Rapid growth of interest in the archery school games in Gloucestershire has continued and our partnership with Xperience Archery supported by more than 20 Deer Park Archers volunteers has allowed us to deliver an amazing programme!
Assembly at one of the District Finals (Balcarras)
In just 15 days we will have delivered an average of 3 hours individual training and competition to each of the 1150 pupils from 112 schools!
One disappointing fact this year is that we had to turn away many more schools as we could not find the time to accommodate them, plans are already in place for next year to expand the programme!
Several of the District Finals were held at our home ground.
The experience of pupils engaged in this programme ranged from nothing to well coached as a result of our satellite clubs and in-curriculum, lunch time and after school sessions running throughout the year.
The standards achieved have surpassed previous years and the feedback we have received has been terrific. For the first time this year, there was no individual competition and equipment used was restricted to only Genesis Bows. There were no restrictions on the age of participants and as a consequence at Secondary level we had an excellent mix of year 7’s to year 13’s. This was not just in the competition but also in the after-school clubs and this proved to be a very popular feature of our activities.
Some fantastic venues, this one was at Stowe Rugby Club.
The outcome from all of this effort will see the County Level 3 finals taking place over 2 weekdays in June at Hartpury College with 10 primary schools in teams of 9 archers and 6 Secondary Schools in teams of 12 archers competing for honours.
Cirencester Rugby Club hosted one of the Cotswold Rounds.
At a district level we saw between 8 and 10 teams competing for a single place in the finals and in 2 of the 5 districts they had to hold district North and South finals due to the demand!
All the teams posed for pictures at the end of the event and proudly displayed their scores.
Club Target Day
We held our first Target Day at our new ground last Sunday offering a full range of National Rounds, open practice sessions were still available, something that our much bigger range offers. So we had 11 competition targets with a further 9 being used for practice and our Inclusion Club also met during the morning. On line booking, assembly, new faces, flags, assembly and scoring were all run to competition standards.
Some good scores were recorded but more importantly valuable competition experience was gained!
Level 1 Coaching Courses
All the necessary paperwork for 2 courses has been sent to Archery GB, circulation of details, dates etc will be circulated as soon as confirmation is received.
Successful candidates from our one of our previous Level 1 course.
Ontarget Competition
This Sunday afternoon will see us host Tockington Archers in the next round of the competition. Fingers crossed for good weather.
Our winning team a few years ago. Teams are no longer allowed to field archers who have represented GB.
