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
Indoor Club Team Championship photos are now available on the Gallery page.
The RESULTS of the County Indoor Club Team Championships are now available by following the hyperlink. All in all it was a good shoot though I must admit I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t left myself enough time to try all the cake! It was said on the day but I will repeat the comments here, many thanks to the organisers, Peter and Carol the results were ready before the raffle had finished, something we have now come to expect from this tournament, so well done for that. The judges were available when needed, inconspicuous when not and their smooth running of the day was very much appreciated. There will be some photographs from the day available on the gallery page but they might not get there for a day or so as it is going to be more difficult to whittle them down to a respectable number than at an X-Factor audition. More thanks to Aim4Sport for their sponsorship of the event, to the working party and finally to our Lady Paramount Carol Clark.
If you enjoyed the shoot and want to see these County-run tournaments continue then why not consider helping with the organisation of one in the future, you could decide as a club to run one of the shoots, or contribute as an individual. It is not necessary to have the facilities at your own club if a suitable venue can be found elsewhere, this weekend being a prime example. If the County does not get more people willing to get involved and help then tournaments like this will not happen. Currently we are still looking for an organiser for the County Indoor Championships in February, I think you would agree that as a County we should be able to organise something as straightforward as this? Please give it some thought, you do not need to be on the County committee, or even your own club committee, just willing to give it a go. There is a lot of support available for anyone willing to give it a try but now is not the time to sit back and rely on the few who keep doing these things each year. If you want to find out more then drop me a line and we can have a chat about it or contact any of the current tournament organisers.
Just a reminder for anyone who is looking for a bit of help with their archery, be it equipment maintenance, developing a coaching plan or simply help with some aspect of your shooting. You can get this on alternate Monday evenings at St. Michaels hall in St Albans. For dates, times and the full address have a look on the diary page. This is open to all archers in the County at what ever level and with what ever bowstyle. Bruce and Dave will be happy to see you and help if they can.
I had a very enjoyable day on Sunday helping out with the current Level 2 Coach course being run by Tony Ferguson. The photograph below shows the students enjoying one of Tony's explanations of how the shoulder works. I was pleasantly reassured that they had already learned a lot about nutrition and conditioning and were taking it to heart continually through the day! With many months ahead of them we wish them all the best with their endeavours and on behalf of the County much appreciation for all the effort and time you are putting in to this course Tony, I know it will result in some excellent Level 2 Coaches.
If you look at the GNAS/ArcheryGB website, you may have seen recently that GNAS were, “able to fund a number of places for young people aged 15 – 19 years to become qualified coaches or leaders in England. (Funding sourced from Sport England).”
Clubs in the County were asked for names of possible juniors and the Hertfordshire County Coaching Officer forwarded the names of 3 interested Juniors who met the conditions and could start a course before the end of March 2012. We are pleased to announce that they were selected by GNAS and Adam Freeman Lea, aged 16 from Berkhamsted Bowmen, Philippa Martin, aged 15 from Royston Heath Archery Club and Jonty Edgar aged17 from Abbey Bowmen, will receive £100 each towards the cost of a Level 1 coaching course. Watch out for the next Archery UK where there will be an article about the Junior coach support scheme and quotes from the Hertfordshire juniors as to what the grant means for them. We will keep you updated as to their progress once their courses get underway.
Attention all juniors, (and those who know of any juniors). There are still some places available for the Abbey - Edge Grove Junior Tournament on Sunday 30th October, which is held at STAGS in St Albans. Please see the Diary page for an entry form and further details. There are lots of trophies to be won as well as spot prizes for all sorts of things. Why not give it a go? And don't forget to ask the Lord Patron to do a bit of juggling for you while you are waiting for the results.
Results of the 46th County Clout are now available via the tournaments page. It was an interesting day to shoot a clout, as the organiser put it, a blustery day! But even with the difficult conditions there were still several tassell claims. Well done to all the archers who shot, for those who tried clout for the first time, I look forward to seeing you all again next year. And to those archers who found the wind brought their arrows up short every end, thank you for your persistence and good humour through the day. After all, it's the taking part that counts, isn't it?
The September scores and final points table for the Senior Summer League are now available. This year sees a sharing of the various titles showing a greater interest and participation in the league matches which is always good to see. Maybe next year we will get entries from all the Hertfordshire clubs, after all it is the archers who loose out if they don't get a chance to compete. Anyway, congratulations to Hinxworth who were clear winners of the Recurve league. The other clubs had a good tussle through the year changing places almost every month. Compound saw a win for Hertford by a mere 28 points, this had been a bit of a two horse race from the start but they managed to keep their noses in front at the end. The Longbow league saw the top 3 teams all on 8 points but with a much higher score the honours go to Silver Arrow. The next three teams were all within 100 points of each other, so with a little bit of work this winter, who knows.
