With more than 130 Primary Schools taking part in Archery this year, just 10 School Teams, 2 from each district had qualified for the L3 County Finals at Hartpury College and the medals were literally not decided until the final arrows of the day.
All 10 teams of 9 archers, completed a qualification round using Genesis and an ‘Arrows’ kit challenge over a 2 hour morning session, to decide the final 5 Genesis Finalists.
They were, defending champions Hillview, current record holders Longney, one of the smallest primary schools in Gloucestershire Sherbourne, one of last year’s finalists Sapperton and Ann Cam from the Forest of Dean.
10 teams of 9 archers competed in details of 3.
The lead switched almost with every rotation, so the excitement and tension grew as the competition progressed, who said archery was not exciting, this was incredible both for archers, staff and spectators. One feature of the Primary School Games is the much bigger audience, more teaching staff, volunteers and parents which adds to the spectacle.
With just 3 archers to shoot from each team, Longney were in front with Sherbourne and Hillview tied for second and the biggest of shocks was on the cards, however in a photo finish, Sherebourne slipped to 3rd place and tied with Sapperton and Hillview tied with Longney for first place, so shoot offs were needed to decide the medals and even those were so close.
All teams did qualification scores. 2 finals, Genesis ‘A’ Final & Arrows ‘B’ Final
Sherbourne who were so close to winning the event, were to be even more disappointed when they were beaten to the bronze by Sapperton in a second shoot off, following a further tied score!
Hillview then secured Gold with the narrowest single point win over Longney.
Team Manager Jane Deasy encouraging her final 3 archers.
We could not have written a script any better, the feedback has been amazing, not just from the day’s finalists but from all the participants over the last 6 months.
The presentation ceremony saw guest of honour, Paralympic Medal winner Mel Clarke award the medals that finished off with a great gesture from the Hillview team as they had arranged for their Team Manager Jane Deasy to also be presented with a medal!
There is a tinge of sadness in completing this report as it brings to conclusion another school games season, hard work yes but so rewarding in so many ways and of course we plan to make it even bigger and better next year!
Also for the record, all the support provided for these finals, volunteers, coaches, equipment, transportation are provided free of charge by Xperience Archery and Deer Park Archers who are all proud to support our community and our fantastic Community Sports Partnership – Active Gloucestershire.
Article in the Cotswold Life
Great Article!
We have been featured in the July Issue of the Cotswold Life and an excellent article it is, so thanks to Martin Hutchings for getting the opportunity to promote the club.
The 2 page article in this most prestigious of magazines sees the club featured in the ‘Rural Issues’ section and focuses on the clubs inclusivity and how it focuses on the development of the whole person, not just the archer and the lengths it goes to, to ensure their new ground is going to be much more than just somewhere to shoot. It also highlights our success in raising funds and our impact and influence across the whole county not just the local area and also features a few of our international archers.
Saturday open community session continues to grow!
Following the success of the Archery GB – Big Weekend we have continued the have-a-go sessions on Saturdays from 3-4:30pm and they are proving to be a real hit. Visitors can try our sport for up to 90 minutes, supported by our great coaching and volunteer team for just a £3 donation. We also cater for 5+ year olds with the Arrows kit. As well as generating income we are also recruiting new participants to our beginners programmes and enrolments to our Summer Camps. The programme will continue well into the Autumn.
Just some of our volunteer team for the Big Weekend which then led to our open community sessions
Winter 2016/17 Practice and Workshop Programmes Fixed
We are fortunate enough to have access to 5 excellent indoor venues to accommodate our winter training and practice sessions and also use of a classroom. For this winter at our Balcarras venue as well as Saturday evenings, and our usual Sunday mornings, we have block booked the Sunday afternoons as well to accommodate more workshops for archers and coaches and additional competitions.
Hire in top class external specialists. as part of our workshop programme at Balcarras School.
We are also looking to book 2 mid week indoor record status competitions at our GL1 Recreation Centre venue, where even throughout the summer season we continue to operate our Wednesday late afternoon Satellite club in conjunction with the Recreation Centre. Of course we will also have completed our field course so will also be running events as well as clout sessions.
GL1 Indoor facility where we are looking to host 2 midweek record status competitions!
Stroud Generation Games this weekend!
We will be supporting Xperience Archery this weekend to deliver the archery element at the annual Stroud Generation Games at the Stroud Recreation Centre. An excellent event to promote our sport to teams spanning all ages.
This is a challenging activity, we have a set time to provide each team with the training and then time to record a score as they rotate around a number of activities. Not a minute to spare.
