Phoebe Paterson Pine MBE
Firstly our congratulations go to Phoebe Paterson Pine who has been included in the New Years honours list and awarded the MBE.
Making the best of the festive period
Our Christmas Challenge Programme has been a resounding success with 5 competitions running in and around the end of year celebrations.
As for all of our activities we are indebted to our volunteer teams for organising the events.
Two winter field league events saw Terry Davies establish a good lead over Paul Hawker and Mel Rawlings in Division 1. Division 2 is much closer with Susan Woodward just ahead of Liz Dalton and Adrian Woodward and Ali Farmer on a tied score. Just 2 points separate John Craigie and James Hendry in Division 3. With two more rounds programmed before the end of the month things are sure to change!
The New Year started on the 1st with an afternoon 10 boss, outdoor Portsmouth Competition at the ground. The weather was kind to us, very mild, sunny but a strong gusty wind provided plenty of challenge! Well done to all those that competed and good shooting in particular from Rob Lygoe shooting Barebow and recording 545 and David Johnson, recurve shooting a very respectable personal best by some distance!
Our final archery event of 2021 was one of our ‘whatever the weather’ tournaments. A windy day for round 2 saw the archers battling the gusts to put in their scores. After a 360 qualification round won by Grace, the archers were ranked and handicapped based on their qualification scores ensuring very close head to heads. One arrow shoot-offs after 3 end ties saw Dan beat Lily to take 5th while Paul beat Chloe to take 3rd. Grace took first place ahead of Louise by three points to maintain her perfect start to the competition.
A further one of this winter series was held on the 3rd January, this time in teams of 3 competing in a round robin format. This saw a tied overall result with the team comprising Chloe, Harriet and Simon, recording identical points total with the team comprising Dan, Grace and Lilly.
Before the end of January, 2 more Winter Field Competitions and 2 ‘whatever the weather’ events are planned before we run a number of planned record status events. We are also planning a 2 week Worcester Round challenge.
At the beginning of January our indoor Friday sessions at Kingshill Sports Centre moves to Wednesdays adding to the floodlit covered shooting area we already offer on Wednesday evenings and field course and target range options during the mornings!
Away from the archery, the bowls club finished the year with an evening of pairs and individual competition and the Men-in-Sheds completed a number of projects, including planting almost 2000 bulbs, upgrading the field course and preparing the tractor cutter deck for refitting.
The Solar Panel Committee will meet in early January to decide on the plan for installation, hopefully in the early summer and 2 more fully subscribed beginners courses start this month. We are not currently taking new members, however the participants on these beginners courses have been registered for some time and we will ensure those that want to join following completion of the course will be welcomed.
As a club we are striving to maintain the highest standards to safe guard our members from COVID and this concern is also reflected by our decision to offer the chance to complete the relevant indoor rounds, outdoors from our covered shooting area for our up coming Inclusion Shoot and for the County Senior Championships!
We are hoping that 2022 will present fewer challenges but we are confident we can continue to adapt and that our sport will continue to thrive.