The August scores for the Senior Summer League are now available. I am sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience. Please take time to look through the tables, there were some very close matches in August as you will see.
Good luck to all of you who have entered this years County Clout Championships. If you have forgotten to enter then drop the organiser an e-mail and see if there is still room, who knows, you might even come away with that elusive purple tassel.
After the success of the recurve team at Saturdays Tri-Counties match, Herts were able to send full teams for Recurve, Compound and Longbow seniors as well as Junior Compound and a reduced Junior Recurve team to the SCAS Inter-Counties Team Championships (The first time for Longbow archers to show what they can do at this event). Many thanks to Adrian Charman for acting as Team Manager for the day and for the following summary of the day's shooting.
The day started out sunny but windy, a theme that would stay for the day, with a couple of brief showers, although these were blown over very quickly. Herts had teams in all the categories for the shoot which this year included Junior Recurve, compound & Senior Longbow. Most of the counties within the region were present for the championships, and with the added categories the field was quite large. The general census from the archers was that it wasn’t a good day, as the majority of their score were quite a bit lower than they would have liked, again this was mainly due to the exceedingly blustery conditions. Herts heroine of the day was Mary Perrott, who was back shooting for the first time after an operation, and feeling uncomfortable from the start reduced her bow poundage at lunchtime to allow her to finish the shoot, and many thanks to her target companions for allowing her to rest during the afternoon. Herts only success was with the Senior Compound team, who won the gold medal by 6 points. This was all very nerve racking as earlier in the shoot David Saunders had an arrow break in the target and was originally told the score for that arrow did not count as there was no visible part of the arrow on the target face. After an appeal to the chairman of judges the decision was reversed and David was allowed the 9 points for the arrow (with the agreement of his target companions). Had this decision not been reversed Herts would have been second by 3 points. Despite the weather the majority of the archers at the tournament had an enjoyable day, but would say their score was bad. Full results can be found HERE
Many congratulations to the Hertfordshire recurve team for bringing home the Trophy in the Tri-Counties tournament today. Despite a very windy day, in fact so windy that the York Hereford rounds were shortened to Westerns the Hertfordshire team of Samantha Meadows, Jenny Charman, Joyce Balaam, Robert Shirley, Luca Bosatta and Adrian Charman kept ahead of the teams from Berkshire and Hosts Buckinghamshire. Well done and good luck to the County teams for tomorrow's SCAS inter-counties match.
Did you enjoy yourselves on Sunday? The County Western was this year hosted be Hinxworth Archery Club. Normally a Western round, with shorter distances for juniors, this year saw something slightly different. The Western is open to all archers in the County but especially those below Bowman level. Run as a classification shoot it means that whatever your ability you have a chance of winning a medal as you are up against other archers of the same classification. Always a friendly atmosphere, it is often an archer’s first tournament and what a day we had. The forecast predicted some rain during the afternoon an unfortunately on this occasion it proved right. There was drizzle in the air for Assembly and by the time we had shot 2 dozen arrows the heavens had opened with a vengeance. At that point the shooting was put on hold to let the heaviest of the rain pass over but it was decided by the Judges and organiser, after consulting with most of the archers that the round would be shortened to a Warwick. The more experienced archers knew to prepare for all eventualities, this is an English summer after all. But some had not expected the heavy or persistent rain that fell. The good news however, was that by the time the archers had finished shooting we were able to have the awards presented outside and in the dry. Full results can be found HERE Also why not have a look at some photos of the day on the Gallery page. More can be found courtesy of Mr Andrew Hyde and his lot more waterproof camera than mine, Click Here. Once the rain set in common sense prevailed and my instamatic went back in its case. By the time we went home there were a lot more smiling faces, I hope you the archers enjoyed yourselves, and not too many of you have had to take the day off work today with foot rot or rising damp. Maybe next time put a few emergency provisions in the boot with you before leaving home, Kendal mint cake, distress flares, inflatable dinghy or even a change of cloths and a flask of something hot. Be warned though, if you do, please put a bottle of sunscreen in there as well, you never do know when you might need it.
July Summer League scores are now available in the usual place, enjoy.
