Hertfordshire Archery Association
(Patron: The Marchioness of Salisbury)
the association of target archery clubs in Hertfordshire, England
the association of target archery clubs in Hertfordshire, England
So, did you enjoy the cakes? Many thanks for supporting the tournament yesterday. Apologies to Gordon Hurn and Tony Stickland for the confusion over Longbow results, congratulations to Tony on his win, and thanks to Gordon for pointing out the error. The organiser had a discussion with the duty manager of the hall afterwards about the somewhat chilly temperature of the hall, and hopefully we have a way forward if we use the same venue next year. As usual many thanks to the Judges for their hard work, as well as the organiser and his team. Photos can be found by following the Gallery page and click here for a copy of the Full Results
With only a week to go, there are still a few places left for the County Indoor Club Team Championships on 15th. The organiser would like to reassure the archer from over Clophill way who believed the shoot had been cancelled that not only is the tournament going ahead, but as you will see from the target list, there will be hot drinks and home made cakes available all day. So even if you don't want to shoot, the cake will be worth travelling for.
Results of the Senior Summer Leagues are now available on the Leagues page. Congratulations to the winners who this year are Hertford in all three bow styles. What do they feed them for breakfast over there?
Today, 11th October saw the 44th County and Open Clout tournament held once more at Berkhamsted Cricket Club. Weather always plays a big part in a clout and so it was kind of the organiser to provide us with such a variety throughout the day. As is always the case, there are some who enter this tournament and spend the day falling short of the mark and using the vernacular to them I say, “Respect”. I get frustrated when arrows don’t score and I certainly got frustrated plenty. But some people just have no respect for County equipment, as can clearly be seen from the photograph below (courtesy of Rod Brown) with no less than 3 archers trying to use the flag and post as a stop for their arrows. But for the unfortunate archer who used the flag itself, only a 4 scored. 
Thanks go to the organiser, Barbara Anscombe and her team from Berkhamsted Bowmen and to Graham Sibley for once more keeping most people in check. Several rumours need to be quashed however, Tony Ferguson had not sawn through Jack Hopgood’s bottom limb, and with an excellent 6 clouts on the day, why should he. As someone who has been through that unpleasant experience several times, I sympathise with you Jack,. The other rumour which needs to be ignored, Nicholas Parsons was not the Lord Patron. Whoever it was, I thought he did a wonderful job. Finally, Mick Papworth, you were missed this year. We hope you make a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing you back on the line soon. Full Results are available HERE.
Here are the final results of the Junior Summer League.
In the Recurve Junior League, Chiltern maintained their lead, held from the beginning of the season, to finish in a strong first place. Howard juniors were second, with Hinxworth recurve juniors finishing third not that far ahead of the Abbey juniors. Only four teams this year but well done to them all, managing to enter scores each of the 5 months (better than some of the senior teams).
For the Compound Junior League, Abbey juniors put in consistently high scores throughout the season and finished well ahead of the second place team from Chiltern. When I can get hold of all the individual scores I will post them here for you to see. In the mean time, the Table of Scores is only a click away.
I am delighted to say that, this evening the Hertfordshire Archery Association committee invited Mr Steve Dutch to be their president which he accepted. Steve has been a member of the HAA since first taking up the sport in 1993. Over the years he has been a familiar face on the archery scene and has represented his county on numerous occasions. He has always been willing to assist the county on working parties and continues to provide both storage facilities and transport for the county equipment. I hope you will join me in wishing him well in his new role and give him your support in the months and years ahead.
August Summer league scores are now available. One point of note, apart from some very good scores, is the proof that entering even just one score can make a difference. Well done to Longbow archer Katharine Roper who beat Abbey Bowmen on her own. Lets see if she can do it again this month!
Apologies to the Recurve team who recently represented the County at the SCAS inter-county team champs. They may at some stage in the day have slipped from 4th place, but at the end of the shoot they had regained that place. So apologies to the archers concerned and well done you were in fact only 54 points from second place, a very close run thing.
Sunday was the Southern Counties Team Champs and as usual we were able to send quite strong Recurve and Compound Teams. The weather was overcast for most of the day with a slight wind. It did get colder through the afternoon but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves even if they were not shooting as well as they thought they should. Still we had some success with the Compound Team coming third. The Recurve Team were third for part of the day but slipped to 5th or 6th by the end. I hope to have further news for you in the near future. In the mean time, a couple of photographs courtesy of Barry Anscombe, Both teams in good spirits before the shoot and the Compound Team collecting their medals. Well done to all those archers concerned.
