning by a single point. Just showing that every arrows counts. In the Men’s recurve Simon Whittle picked up the bronze medal. The three archers combined scores were good enough for South Wansdyke to pick up the team trophy for a recurve clean sweep.

David Aldridge, Clair Crook (assisted by Harriet), Simon and Andrea Whittle had a great day at Bath Archers. It was the South West Civil Service Archery Tournament. Everyone can away with a medal!

Sunday afternoon saw our first handicap competition of the season. A bit later than usual due to ArcheryGB’s overhaul of the handicap and classification system this year. We had 10 archers in competition, but our winner was compound archer Ian Garforth with an adjusted score of 1455. Full results can be found on the Member|Results page of this website.

May has seen a number of outdoor competitions for archers to compete in and one South Wansdyke Archery Club member has embraced this fact.  Clair Crook has been traveling the country with her Compound bow and representing the club with aplomb and not a little success!  First up a trip Bedfordshire to compete at Kestrel Archers to shoot a classic “Hereford” round.  She claimed a bronze medal, a personal best (PB) and is also able to claim an Archery GB (AGB) award for completing a 6 gold end at the 80 yard distance.  A week later she was in Exmouth for a “double WA50”, another bronze medal, 2 PBs and an AGB black target award for a score above 550.  A double header followed in Redruth, another “Hereford”, winning a gold medal and gaining an AGB red rose award for a score above 1100 and a “double WA50” beating her PB from a week ago and picking up the silver medal.  Finally, the tour ended at Burnham Archers for a final “Hereford” picking up a gold medal and a further personal best. Well Done Clair 🙂

May was also the month for Archery GBs celebration of Archery and their established “Start Archery” week.  On the 13^th May, the club hosted a session to introduce the art of archery to a brand new group of people.  It was a bright day, with some excellent shooting for those who have never picked up a bow before.  For anyone interested in giving archery a try, the club will have a presence at the Writhlington Flower Show 19^th August and the Writhlington Fun Day 3^rd September.  Our next beginner’s course will commence on Saturday 9^th September.

Our newest juniors have been progressing well, following AGB progression awards for their age group and bow types.  Parker Edgell successfully completed the White – Outdoor award and Dylan Appleton the White and Black awards.

Finally, our ladder competition continues to produce some great matches and credit should go to David Aldridge who has made up 19 places on the ladder and is only 5 places from the top, held by Simon Whittle.

Congratulations to Parker Edgell who successfully attained the Archery GB White – Outdoor award and to Dylan Appleton who attained both the White and Black – Outdoor awards during May 2023.

South Wansdyke Archery Club has had a busy start to the outdoor season, but first there is a little time to reflect on the results of the Somerset County Winter Postal Leagues which ran from October to March.  Unfortunately, the club did not manage to defend its 2021/22 Senior Portsmouth league title, finishing the season in 4^th place (248 pts) behind Bowmen of Ina (265 pts), Bowmen of Danesfield (256 pts) and Wellington Bowmen (255 pts).  More success came in the Senior Frostbite league where, like last year, South Wansdyke were runner up to Burnham Company of Archer.  Burnham have won the trophy for the 7 years.

Spring has seen the completion of the first beginner’s course of the year, a perfect opportunity to learn a new skill and meet up with a group of friendly Archers.  Our beginner’s got to test their shooting ability in all weather.  They had extreme cold, rain, wind and beautiful sunshine.  After the course the club hosted a welcome event for our new archers to join a regular club session.  It was well attended with 24 archers on the shooting line.  The club is delighted that 8 of those who attended the course have joined the club and we are enjoying their company and helping them develop their skills further.  Our next beginner’s course will commence on Saturday 9^th September.

Further to the act of shooting, there is the question of maintaining and optimizing your archery equipment.  On the 1^st April, the club hosted a bow tuning session which was well attended.  Under the tutelage of Clive Jarrett club members had the opportunity to check equipment alignment, perform bare shaft checks and walk back test.  This set their bow up ready for the new season.

Outdoor, distance archery competition has also commenced.  Clive Jarrett and Clair Crook attended the Bath Archers Albion Shoot on the 9^th April.  Clair was runner up in the Ladies Compound Bow with a score of 777.  Whilst Clive, by his own admittance and high standards, did not have the best of days coming 7^th with a score of 729.

South Wansdyke has introduced a new club competition for the summer season, an archery ladder.  This is open to all bow types and abilities.  The archers position on the ladder was determined by a random draw.  Then they can challenge an archer up to three places above them on the ladder.  The challenge match is head to head matchplay.  This is the same as you would see in the knock-out stages of the Olympic archery tournament but shot at the distance suitable to the weaker archer.  We have seen a great turn out with 40 matches to date.  This included two single arrow shoot offs, won by Dean Broadway and Clair Crook.  Currently at the top of the ladder is Simon Whittle, but there is a lot of archery before completion of the competition in September.