Congratulations to the various County teams today. Despite the variable and quite unpredictable wind, we managed to Win all three senior categories in the annual Bedfordshire versus Herts match. It was Beds' turn to host this event, and as usual it takes place alongside the host county's Championships. Full details will be available shortly but in the mean time, here are the bottom lines. The recurve team won by 207 points with Jenny Charman as our top scorer with 954 (yes it was very windy). Compounds also won with a lead of 297 well done to Neil Bridgewater with 1200 dead. And the longbows lead the way by 97 points, Derek Bridgewater being out top scorer with 244. It was a close thing for the juniors but on the day they couldn't quite match the Beds team 119 points behind a very strong team. Well done to all, details to follow and many thanks to our hosts for an enjoyable, frustrating, difficult, interesting day (other terms were also used but they will not be repeated on this website)
Full (corrected) results are now available from the County Weekend, apologies to those archers who were not credited for their achievements when I posted the draft results too soon. Just click on the LINK to find your copy.
Having been wrapped up in all things archery over the last few weeks there is one bit of news I overlooked. Sorry to all those concerned but here it is, better late than never.
"On the 4th June, Herts county squad get together took place and Howard Bowmen happily hosted the event. It gave the archers a chance to meet up, and see new squad members. The weather though warm and sunny, brought with it the inevitable wind, and did make it challenging for the archers. Various clubs throughout the County were represented, which included, Chiltern, Green Dragon, Abbey, Berkhamsted, Hinxworth and Howard. The plan for the day was a Fita 720 which was shot in the morning, and in the afternoon a round-robin head to head was included compound and recurve alike. A great day was had by all and I wanted to thank Gaynor Hutchison for coordinating the day, and all at Howard Bowmen for the use of their ground" - Dave Leader
At last weekend's County Championships all entrants were given a commemorative pin badge to celebrate the fact that it was the 50th County Weekend according to current records. A limited number of these badges are now available to buy while stocks last. Priced to sell at only £2, if anyone is interested in one of the badges then the best way is to give your County Rep your order complete with correct money and ask them to pick up the badges at the next County committee meeting on 25th July. If there are any left after that then come along to the County Western in September where they will be on sale together with other County memorabilia.
What a difference from last year, the 50th County weekend, incorporating the 60th County Championships was held on probably the best weekend this year weather wise. With blue skys and light breeze (sometimes) the archers were treated to the best of conditions for the premier event in the County calendar. There was an excellent mix of regular faces, new faces and even a fair number of returning archers not seen for a while. Where I was shooting several of the archers were fighting their own private battles with form and I must say, in my case coming off as David Haye on Saturday night empty handed. Not able even to win the worst white when a clubmate of all people claimed that dubious honour with a linecutter I would have been proud of. I must say, I did not have a broken toe, nor any other legitimate excuse why other archers shot better than I did, maybe next time. There were quite a few successes throughout the weekend, a mention must go to Matt Prior from Abbey Bowmen who shot a personal best on the Saturday to claim his black rose only to up that on Sunday by claiming his Blue rose. Was it something to do with the coaching he had been getting from this years President’s Cup winner Tony Ferguson? Chosen by Steve Dutch for his outstanding contribution to the County over the last 12 months.
As usual we must say a huge thank you to our Judges for the weekend to Paula, Kevin, Geoff, Brian, and William! I thought their judgement was impeccable I hope they enjoyed the weekend as much as the archers. The working party had again started work on the Friday to ensure that everything would be ready and many thanks go to them along with the Silver Arrow members who kept things running through the two days. I think I’m right in saying that more archers responded to the request for help with moving targets and clearing the field this year, whether it was as a result of the sunshine or just an understanding that many hands make light work it was nice to see. And finally Sue, thank you for the organisation we all look forward to next year.
With the 50th County weekend fast approaching, the organiser tells me everything is in hand. The reason we are all getting wet and windy weather now is so that we won’t have any for this tournament. If your County reps haven’t told you, we have unique medals for those lucky enough to win any of the eligible categories. These will be presented at this event only. But even if you feel you are not going to be one of the top archers on the day, every entrant will receive a commemorative pin badge when they sign in whether it be just for one day, or for the double event. You still have time to enter and if 100yds is too far for you gents, or 80yds for the Ladies, you can always enter for the shorter distance round just to be part of the event. And if you have already entered, find out who hasn’t got round to it in your club and give them a prompt with an X10. (juniors please ignore the last bit)
At the last County committee meeting, the Leagues organiser stated that in future entries for both the Summer and Winter Leagues would be sought from clubs a lot earlier than in the past. It has in recent years become an administrative nightmare sorting out fixtures, even virtual ones, when not in possession of all the club entries. The matter has come to a head this summer with the disappointing withdrawal of Chiltern A.C.’s summer entry for all three bow types after having done so well in the recent past. Archers who are not sure about how the Leagues actually work or even if they are eligible, should speak to members of their club committee in the first instance or raise it with their County Representatives. If you don’t know who this is then why not contact the Leagues organiser direct who will be more than happy to point you in the right direction (just click on the contacts page). In the past we have had archers who would have liked to take part, the Summer Recurve League in particular is an opportunity to socialise with archers from other clubs, in semi formal competition conditions. Don’t take the excuse “We don’t do those things” if you know enough archers in your club who would like to take part, then tell your officials, it’s your club after all. Have a look at the Results tables, I know they only show the names of those archers who made their teams on the day, but look at the scores, can you do better? Sometimes it only takes one score. So why not talk to your fellow archers and start thinking about entering the Winter Leagues when the entries get sent out, we will let you know via this page. Better still, find a club near you who is hosting a match against another club and ask them if you can go along and shoot as a visitor, just to see what it’s all about. If they can’t accommodate you they will say, but if they can, you might even enjoy it.