Photographs of Last Weeks County Western have now been uploaded. Many of the pictures are without captions at this stage, I hope to rectify this over the next 6 months but if anyone has any suggestions just drop me a line. All contributions gratefully received, all suitable contributions possibly used. Many thanks to Brian Murrell for his work taking them all. Just click here to view the Photos.
A light to moderate breeze, almost seventy archers, many of them shooting in a tournament for the first time, and a friendly atmosphere made for a very pleasant day's shooting on Sunday. I was also very impressed that the organiser had laid on an airshow for us, did the Lancaster come back over the field to have a look at us or to let us look at him? I'm not quite sure but either way it was an impressive sight. Thank you to all those who helped with the organisation of the event and to Aim4Sport for their sponsorship. Full results as usual can be found on the Appropriate page.
With the Summer almost gone, where has all the news gone? well sorry for the quiet spell especially as so much has been going on in the last month. Mixed results in the annual Tri-Counties match hosted by ourselves, results can be found on the Match History page. Our Juniors took part in the SCAS Junior Inter Counties shoot, I hope to have more details for you soon. July League results are available in the usual place. But what about this month, this Sunday we have the County Western Tournament, a chance for you newer archers to show what you can do. If you want to try something a bit different and are capable of hitting 60 yds consistently why not see if there are any spaces left for the HCA Starlight this Friday evening (11th). The last inter county match of the year will be on 13th. The SCAS Senior Inter County Championships again being held in Andover will see our best archers competing against the best of the rest of the Southern Counties, we wish them the best of luck and good shooting. Finally, I look forward to seeing you all at the County Clout in October, that reminds me, I must put in my order for bacon sandwiches.
Today saw the annual inter county match between ourselves and Bedfordshire. This year hosted by Beds, the weather was at least much kinder than last year and this produced some very good scores, especially from the juniors. It was a mixed bag at the end of the day with the Senior Recurve team having to relinquish its hold on the Tom O'Neil trophy. The compound team however and the Longbow team both won but the junior recurve team followed their senior partner by coming second to a stronger Beds team. Well done to all those who shot and thank you to Su Draper the Bedfordshire team manager for all her work. A results table can be found by going to the Match History page
June results for the summer short metric leagues have now been uploaded, just follow the links on the Leagues page.
Don't forget to send in your entry for the County Western before you go on holiday. Leaving it until you get back may result in you not getting a place. For the more experienced archers amongst you please let the newer members of your clubs know what it is all about. The County Western is after all a handicap shoot intended for the newer archer. If you have never entered an archery competition before, then why not give this one a go. You might even see some unusual sights, watch this space for an update.
County Juniors represented themselves in excellent style at the 2nd SCAS Junior FITA Star at the weekend. Matthew Gardner led the way with a 1324 Gents FITA, Mary Perrott wasn't far behind on the Ladies FITA with 1315 and on the Metric 3 Rebecca Blewett put in a superb 1235. All three compound archers coming first in their classes. The recurves were represented by George Mills and Jonty Edgar who reversed places from the previous weeks National FITA with George scoring 1132 and Jonty 1110 also coming 3rd and 4th respectively. Many congratulations to them all.
Jeanne and Clive's family, Richard, Barbara, Ruth, Mandy and Chris would like to thank the many archers and Clubs from the Southern Counties and beyond who attended his funeral and sent cards and messages of sympathy. He will be sadly missed and it is nice to know how many friends he had in the archery fraternity.....Jeanne
While some were relaxing at the County Championships, 5 junior County members attended the National Junior Championships. On the Saturday shooting the Ladies FITA, Mary Perrott scored 1254 with her Compound. Also shooting compound but a Metric 3 Rebecca Blewett shot a new County record of 1259. Shooting Recurve Jonty Edgar and George Mills fought it out in the Metric 2 with Jonty scoring 1129 and George 1046. Congratulations to all 4 who shot very well despite the tricky weather. On the Sunday it was only a Compound presence from the County but Matthew Gardner became Junior National Champion with a 1232 York, Mary Perrott took 3rd place shooting a 1198 Hereford and Rebecca Blewett took 5th with 1180 for the Bristol 3. Mary, Matt and Rebecca were placed 3rd in the County Team Category being beaten by Yorkshire (1st) & Leicestershire (2nd) Again the weather was tricky but excellent scores by all. Very well done.
