Media Awards
Great news, the Club has been selected as a finalist in this years awards as has Phoebe Pine in the Disability
Sports Performer of the Year category.
The Club is a finalist in the prestigious Community Club of the Year category along with Cheltenham Rugby Club and The Factory Amateur Boxing Club. Congratulations to both of the other finalists, just like ourselves their work in the community has been impressive! As you can see from this extract from our Mission Statement this recognition is consistent with what we do.
Phoebe is in the final with two fantastic sportsmen, top fencer Piers Gilliver and Boccia player Richard Amos, again their achievements have been something special!
Phoebe Pine, working so hard to be the best she can.
The awards will take place on the 19th November at the Hatherley Manor Hotel and the awards presented by the BBC’s John Inverdale.
Last year Tom Howse won the Young Sportsperson of the year, receiving his award from Sir Geoff Hurst.
Clout and Field Course
Last weekend saw our first clout training session on our new ground. A busy schedule meant it took place on the Saturday morning, great fun and the weather was kind!
Learning the skills of Clout.
We layed the course out to cater for all ages and there were some excellent results.
We covered a lot of distance on the Saturday morning but watching the arrows fly made it all worthwhile.
This Saturday morning will see the first of our field course practice sessions, the course is progressing well and we are expecting the delivery of some new foam bosses in the next fortnight.
A fantastically challenging course in a compact area.
We are certainly making great use of our new facilities!
School Clubs
We have a challenge caused by our own success! Our Satellite Clubs and general after school clubs are bursting at the seams, biggest impact has been the surge of year 7’s wanting to do archery, this is as a direct result of all the work being done in the Primary Schools over the past 5 years.
Over 60 attendees at Balcarras Satellite Club and some great shooting is being demonstrated.
Beginners Courses
Three currently running, all fully subscribed and a long waiting list. We need to significantly increase the number of bosses at some venues to cater for increased numbers of members. We already store bosses in 5 locations.
Winter Practice Sessions
All up and running, programme on website and where appropriate the booking system is working well. As part of the new website the events calender will not only show what is happening but give details of the various locations, facilities offered and shortly pictures/videos.
Shurdington, one of our smaller venues, 2 separate sessions, booking required.
The first Saturday evening at Balcarras saw us also deliver a ‘save a life’ first aid workshop, thank you to the staff who delivered it free of charge!
‘Save a life’ Workshop at Balcarras.
Balcarras, one of our bigger indoor venues, no booking for open sessions (Sat & Sun) required.
This Sunday afternoon there is an additional session at Balcarras delivering a juniors only programme.
Anomalous big thank you!
Thank you to all the local (and not so local) companies that have donated very generous prizes for our Christmas raffle, many have asked not to be mentioned specifically to avoid being approached by less worthy causes.
They will be recognised in our internal communications. It is our work in the community and our fully inclusive approach that has attracted support, rather than our performances of our archers!
This is just part of our fundraising efforts as we continue to work hard to finance the development of our new ground.
One of our initiatives has reaped good rewards in previous rounds which is ‘cash for unwanted items’ and we have just launched another appeal to members. There is a good return on old cloths, bedding, towling, brick a brac, shoes etc. This also fits well with our Green Policies.
Competitions
Well done to all our archers competing over recent weeks, just to say that our longbows and barebows are doing very well, not just in the results but in the improvements they are demonstrating! In particular Kev Sutherland in the clouts and John Dalton on target, both recording numerous county records. What is gratifying is seeing our seniors improving, we have come to expect from our juniors!
Kev Sutherland with a 3 gold end at Cheltenham but it his clout that is breaking records!
Open Community Sessions
Following the great success of our pilot summer open community sessions, in particular the Gloucestershire County Council sponsored ‘Get Active Together’ Programme, we are looking to continue with a similar indoor programme once we have a settled indoor members programme. Watch this space.