Well the first month's results have now been received and tabulated. Go to the Leagues page for all the results, it looks like it might be an interesting year for the Summer short metrics with some excellent scores already being posted.
The March results for the senior winter leagues can now be viewed via the Leagues pages. The Frostbite league saw Hinxworth taking Recurve and Compound Titles with Hertford the Longbow. The Portsmouth Leagues are a bit more complicated so why not have a look for yourselves and see how your club did.
Updated selection criteria and procedure have now been added to the Selection Policy, please read it as this will now provide information to the squad organisers as well as the team selectors. There may be some fine tuning of the process so bear with us and let us know your comments so that we can continue to develop the process. Don't forget, all score submissions now go to selection@hertsarchery.org.uk
More news, a little late so my apologies to all those concerned but here goes, Congratulations to the successful Coaches who passed their County Coach Assessment on Sunday 20th March. Many of you will know our own Gaynor Hutchison and Stan and Shirley Seymour from Aim4Sport, along with them Gary Critchlow-Smith from Berkshire. They have been studying since November 2009 toward this qualification, so although somewhat stressful at times they succeded in demonstrating the acquired skills to meet the standard. Thanks must go to tutors Malcolm Penn and Tony Ferguson for their efforts and support for the Fab 4 over the past 16 months.
Also pictured are the assessors Barry Molsom and Steve Ellison, who also had a busy weekend interviewing the 4 coaches on a number of subjects. Well done to all concerned.
At the last County Committee meeting we had the pleasure of being introduced to two new faces. Well at least new to the committee. Stuart Barber has joined us as Junior Representative, he currently shoots at Stortford Archery Club and can be contacted via juniors@hertsarchery.org.uk he is keen to hear your ideas especially if you are still a junior. We wish him the best of luck in this important and challenging role. The second new face shoots over at Green Dragon Bowmen, Dave Leader is to take on the role of coordinating score submissions for the selectors and squad organisers. We are splitting the current responsibilities of the Records officer in an attempt to clarify the situation for archers. All county record claims should still be submitted to the county records officer who has a new e-mail address records@hertsarchery.org.uk the forms and information pages are being updated as we speak so please be patient. The selectors are widening the score criteria in an attempt to get a better idea of who is doing what out there and Dave will be coordinating this information. Again, the selection pages are being updated so keep an eye on things there. Dave can be contacted at selection@hertsarchery.org.uk So that’s two volunteers at once, these things usually happen in threes so do we have a budding tournament coordinator or SCAS representative out there just waiting for the right moment?
It is my sad duty to inform you that Marjorie Ely passed away in her sleep on Monday. Without the hard work and dedication that she and Guy for many years put into the Hertfordshire Archery Association it would not be what it is today. Her funeral will be held at the West Herts Crematorium on Thursday 31st March at 15:20 Our thoughts are for her family at this time.
Well they do say every point counts, and they couldn't have been more right on Sunday morning. The annual Hertfordshire versus Middlesex indoor fixture saw one of the closes matches for many years. I realise that the Compound team were comfortable winners led by a 594 from Neil Bridgewater and the Longbows also showed Middlesex a clean pair of heels with leading scorer Jon Morrice with 487. But it was the 4 points difference between the recurves that meant that Hertfordshire with a total score of 4492 took the trophy from a gallant Middlesex with a score of 4488. Definitly one for the if onlys. Many congratulations to all the archers who were chosen but don't let it get so close next time please. Full results and some photograph will be available here in the next couple of days.
Many congratulations to Tony Ferguson who at the recent Herts Group of Archery Coaches meeting was presented with the Coach of the Year Award for 2010. Nominations are invited each year from clubs and an example of the comments received was this; "Someone who is a visible coach within the county someone who is always ready to help others someone who is enthusiastic about archery someone who understands all bow styles someone who is good enough to be on the squad but chooses to support the group as a coach" Tony has certainly shown that coaching doesn't always destroy ones ability to shoot. Congratulations Tony it was well deserved.