So what was going on at Haslam field while the juniors were working so hard, further details of the 58th Hertfordshire County Championships can be found by clicking on the link. Many thanks go to the Friday working party, all those who worked so hard during the weekend to make sure the tournament ran smoothly, our scorers, judges, Lord Patron Colin Smith, Nina, Jeanne and a special thank you to all of you who bought raffle tickets we expect to be able to send a cheque for over £300 to the Lister Renal Foundation as a result. County Weekend Results
Monday 6th was a sad day for the HAA as we said a final farewell to Clive. Jeff Barham gave a eulogy from the Archery world which can be found by following the link at the end of this item. Our thoughts are with his family and Jeanne. Any club or individual wishing to send a donation in memory of Clive Haywood please send it to: The Lister Renal Foundation, c/o J Worley (Funeral Directors), 48 Lawn Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP3 9HL Eulogy
Two items for you today, the first is that the May results for the Senior Short Metric League can now be viewed via the Leagues page. But before you go, the Hertfordshire County Championships has been filling up steadily over the last few weeks with over 100 entries so far. This means that there are few places left so if you haven't entered yet and want to, now would be a good time to do it.
p.s. thank you to those people who have started pointing out errors and omissions on various pages, it does help me a lot. Don't forget, if you want to see something on the site, just ask. And if you see something you don't want to see, tell me. I can't guarantee I'll do anything about it but it would be nice to know.
Despite the forcast and despite the stair-rods most people had to drive through, it turned out to be an excellent day for the Southern Counties Clout. With 8 SCAS counties represented, as well as two more visitor counties, Hertfordshire Archers did very well with more of the main awards than any of the other Counties. Gents Recurve - Phil Lambert and Robert Shirley (first and second), Ladies recurve - Barbara Williams (second), Gents Longbow - Roy Wareham and Roger Bartlett (first and second), Ladies Longbow - Linda Adkins, Helen Mawditt and Rose Goss (1,2 and 3), Gents Barebow - Peter Sweetman (first), Ladies Barebow - Gina North and Joyce Morgan (first and second), Junior Barebow - Alex North (first), Junior Compound - Mary Perrott (first), as well as the County Team award and even the most clouts unrewarded to Alan Gasking. Several photographs of the prize winners can be found here, Photos. Oh and stair-rods on the way home as well. A big thank you to the organisers and Judges. If you stayed in bed this morning because it looked wet, in the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, "Big mistake, big big mistake!"
Sorry for the delay but we now have the final results for the senior winter leagues. Please go to the Leagues page to find a full set of tables. For those of you who can't wait, in the Frostbite League Howard Bowmen won the Recurve while Hertford Company of Archers won both Compound and Longbow.
The Portsmouth Leagues (Recurve) saw Chiltern Archery Club win the 1st division and Stortford Archery Club the 2nd which means as things stand, Chiltern B will be relegated to division 2 this winter with Stortford shooting with the big boys. The Compounds also had two divisions with Hertford winning division 1 and Abbey division 2. Bad news for Green Dragon as they will go down but watch out as Abbey move to the premier league. The Longbows as usual like to keep things simple, and with just the one division Hertford secured first place comfortably. You may recall that the longbows also had a "virtual match" each to ensure everyone played everyone else but in the end the addition of these matches made no difference to the final placings.
Congratulations to all those who took part, I bet you are all looking forward to getting inside and starting it all over again.
You should all have your fixtures sorted out for the Summer League by now and some may already have shot their first match. If you are a member of one of the 10 clubs who have entered the league this year and you don't know what's happening at your club, ask your committee. A full fixture list can be found on the Fixtures page. These matches are a friendly way to get to know a few new people and get a taste of tournament style shooting without the pressure. If nothing else it usually gives you a chance to stuff yourselves with tea and cake afterwards. I know of at least one club in the county that would fall apart without its regular slice of lemon drizzle!
But please, those responsible for collecting the scores, get those scores in to the organiser as soon as possible. The quicker you do, the sooner he can collate them and we can all then see them here on the Leagues pages
Good luck to all the Hertfordshire archers attending the Southern Counties Archery Meeting this week at Winchester. If you have never been, book it in your diaries for next year very few people who go only go once.
The end of March marked the final day of the Junior Winter League. In the recurve division Chiltern Juniors maintained their first position through out the whole of the indoor season, finishing well ahead of the second place team of Abbey. Howard Juniors who had held onto second place until the final month finished third, followed by Hinxworth, Edgegrove, Elswood, Berkhamsted and Green Dragon.
The Junior compound division winners were Hertford, who put in a strong performance all winter and finished well ahead of Abbey. In third place was Chiltern and Berkhamsted fourth.
Well done to all of those Hertfordshire Juniors taking part, this year saw a record number of entries with 64 Juniors entering scores from nine clubs.
