This year’s Valentine Tournament will be held at Pool Academy Sports Hall on Sunday 16th February. We will be shooting a Vegas round in the morning and a Worcester in the afternoon. A Vegas is 5 dozen arrows shot at a special target face with three spots, the idea being that you shoot one arrow into each. Please be aware that your arrows need to be numbered. The targets are numbered 1, 2 and 3, and the rule is that you put numbered arrows in ascending order into each target. So targets 1, 2 and 3 have arrows 1, 2 and 3, or arrows 2, 4 and 8, whatever, as long as they are in ascending order so that everyone can be sure you haven’t missed the target you are aiming at and accidentally scored in another one. Arrows should be marked permanently on the shaft, not the fletching. You can buy decals or wraps from archery suppliers, or a silver pen generally works quite well.

The Worcester is a black target with a white centre that scores 1 to 5. You shoot five arrows each end rather than the usual three.

Download an entry form here.

We learned today that the annual chicken show at Ludgvan Community Centre will be held next Saturday, 16th November. Clearly it is not ideal for arrows and chickens to be occupying the space at the same time, so we will give it a miss that day.

Dare I suggest, use the time wisely – do some exercise at home, use a stretch band to work on shoulder position or something….

Booking is now live for our next beginners’ course. Dates are Monday evenings 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd September. Each session starts at 6:00pm and will last for about two hours, subject to weather and daylight. We provide all the kit you need and will show the basics of shooting safely and with a good chance of hitting the target. We will also show you some of the different kinds of bows we shoot with. You can read more about it here, and there is also a link at the bottom of that page to book your place.

As we usually do during the summer season, we will be having a series of monthly clout shoots with barbecue. It will be the next-to-last Tuesday each month, with a 5:30pm start. For those who haven’t done one before, a clout is aimed at a small flag placed in the ground at long distance and you score depending how close you get. The rugby field isn’t long enough to do a full-distance clout, which is up to 180 yards, so we do one at 100 yards. Most people should be able to reach that far, even with lightweight bows. It does mean aiming high up, but that’s part of the fun. This is an informal series and not intended to be anything serious, but there are awards to be had for the best scores of the season, which we normally hand out at our Christmas shoot.

A barbecue will be lit at the same time, so if you would like to join in then bring something to cook.

If you would prefer to shoot at a normal target then you will be perfectly welcome. We can do both at the same time.

Dates are:

23rd April
21st May
18th June
23rd July
20th August
17th September

That gives an opportunity to try again the following week if the weather is bad.

I have managed to find time to get the results sorted, and you can download a copy here. We have had to correct the golds on couple of scoresheets, as 9s had been counted. I know they are the same colour on the target, but for scoring purposes only 10s count as golds.

We had a bit of a mishap whilst setting out on the Saturday evening, and it appears I got my sums wrong when working out how many target faces we needed and we were a few short on both rounds. Thankfully Jimmy Sandoe had some WA18s in stock and arranged for Anthony Aplin to bring some Worcester faces from Redruth club’s stock. Thank you gentlemen for helping us out!

The next thing to test us was a family turning up whose entry forms hadn’t arrived for some reason. We managed to fit them in, thanks to AOTW member Jon for dropping out of the shoot. Apart from that, everything went pretty well and as far as we know everyone enjoyed the experience. Thanks to all the club members who helped out – without you it wouldn’t happen.

Our next beginners’ course will start on Sunday 17th February. After that sessions follow on 24th February and the 10th and 17th March. We have to skip a week on 3rd March as the hall is booked. Each session will start at 2pm and will last about 2 hours. We will go a bit longer on the first session, though, as it always takes a little time at the start to get everyone set up with equipment. We will give everyone a little longer to get some decent shooting in.

We will provide all the equipment you need, and will get you hitting the target safely at gradually increasing distance. We will also show you the different kinds of bow used by our members.

See here for more details and to book a place. If you have any questions, contact Marcus at marcus@archersofthewest.co.uk or via our Facebook page.

Archers of the West’s next open tournament is our Valentine’s Shoot, which will be held at Pool Academy on Sunday 10th February. Click here for an entry form.

We generally run this as two different rounds, and this time we will have a WA18 in the morning followed by a Worcester in the afternoon. A WA18 is 5 dozen arrows shot at 18m at a 40cm target face. If you are used to a Portsmouth, 18m is a few inches shorter than 20 yards, so most of you should be able to use your normal indoor sight mark.this is 60cm in diameter. The target two-thirds the size, though, which does focus the attention. This does make it harder to get a high score, but everyone is in it together.

You will note from the entry form that entry for juniors is free, as long as you come from another club. Devon and Cornwall Archery Society this year is supporting junior entries from central funds in an effort encourage more juniors to travel to other clubs and join in the competitions.