Attention all archers, to be considered for County Selection you must fill in a Declaration Form. This must be renewed each calender year. If you have not received an e-mail confirming receipt of your form WE HAVE NOT HAD IT. Forms can be found on the Selection Policy page, or by clicking HERE
An excellent turnout for the Indoor Championships this weekend meant that while in some categories the scores were almost too good to be true in others, they were closer than we have seen for many years. Well done to allour Champion Archers. Thanks should go as always to our Judges who many of us take for granted. The working parties who ensure that everything runs smoothly and especially the organiser for all the hard work that goes into putting on a weekend like this, before, during, and for days afterwards while the rest of us are looking forward to the next shoot. Our sponsors for the weekend Aim4Sport also kindly donated a special raffle prize which they won! I hope you don't mind Stan but I put the ticket back in and drew again. Please find a copy of the results by following the LINK. Photographs from the second day can be found HERE
Junior Winter League The Herts Junior Winter League this year is now almost half way through, and despite starting in a strong first place in the recurve league, Abbey juniors have been pushed down into second place by the Chiltern 'A' team. Hinxworth recurve juniors are holding onto third place, closely followed by Howard. In the compound league, Chiltern juniors started the season in first place, but were outscored by Abbey the following month, who then took over the lead. However the difference in the total scores to date is only three points, and so positions may well change again. Hinxworth compound juniors are in third place, with Stortford fourth.
Herts Indoor Champs 2011 Once again, this tournament is proving popular with the D session now fully booked. The C session is full apart from one compound space. If you want a place on the Saturday sessions there are a limited number of places on A with more on the B session so get your entries in quickly to avoid disappointment.
Well this is the last you'll here from me this year, I'm off to see out the old and bring in the new. Talking of which, you can find the November Portsmouth league results on the Leagues page, there are a lot of new names this year which is great to see, and if we get that level of scores being submitted to the selectors it is going to be a very strong team for the match against Middlesex in a couple of months.
THe snow is melting, the car parks are full, people are buying food as if the shops will be closed for the next four months instead of 4 days which means it must be Christmas! May I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped in the running of Archery in the County over the last 12 months. Whether you helped your club run a county tournament, acted as club rep at county meetings, filled a county officer role, whatever it was, you have my sincerest thanks. There are never enough willing helpers and volunteers, so if you feel the urge, we can always find an outlet for your talents (well almost always). From me as Chairman of the County may you and your families enjoy a peaceful and happy Christmas and may Father Christmas bring you everything you deserve. I hope to see you at the County Indoor Championships in February if not earlier.. . . . Phil
Please note that due to the snow, the County squad session due to be held on Monday 20th December has been cancelled. If you know anyone who usually attends and might not have got the message please let them know. I am sure they would rather hear twice than not at all and have a wasted journey. Also please spare a thought for Barbara who will now have to dish up mince pies to Barry for the next 4 dozen puddings!
So, you've convinced yourself that you need some new kit for Christmas, well don't forget that you will need to try it out somewhere and see if it was worth it. The County Indoor Championships would be the ideal place and time (February 12th and 13th) but for one thing, if you leave entering until after you have finished off the last of the turkey, you may find yourself unable to get the session you wanted. Don't forget to enter before you start the festivities, the organiser would be delighted to hear from you.
Sorry it has taken a couple of days to get this far with an update from Sunday's County Team shoot, but hope all those who shot have received the results from the organiser. You may not have realised but the results were ready before we had even started the raffle! now that is some going, I take my hat off too you Peter. I hope you all enjoyed the day and have thawed out. Please click HERE for a full set of results from the day. Oh and some photos on the Gallery page with more to follow I hope. Don't forget to enter the Indoor Championships early this year or you might find yourselves not able to get a place to shoot
For the attention of all Hertfordshire coaches and trainee coaches please note that the annual SCAS Coaching conference will take place on Saturday 5th March 2011 at Queen Mary University, Mile End Road E1 4NS. Details and an application form can be found HERE (please note that this is a 2mb file)
The final results for the Junior Summer League are now in, and the Chiltern recurve 'A' and 'B' teams have held onto their respective first and second places. Abbey junior recurve archers finished in third place, with Howard juniors fourth and a very close fifth place for Hinxworth.
In the compound league once again Chiltern held onto the lead, with Abbey juniors second, and Hinxworth third.
The winning recurve team from Chiltern consists of Alex North, Connor Collerton and Ali Postoyko. The winning compound team also from Chiltern consists of Toby Littler and Harry White. The highest scoring unrewarded boy, is Jonty Edgar from Abbey, and the highest scoring unrewarded girl, is Isobel Wayman from Hinxworth.