The entry form for the 2009 County Western is now available via the tournaments page
The M25 tried its best to disrupt the 2009 Middlesex versus Hertfordshire indoor match today with a 200+ tonne slow moving vehicle making that route to Sunbury a definite mistake. Luckily only one archer was caught in it but several more found their routes slow and conjested but not once did we think that the Middlesex management had arranged for this load to be where it was when it was.
Five Herfordshire archers received their "colours" as they shot for the County for the first time, a special mention must go to Gordon Hurn who, in his debut, was the highest scoring longbow archer with 489. In short, an impressive display by all three teams as they retained their titles though the recurves waited until the last dozen to overtake a strong Middlesex side. Thanks must go to Clive Haywood our President for coming and supporting the teams, Jeanne Spooner and Gordons Dad for pampering to the archers with snacks and helping with the admin. To Netta and George for their excellent judging (always pays to have good judges especially the way I shoot)But especially to Ron Hawkes and the Middlesex teams for making us feel so welcome. For full results click here
April news is already more prolific than for March, good luck to the County Recurve, Longbow and Compound teams as they travel to Middlesex at the weekend for the annual inter county match. A bit later than usual this year, but with Middlesex as our hosts it will be a good afternoons shooting. Come back here next week for the results. Oh and please ignore the previous news item, even the best journalists can be misled sometimes, I wonder if I can get my fiver back?
Archery hits the small screen again. In another publicity event organised as part of the build up to the 2012 Olympics, GNAS, or Archery GB as we are now, have announced that they will be holding a premier 70m head to head event at Aintree during this weeks Grand National festival. Cashing in on the publicity surrounding the name change of the Society due to confusion with the famous horse race, the Society has negotiated use of the main Paddock for an "invitation only" head to head which will be televised after the awards ceremony of the big event. This is a one off that should not be missed. Meanwhile I will be putting a fiver on the French outsider "Piaf Rollo"
36 archers enjoyed a good afternoon's shooting at the A session today. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny 2c. The roads are generally good around St Albans at the moment, however the car park at the sports hall still has snow on it so please take care.
Make sure you bring some food as the snack machine is out of order, although the hot drinks machine is still available.
Please note that EVERYONE who goes into the sports hall (ie. parents, partners etc) must have clean indoor shoes or bring their slippers!
Hope to see you all tomorrow.
Due to current adverse weather conditions and the forecast of more to come on Thursday, the AGM of the Hertfordshire Group of Archery Coaches has been postponed until the 05 March meeting. If you speak to any of your club coaches before then can you please make sure they are aware. After all I don't want to have to come over there and dig them out if they get stuck.
A space has become available for the D session at the County Indoor Champs this Sunday. If you are looking for a space contact the organiser before it goes.
December Junior Winter League scores have now been uploaded. Chiltern Juniors continued to extend their lead in the junior winter recurve league, with Howard in a strong second place, and Abbey third. In the compound junior league, Hertford have a commanding lead, with Abbey second and Chiltern in third place. ...............Mick.
All Sunday sessions are now full. There are a limited number of places left in the A session on Saturday afternoon. Herts priority booking has now ended so these are open to all. Entry forms can be found via the tournaments page.
With a membership in the County now in excess of 1000, I was expecting to see a lot more people at this years AGM but unfortunatly that was not the case. However, the main points which you may like to know are that the current committee has been re-elected, non of the positions were contested. Our President, Clive Haywood being at the end of his 3 year term was also re-elected and the Chairman thanked him specifically for his committment to ensure that attended as many County events as he could. This was appreciated by archers and organisers alike.
Two other bits of news, over 130 records were ratified through the County last year, a superb achievement by all concerned which also included numerous National records, two of which were maximum scores for the compound single and double Worcester by Matthew Gardner from Stortford AC. And close to everyones pocket, the treasurer proposed and the committee agreed that the HAA affiliation fees should once again remain at their present level.
The latest news on the Herts Indoor Champs in February is that the C and D sessions are now basically full. There are places left for the other 2 sessions which again include a Saturday afternoon but there are not many and there is another block booking expected in the next day or so. So, post off your entry form now before you end up leaving it too late. Entry forms can be found via the tournaments page.
