We needed to find a bigger venue so a refurbished Walls Club provided a great venue for an evening dedicated to celebrating an amazing catalogue of individual and club achievements.
Add to that excellent food, a challenging quiz and the drawing of our Grand Raffle with 35 great prizes, all donated by local businesses, raising £2100 towards furnishing our clubhouse and a great evening was assured!
A video (not quite completed, so will be updated) was shown to celebrate the completion of our clubhouse and sharing our story so far, was well received. Click here to watch.
(Note; there are occasional connection issues from some platforms, if that is the case please cut and paste this link which may help; https://youtu.be/HO0W_BMeduc
The annual Club Achievements presentation was also shown and yet again highlights that we continue to achieve so much year on year. Full show to be published shortly.
The shooting awards will be covered separately but our increased emphasis on valuing our volunteer workforce needs to be covered. In addition to a number of slides recognising our management committee, coaching group, tournaments team, catering team, ground and equipment maintenance teams and fundraising team, there were a couple of prestigious individual awards.
Great Volunteers Lynn, Simon & Chloe.
Victor/Victrix Ludorum (Sponsored by Wales Archery)
A combination of members voluntary support and shooting success over the year are assessed against a framework with the highest 3 members being awarded Wales Archery Vouchers. The evaluation recognises voluntary work on an equal par to shooting achievement:
Lynn Benfield £50, Simon Faulkner £75, Chloe A’Bear £200
Volunteers of the Year – Peter Sisson and Bob Worcester
Well done and thank you to our joint winners who have contributed so much this year, from Coaching to equipment maintenance, organising social events to safeguarding, club target days to have-a-goes, returners sessions to supporting general activities, putting these activities ahead of their shooting.
Peter Sisson & Bob Worcester have provided Incredible support during the past 2 months!
Junior Club Person of the Year – Kieran Macey
Well done and thank you for being a role model for our juniors! Gained coaching qualification, always helping at have-a-goes, community sessions, satellite club, member of junior committee, just gets stuck in to many of the general activities. His shooting has also improved considerably during this period!
Kieran Macey has been an asset to the club.
Jos Benfield Club Person of the Year – Steph Gill
In memory of Lynn Benfield’s husband who helped the club over many years, it is awarded to a member who has consistently contributed over a good number of years.
- Steph has been a member for 23 Years
- Held numerous committee positions (including treasurer, social secretary, fundraising, competitions, club mark officer, safeguarding officer and Junior Head Coach
- Represented England, British Universities and GB (both Recurve and Compound)
- Sports Coach UK Young Coach of the Year
- Twice Gloucestershire Sports Awards Coach of the Year
- Member of the Archery GB Strategic Group
- Managed the invincible Gloucestershire County Junior Team for 10 Years
- Organised the Gloucestershire Junior Outdoor champs on behalf of the club since the age of 13
- Instigated numerous fundraising activities for the club and charities
- Joined the Archery GB Compound Coaching Team
- Served as the County Coaching Officer
- Led the development of our club coaches.
Steph Gill receiving the 2018 Jos Benfield Club Person of the Year from Lynn and Rosie Benfield.
There are many other examples of Steph’s dedicated contributions to the club and county, this is well deserved recognition.
For some people volunteering is about giving, but for others it’s a way of living…
Ground Improvements
As part of our programme to improve our playing surface we are doing some work on leveling small areas, and aerating the ground to improve drainage, last week saw the first outing of the aerator attachment to our tractor.
Our compact tractor in full use to maintain and improve our ground.
Test Team Handicap Event
A club team handicap championships is planned for March 2019, so indoor scores have been collected and an innovative competition format has been successfully trialled, designed to ensure any combination of archers can be catered for. The aim is to keep everyone competitive throughout the competition. The first trial was very successful in demonstrating this aim!
Mixed team test event went well.
Field Course Mini League
Last Saturday saw event 2 of the 9 event programme, with 3 divisions and the early leaders are Paul Hawker in Div 1, Imogen Colenutt in Div 2 and Matthew Turner in Div 3.
If you want to know more visit the club website
Clubhouse Progress
The main building work is now completed, awaiting final clearances from building control and fire authorities. Looking at a good number of options to furnish the building and how we arrange the optimum fully accessible access to the clubhouse.
Still a fair amount to do before the clubhouse becomes fully operational!
Podium Place for Gloucestershire Judges
In recent survey of club tournaments we have run and those we have hosted on behalf of the county our judges received a 5 star rating for their services to help make our tournaments a great experience!
A few of the Great judges we have in the county.
New Club Shirts a great hit!
Our new club shirts have been very well received, great design, excellent material and well-priced. They display the Ontarget logo showing we have achieved all three specialisms as well as Wales Archery and Egertec logos as a thank you to all the support they provide us!
Open Community have-a-go sessions update
We have a long list of interest, we assure everyone that as soon as our clubhouse is fully operational that we will announce the details of weekly sessions.