It's good to see so many juniors submitting scores, Hinxworth finally have a full junior compound team who look like serious contenders for the title in the future, and there are some very talented young archers throughout the County. Well done to you all - Mick Perrott
On a Sunny morning in mid-September the call went out for teams of Archers to meet at Andover for the Annual SCAS Seniors Inter-Counties Tournament. And the call was answered by Counties across the far flung reaches of the SCAS Empire. Teams from Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Norfolk ‘A’ & ‘B’, Oxford, Surrey and Sussex responded a total of 9 Counties in all.
And it was here that a select band from Hertfordshire consisting of Recurve and Compound archers found itself ready to do battle for the glory of the County. The team consisted of many experienced and seasoned men and women plus a few newer members eager to blood themselves against the best in the Region. The team was further complimented by the presence of our secret weapon in the shape of Barbara Anscombe as the Region’s Lady Paramount. A role which in previous times was arbiter and whose decision was final.
At 10am the first wave of archers took their places on the line and in no time at all the ground was echoing to the sounds of flights of arrows striking the targets. It is at this time that many archers believe that the targets move as certainly the arrow was heading for the gold when it was shot. As the morning progressed with the sun smiling pleasantly down on us it was obvious that the county was giving a good account of itself. By lunch time the Recurves were in a laudable 4th position and the Compounds a fantastic 1st.
After lunch the protagonists returned to the shooting line for the second half of the day. The sun was by now beating down quite fiercely and as the afternoon progressed it was obvious that our teams were suffering as the other counties’ scores crept closer and close to ours. Then the cry went up. ‘Our water supplies are running low’. Undaunted by this the Team Manager woke up from his snooze, lifted up his heavy pack containing a mix of goodies including the much needed water and stomped off. Many water bottles were refilled and our team continued with renewed vigour until the final flights of arrows were shot.
The final scores were checked and signed and handed into the Tournament Organiser. As the teams collected in the pavilion our Lady P. took her rightful place ready and eager to hand out the trophies to the winning individuals and teams.
The results, which are to be ratified by the Organiser, showed that the Compounds held onto their 1st place whilst the Recurves slipped one position to take 5th place.
The County can be very proud of itself even though many archers will go away knowing they could have shot better on the day. But we are only human subjected by all types of pressures and weaknesses. People suffer with injuries and nerves but they still rally to the cause and give their best on the day. Well done to all.
This report has been put together by the Team Manager on the day Barry Anscombe
Full results for the 39th County Western are now available HERE, we hope everyone enjoyed themselves and once again, if anyone has any photographs they would like to share please e-mail the webmaster, he draws a line at shooting and taking photographs at the same time so has to rely on other people to supply the website.
Three pieces of news for you all this evening, starting with congratulations to the three County archers who attended the SCAS Junior shoot yesterday. There might not have been 40 of you but you did each come back with a medal, two silvers and a bronze. Well done Ali Postoyko, Rebecca Blewett and Jonty Edgar.
Yes it was the County Western today and a fine day for shooting. Several archers shooting in a tournament for the first time, we hope they enjoyed themselves.
And most importantly, don't forget that the County Clout is on the 10th October. Look on the diary page for an entry form. You may think that October is a long time away, but that's what you think about Christmas and we all know how quickly that catches you off guard.
Attention all Hertfordshire archers. Have you entered the County Western yet? There are still places available for this tournament, aimed at newer archers and those who have not yet reached Bowman classifications the County Western as its name implies is a Western round (60yds and 50yds with closer distances for juniors) As this is a handicap shoot, archers compete against only those with the same classification. So if you are in your first outdoor season you will be competing against other Novice archers, the same applies to 3rd, 2nd and 1st class archers. Always a good opportunity to find out what all the fuss is about with these tournament things and if you don’t shoot well on the day you might always end up going home with a raffle prize. Entry forms are still available by clicking HERE Why not give it a go? The organiser will look forward to receiving your entries and seeing you there on the day.
I think it must be a first for many years to have complete teams on both Recurve and Compounds but we managed it this year with some very good archers as well. The County was represented at the SCAS Junior Inter Counties Championships and despite the weather (which was described by their team manager as "a bit rubbish") some very good scores were achieved. Full details will be posted as they arrive but some notable achievements were an 1122 for recurve archer Ali Postoyko, two of the compound team achieved personal bests with Jessica Saunders claiming her 1100 rose and Izzy Wayman her 1000 rose. Many congratulations to all of you, I hope the goody bag was well rifled through the day, you deserved it.