I bumped into Paul Browne the other weekend, It is always nice to meet someone famous, I was able to congratulate him personally for being an "Olympian" not many people get that far and it is something to be proud of. Paul had sent a very nice letter to the County for their support and I asked him if he had any photographs taken while out in Beijing which he kindly forwarded to me. Click Here
149 archers entered this years Club Team Championships on 16th November which was again a FITA25 all results can be found by navigating to the tournaments page and clicking on the Team Champs link
Junior Summer League results can now be found on the Leagues page as well as the Seniors. Many congratulations to all those junior archers who have taken part this year and thanks also to all those seniors who have helped and encouraged them through the season. Chiltern Juniors finished in first place closely followed by Edge Grove School, with Howard Juniors maintaining a solid third place. The Chiltern team consists of Kim Saunders, Ali Postoyko and Alex North. As expected Abbey juniors won the compound league, with a team consisting of Mary Perrott and Chris Payne. The highest scoring unrewarded boy/girl were, George Mills from Howard and Elly Simpson from Edge Grove.
Congratulations to the winning teams in the Senior Summer Leagues. Sorry that the results have been a little slow appearing on this site, this has been due to technical difficulties experienced by the webmaster lately. I thank you for your patience and hope that inclusion of an extra couple of hours in the day will overcome these difficulties. In the Recurve division we saw Hinxworth come through in first place preventing Hertford Company of Archers from taking a clean sweep. Well done to HCA's Longbow and Compound teams. All results can be found via the Leagues page.
As of today, there are only a couple of spaces left on the third session for the County Indoor Team Champs on 16th November. If you can get up a bit earlier the first session is 75% full and the middle session 85% full so if you haven't entered yet you still have a few days left.
What a wonderful day for a Clout it was on Sunday. With 90 archers entered it was definitely a day for the Longbow and Barebow contingent with many regular technical shooters stripping down to the bare essentials or dusting down the ‘bent stick’.
It certainly didn’t distract from some excellent scores with all tassel colours bar one being claimed across the disciplines. And it was the Red that was left out. Visitor Roz Smith shot 187 with her barebow to claim her purple tassel and still only finished second behind Stortford’s Barbara Williams who scored 190. As usual we were all kept under control by our judge for the day Graham Sibley and many thanks to him for his hard work throughout. Prizes were graciously awarded by our Lady Paramount for the day Shirley Seymour and our president Clive Heywood kept a close eye on proceedings.
Doing all the work of preparation, scores and results and still able to shoot were Berkhamsted’s Barbara and Barry Anscombe who again were assisted by their club’s working party. On behalf of the archers, thank you for all your hard work it makes the day go so smoothly. As usual the results can be viewed by following the links to either the trophy winners or the full results and there are a few photographs to amuse you in the 2008 Gallery.
County Western results are now available via the tournaments page.
Congratulations to the Hertfordshire Compound team who came third at the Southern Counties Senior Inter-County match at Andover today. And despite having a depleted team due to injury the Recurve archers managed a very commendable 6th place. Further details will be available shortly.
Junior Summer League results for August. Apologies to Edge Grove and Chiltern, the scores put up on 13th contained a couple of errors and these have now been corrected. So we now have, Chiltern juniors put in some very good scores this month and have managed to overtake Edge Grove School and take first place. Howard are still in a very strong third place, and with only one month to go it could be a very close finish. Further details on the Leagues page
Firstly please accept my apologies for the delay in this news item, problems with my phone line is all I will say. Anyway, the forecast again was for a wet and windy day, I had a new weatherproof coat especially but as it turned out this wasn’t needed, I wonder if I can get a refund. It was good to see a number of our newer archers shooting, many of them in their first tournament. There were the regulars of course, being supportive to us newcomers, full of helpful tips on why polishing the whole shaft of the arrow with silicone does not actually help when pulling them out of the boss! And what happens when you position your hand too high when holding a longbow. For those of you who found it all just a little too easy, don’t forget that for you gentlemen, 60 yards will be your shortest distance when doing a York.
I had a brief look at the rulebook after the shoot but couldn’t find anything that said if an archer is too short to reach his arrows he has to wait until he is as tall as his Dad before he can shoot so look out, we could have three Bridgewaters on County trophies next year. Talking of Trophies, for those who have been fortunate enough to win trophies at any competition, please think of your fellow archers when it come round to returning them for the next year, there is nothing more disappointing than winning your first trophy and finding that it either hasn’t been returned clean or worse still, hasn’t been returned at all.
The County is grateful to Haileybury College for allowing us the use of their immaculate rugby pitch to shoot on, it was a wonderful backdrop and thanks go to the Hertford Company of Archers for their organisation on the day. Full results will be available here shortly but in the mean time there are a few photographs of the day, it only remains for me to return the longbow to its owner with thanks for its loan and dust down the trusty recurve. Maybe I’ll try compound next year . . . . , or maybe not.