After three months the results of the Herts Junior Summer League are as follows:- For the recurve league Chiltern 'A' and 'B' teams have held onto first and second place right from the start of the season, with Hinxworth juniors in third, having displaced Howard after the second month In the compound league Abbey juniors initial lead fell to Chiltern after Abbey could only field one score in June, with Hinxworth in third place. Further details will be available shortly
Due to circumstances beyond our control the annual Tri-Counties match between ourselves, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire has been called off for this year. We apologise to those archers who were hoping to be considered for selection for this match however, the Senior SCAS Team has yet to be selected so you still have time to submit qualifying scores either through your club records officer, or directly yourselves. The Junior teams for the SCAS Inter Counties has now been selected and can be seen via the Matches Page.
June Summer League results have now been uploaded, sorry for the delay but I hope the anticipation has been worth it.
The forecast predicted a hot weekend with a breezy Saturday and strong winds on Sunday and they were right. It turned out to be a challenging two days of archery and the severity of the wind on Sunday was translated into a slow pace throughout the day. For those who were shooting at the event for the first time I hope it was an interesting experience for you and a good example of why it is always a good idea to practice in all weather conditions as you never do know what the first week in July will bring. Many thanks to the Judges, Kevin, Paula and Brian. Hope we didn't keep you too busy. I thought Sue Matthews and her team from Silver Arrow did a splendid job supported as usual by various stallwards of the County, you know who you are and your hard work is appreciated. A special mention needs to go to Mick Papworth on being awarded the Presidents Cup for his outstanding contribution to archery in the County over the last year. For a full set of results please click HERE And go to the Gallery page for some photographs from the Saturday
Initial selection for the Herts versus Beds match in July have now been sent out, details can be found via the tournaments page link
Not very up to date I'm afraid and apologies to Chiltern archer Mary Perrott for that. Mary shot for GB at the European Junior Cup in Reggio, Italy during the week commencing 17th May. She finished in fifth place individually (compound junior women) after shooting a personal best score for a FITA 70, and was the highest scoring GB junior girl. Mary and two other GB compound junior girls went on to take first place in the team champs, by beating the home nation Italy. She has also been selected to represent GB at the European Championships in Germany, in July. The only junior girl compound to be selected so far. Congratulations from us all.
At the county committee meeting on Monday it was agreed that the deadline for submission of scores for consideration for the Herts versus Beds match could be extended until after the forthcoming bank holiday. Please ensure all relevant scores and declaration forms are with the selectors by the 1st June. All junior scores will be considered if they include that junior's longest distance. All senior scores will be considered again where the longest distance has been shot.
League fixtures are beginning to trickle through to me so if you have confirmed those dates please drop me an e-mail so that I can add them to the diary.
And now that the weather has got so much warmer, I guess you are all out there shooting Yorks and Herefords and the like. Don't forget if you wish to be considered for County selection you need to submit scores. If you don't think you are quite there yet, submit your nearly scores anyway, you never know. Good shooting, now I must get off and get this frostbite seen to.
Its the end of the indoor season and there have been some outstanding performances by young archers in the Junior Winter League. In the recurve league, both Chiltern and Hinxworth were able to field two teams, with Chiltern 'A' finishing in a strong first place, a position that they held onto throughout the season. Howard juniors managed to regain second place, pushing Abbey Juniors back down into third. Chiltern 'B' team came fourth, ahead of a very young Hinxworth 'A' team 5th, with the Hinxworth 'B' team next. Young Deborah Murcott of Green Dragon put up a spirited fight as the only member of their team, and outpaced both Elswood and Berkhamsted by consistently putting in a good score every month.
The compound league also fell to Chiltern juniors, with Abbey finishing second, Chiltern 'B' third, Hinxworth with their 9 year old convert to compound in fourth, and Berkhamsted fifth.
So, someone spotted the deliberate mistake in the league scores. Two points have made the difference between a first place and third in the Portsmouth Compound Division 1. Many apologies to Chiltern A who were listed as winning this division, in the final match Hertford beat Abbey by two points but the match was shown on the table as a win for Abbey. This has now been corrected which means that Hertford are the winners with 10 points, Chiltern A second with 8 and Abbey now third with 6. If you spot any other errors please let the organiser know and we will get the tables updated. Again sorry to all concerned.
Don't forget to keep an eye on the diary page, I am happy to list any competitions within the county, you just have to let me have the details.