With another typical British Summer there has been precious little opportunity for archers to put in top flight performances. Even the Olympics archers had to contend with strong winds and heavy rain at times so it was a relief for our County juniors to turn up at the Southern Counties Junior Inter-Counties Championships and have a pleasant day. Our Compound team of Mary Perrott (1132), Ben Fordham (1146) and Rebecca Blewett (1068) managed 4th place with Ben Claiming his 6 gold end and an 1100 rose. The top compound score of the day was a 1282 Bristol 3 by Norfolk's Lewis Humphries. The Recurve team was never going to feature high in the results table with only two of the 4 being able to shoot on the day. The winning team from Sussex averaged over 1150 for each archer but again the Herts team performed well with George Mills (1001) putting in another solid score and Jake Garner (814) claiming his first rose. Watch out Norfolk see you next year.
Happy Aniversary to Elswood Bowmen they are 50 years old this month. Originally founded by Guy and Marjorie Ely and with a current membership of about 40 they can be found shooting in Shenley. On behalf of the County, congratulations to all club members and our best wishes and thanks to Marjorie for all her dedication and support at all levels over those years.
Congratulations to the Hertfordshire teams who took part in the annual Tri-Counties match today. Despite a relatively dry start to the day, the weather soon closed in and made the day somewhat wet for the archers but by the end of the day Hertfordshire archers had put their mark on the proceedings. Full results should be available shortly but in the mean time you may like to know that all our senior teams won and even young George Mills tried his best to beat the opposition all on his own. Click here for just a few photos to give you a flavour of the sort of day it was.
The greatest show on earth, spectacular setting, the elite of the sporting world and it all happens tomorrow the 9th August over at Wokingham. County archers are in action at the annual Tri-Counties match setting the scene for the start of the Olympic archery on Sunday. Try one of these links for more information about when to watch the Olympic archery or go to the GNAS website for news as it happens.
It's back on! the Hertford Company of Archers has managed to reschedule their Junior Fun Shoot for Saturday 20th September. After having to cancel earlier this year as a result of some major groundworks (It would have made a very interesting field shoot) members of the club have worked wonders to get the field to its present standard. So if you have any junior archers in your club, get them entered, they are guaranteed to have a great day out, I only wish I was a few years younger! (OK, a few more than a few) Click here for the entry form.
Thanks to Matt Meadows for some excellent photographs of the Prize Giving at the County Weekend. Go to the County Weekend page to view them.
Many congratulations to Hertfordshire wheelchair archer Paul Browne who has been selected to shoot at the Beijing Paralympics. Watch this space for further details
Forget about Federer and Nadal, you should have been at the County Championships this weekend to see a performance of Titanic proportions. With what the organiser describes as “strong gust winds” on the Saturday and “periods of heavy rain with gusty winds” on the Sunday a great many archers did not finish the round. Please follow the link at the end for full results which also include those for the Inter County match between HAA and Bedfordshire. This match was restricted to the first 6 dozen arrows due to the conditions with the agreement of the two team captains. As usual we were endebted to our judges for the two days, Kevin Thurlow, Netta Bridle, Brian Dunlop and Paula Golding for remaining dedicated to their task and cheerful throughout. Full Results
Congratulations to two Hertfordshire junior archers for being selected to represent Great Britain in the 2008 Youth World Championships. The tournament will be held in October in Antalya, Turkey so if you are planning a late break this year why not go out and see them in action. The County will be wishing Abbey Bowmen’s Mary Perrott and Stortford Archery Club’s Matthew Gardner the best of luck. Check out the GNAS website for further details of the shoot as they become available.
Just squeezed in to this month, the first set of results for the Junior Summer League. A good number of Junior Archers have submitted scores for the first month with 6 teams in the recurve section though only two for the compounds at the moment. This means that Abbey are currently leading Chiltern in the 'bows with wheels' or compound category. In the Recurve class (no pun intended) Edge Grove school have taken an early lead over Chiltern then Howard, but with six clubs in the race I expect the other clubs to mount a stiff challenge as the season goes on. Keep sending in the scores and don't forget to keep records for your JAWS booklets.
This is a plea to all clubs taking part in any of the summer leagues. The organisers would like to give you results tables as soon as possible but if you don't get your scores in they can't give you the current results, so please send in those numbers as soon as they become available.
There are currently less than a handful of spaces left for this years Herts County Championships according to an update from the organiser this evening. Once these are taken he will put subsequent entries on a waiting list for any spaces that may become vacant. This of course is excellent news for the organiser but not so good for those who have not yet entered. Please note that it will not be possible to add any more targets to the field. There are spaces for those who wish to shoot on the Saturday which although not Championship Day is still Rose and Record status.
This year we said goodbye to the Luton Rugby Club venue for the SCAS Cout with a move to the Manshead School in Caddington. The school had more than enough space to host the event and even provided a windmill to help archers judge the 'light southerly wind'. Full results and a few photographs can be found on the SCAS website but for now here are the HAA highlights. Many congratulations to HCA archer Robert Shirley for retaining his Recurve title but with only 7 points separating the first three, things were close at the top. With Derek Bridgewater taking second place in the Longbow contest that saw the end of the gents achievements. So well done to another pair of HCA archers,Julie Murrell for the Compound title and Helen Mawditt for the Longbow title. Two more top achievers completed the lineup with Ruth Brown from Abbey bowmen taking the Barebow and Mary Perrott, the only junior from the county to enter this year also from Abbey winning the Junior Compound class. It would have been nice to see more county archers entered, maybe next year.
Attention all club Records Officers - Are you submitting all qualifying scores for your club archers as well as record claims? If not please make sure your archers know this or they may be missing out on a possible County Team place. This year’s County Championship weekend incorporates the annual Inter County match between ourselves and Bedfordshire. Archers who wish to be considered for selection need to ensure that scores are submitted to the selectors before 23rd June. If you are shooting close to these scores please submit them anyway as they may still be considered.
Junior archers please submit ALL scores for 12 dozen rounds and remember to include contact details.
Full results of the Junior Winter League can now be found via the Leagues pages.
Congratulations to all those juniors who submitted scores. Ask your club junior rep for details of the Summer League and how you can take part, even if you do not have a full team there are still individual awards to be won.
And if that wasn't enough you can also find the Senior league scores for Portsmouth and Frostbite
Many thanks to Dave Holland for doing all the paperwork and organisation for this, Dave is now handing over the Summer Senior League organisation to Andrew McClelland. Watch this space for a full list of fixtures which should appear in the next couple of days. Good luck for the coming months and please encourage as many of your club to take part.
At the County Committee meeting held 7th April the latest record submissions were ratified. Among them it should be noted were two maximum scores by junior compound archer Matthew Gardner for the single and double Worcester rounds. If you don't want anyone to beat your records then that is the way to do it. Many congratulations Matthew.
Due to circumstances beyond their control the Hertford Company of Archers have had to cancel their Junior Fun Shoot on 7th June.
An excellent result for our County archers at the annual indoor match against Middlesex (Full results). The compound team led from the start with a 20 point lead at the end of the first dozen but as Middlesex settled, they slowed the increasing advantage and ended only 52 points behind. The top scoring compound archer was Steve Gooden with 585 and the average score for the team of 578.
The Longbow teams had a bit more of a tussle with a 5 point lead for HAA after the first dozen being reversed by the end of the second dozen. But after a very strong third dozen the Herts archers had settled down and dominated the rest of the shoot finishing 93 points ahead. Paul Owen was the highest scoring Longbow archer with 452.
The recurves however got off to a shaky start trailing by 1 point after the first dozen. But once they got into their stride they built up a steady lead adding on average 25 points to the gap after each of the subsequent dozens to end 99 points ahead. The average score for the Herts team was an excellent 570 boosted in no small amount by a 592 from James Keogh.
As usual the shoot was a friendly affair and our thanks go to the Middlesex team for helping to make the day so enjoyable. The county's thanks go to Abbey Bowmen for their hard work as field party, hosts and then caterers after the shoot.
And finally thank you to our judge Clive Haywood for all his work.
Good luck to Hertfordshire Junior Compound Archer, Matthew Gardner as he flies out on 2nd March with the 23 strong GB team to Turin for the European Indoor Championships.
The County Indoor Championships were held this weekend 9th and 10th February with some very close scoring in several of the divisions. Go to the tournaments page for a summary of the results, and remember the next time you think the odd point won't make a difference just look at the full results to see how many places were decided on just that one point. Congratulations to Abbey's Andrew McClelland and Stortford's Barbara Williams for taking the senior recurve titles and as always a special thank you to our judges, Clive, Kevin and Paula.
The County has a new committee following the 2008 AGM held on 28th January, some new faces and some old faces retained. please check out the Officers page over the following few days for details of your new committee. The meeting was precided over by the Lady Vice President, Barbara Anscombe and began with members standing in silence in memory of Peter Newbery, Guy Ely, Doreen Young and Paul Dunn who have all passed away this year. For more details on the meeting please contact your own club's County Rep.
As of today, all session D spaces have been filled for the County Indoor Championships in February. There are still places in the 3 remaining sessions but these are limited, especially for session B. If you haven't entered yet, or know anyone in your club who hasn't entered, you can get a form by clicking on the following link. 2008 Indoor Championship Entry Form
It is my sad duty to inform you of the death of Guy Ely. Many of you knew Guy, many more or you will have seen him accompanied by Marjorie at the County Championships each year, keen to meet old friends and always interested in how well (or badly) the archers were doing. You may not be aware that Guy was one of the first of the trained Archery coaches after the war and then one of our first National coaches. He had a significant impact on the development of coaching, was CCO of Hertfordshire on at least 2 occasions and ran the National Junior squad for a period. In addition he was a great support to many coaches in Herts, and trained a significant number of coaches for both Herts and the Per Ardua archery society (the RAF archery organisation). His achievements in coaching resulted in him being made one of the founder members of the GNAS Coaching hall of fame in 2003 (together with Alan Pritchard and John Kember-Smith). In addition Guy was a National Judge and one of the true gentlemen of archery. We all send our sincere condolences to Marjorie and the family at this time.
Junior Summer League results have now been confirmed, despite a late flourish by EdgeGrove School, this years recurve winners are the juniors from Chiltern. Well done to them and all those who took part. Watch the League pages for the full results or click here. 2007 JSL Results
Almost 130 archers took part in this years Indoor Club Team Champs held at the Odyssey Bowls Centre, Stevenage. Please see the tournaments page for a full set of results. 10 county recurve teams, 6 compound and even 4 longbow meant that along with a good handful of juniors all trophies were contested. Well done to all competitors. For the team and individual scores click here. 2007 Club Team Championship Results
An ideal day for the 42nd County Double 1 Way Clout, congratulations to all those who took part, to those who scored well, who claimed tassels and to those who's arrows still will not reach the flag no matter what they do but who keep trying. Please see the tournaments page for all the results. Or click here. 2007 Clout Results
Hertfordshire once again proved itself to have one of the strongest senior Recurve teams in the SCAS region by finishing third at the Inter Counties Team Championships held down at Andover. At one point in second place only 6 points behind the eventual double winners Hampshire, the team was overtaken by Essex having to settle for the bronze medal place.
The annual Tri-Counties match between Hertfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire was this year hosted by Bucks. The date has been changed from it's usual third week in August which resulted in some difficulties in putting together teams even though the size of the venue had put a restriction on both the round to be shot and the number of archers. Herts won the compound match with Brian Murrell and Adrian Blewett bringing in their secret weapon, Mary Perrott, to help put Bucks into second place by 141 points. The Longbow team also did what comes naturally with Kim Jennings leading the scoring on the day. Husband Tom along with Derek Bridgewater helped make sure that second place Bucks were over 400 points behind. The juniors matched the seniors in the recurve both coming third, Robert Shirley, Gaynor Hutchison, Pat Ryan and Phil Lambert were at a disadvantage without a 5th team member, while the juniors were at the mercy of two more experienced teams never the less George Mills led the county scoring with Alex Liangas, Samantha Keys and Marcus Kim all making a valiant contribution to their final total.
It is with great sadness that HAA announce the death of Peter Newbery. Peter died suddenly on Saturday 1st of September following a heart attack. Peter was the Secretary of the Hertfordshire Archery Association, our County Child Protection Officer and he also ran this website. Peter brought to all of these roles an unflagging enthusiasm, dedication and diligence. A longstanding member of Abbey Bowmen, he served as their Chairman for 7 years and Treasurer for the last 2. He was a club coach and taught a large number of their members in the many beginners courses in which he was involved as well as helping with County squad coaching. Whether working with him in the various committees or shooting with him on the line, we will remember Peter as a true gentleman and friend, with a gentle authority and a dry sense of humour. Everyone who knew him is deeply saddened, and our thoughts at this time go to his wife and family.
The annual match against Bedfordshire was shot as part of the Bedfordshire County Championships. Hertfordshire won the Senior Recurve, Compound and Longbow team matches, but lost the Junior Recurve and Junior Compound matches. For the full scores, please click here 2007 Herts v Beds Results
In windy, dry weather, the County Weekend and 56th County and Open Championships were held at Haslam Field, Berkhamsted. Neil Bridgewater regained the Gents Recurve title and Gaynor Hutchison won the Ladies Recurve. Other winners included Brian Murrell (Gents Compound), Liz Brown (Ladies Compound), Derek Bridgewater (Gents Longbow), Kim Jennings (Ladies Longbow), Maggie Johnston (Ladies Barebow) and Jack Hopgood (Gents Barebow). For details of all the main award winners and full results, please click on 2007 County Championship Results.