The final month's results are now available for the Senior Winter Leagues. In the Portsmouth leagues Abbey A took the recurve title for division 1 with Hertford being relegated to division 2 for next year in favour of Chiltern B who won division 2. The compound division 1 was extremely close with Chiltern A 19 points ahead of second place Abbey and Hertford only 44 points behind them. Unfortunatly Howard will be relegated to Division 2 with Hinxworth promoted. The Hertford Longbow team clearly took the division 1 title but look out next year when the newcomers Silver Arrow replace relegated Berkhamsted.
In the Frostbite leagues things were a bit more straightforward with a single league for each of the three disiplines. Hinxworth dominated both the Recurve and Longbow divisions with a very strong Hertford team taking the Compound trophy. Oh! he said trophy, yes, there will be trophies this year for the winning teams which will be presented at the County Championships in July.
Well that was the winter, now we are into the summer leagues, deadlines for getting your club entered is only a few days away so make sure your club has entered, if you haven't taken part before, you should do, even if it is only for the tea and cake afterwards.
While the rest of you were enjoying a sunny spring day shooting in the fresh air, the annual Hertfordshire versus Middlesex indoor match was taking place in St Albans. It was great to see our President Steve Dutch up and about after his surgery and we thank him for making the effort to attend, it was very much appreciated. Both counties fielded a junior archer in the compound teams and congratulations to both of them for being selected to shoot for their senior teams. As usual the atmosphere was warm and friendly and it was a chance for both counties to 'blood' some new archers. At the end of the day the Recurve trophy remained with Herts, but once again Middlesex had reduced the margin, this year only 20 points separated the two teams. The Compound archers saw the biggest margin, but again this was only 38 points which gave Middlesex the win. The Longbows proved to be the closest and despite Hertfordshires best efforts, Middlesex took the trophy (or will do when we get it to them) by just 12 points. Proceedings were kept in order by Kevin Thurlow as Judge and we thank him for his time as well as David Osmond the Herts Team Manager and the Abbey working party. Full results can be found via the Match History page.
If you would like to be considered to shoot for Hertfordshire either indoor or out then go to the 'Selection Policy' pages for details, complete the necessary declaration form and send in those qualifying scores.
Well it was a mixed weekend with some archers going home dissapointed with their shooting and others delighted. So what's new there then. Many thanks to Maggie Johnston for organising this years County Indoor Championships and to all those who helped during the weekend. You may be interested in the following statistics from the event
1 Organiser
1 Lord Patron
2 Judges
4 Sessions
15 Trophies Awarded
30 Helpers
62 Medals Presented
163 Archers Shot of whom:
4 Were the youngest at 8 years old
26 Were Visitors
39 Were Juniors
297 Strips of raffle tickets sold
2,374 Golds scored
10,758 Arrows shot (including sighters)
77,085 Total points scored
You are probably more interested in seeing the results, so just click HERE to view all the results.
January League scores have now been added to the Leagues pages
In the Junior Winter League for January, Chiltern Juniors continue to extend their lead in both Recurve and Compound. Abbey juniors hold onto second place in both disciplines, with the Chiltern 'B' recurve team pushing them hard. Howard juniors are fourth in the recurve league, but Hinxworth are catching them fast. Also from Hinxworth for January, a late entry for the compound league.
Indoor Champs update
There are 3 Recurve/Longbow/Barebow places and 1 Compound place on B sighters 9.15 Sunday) and 9 places on C (sighters 12.15 Sunday) - can be any bowtype.
5th February is the closing date. Any entries received after this time will be £7.
Would the person at the HAA AGM who wanted to change sessions please contact the organiser asap.
Sessions A and D are full. As of 26th January there are 5 places on B (sighters 9.15 Sunday) and 13 on C (sighters 12.15 Sunday). Would like at least 1 more compound archer on each of these sessions as there are uneven numbers. Herts archers’ priority booking has ended. Please note bookings must be made with payment. Places cannot be reserved by email.
December Senior League results have now been uploaded and can be found via the Leagues page
The AGM will be held on the 25th, only 8 days to make sure your club is properly represented. As usual the current committee will be standing down so why not see what you can do for the County this year. New faces are always welcome.
Still some places left for the County Championships If you know any archers in your club who haven't entered yet, why not give them a bit of encouragement, after all its the taking part that counts isn't it? I look forward to seeing many of you at both of these important events in the County's calender
Sorry for the delay folks but the November league scores are now available via the Leagues pages. Just look what a few more points would have done to some of the results.
Attention all HAA archers. A new Selection Policy has been agreed by the County and is now on this site. Would all club records officers please ensure that your archers are aware of this policy and the requirements placed on them if they wish to be considered for selection. Please read especially sections 3, 4 and 7. It is hoped that this policy will make the selection process clear and fair to all archers who wish to be considered.
Firstly may we wish you all a Happy and accurate New Year. With only a few weeks to go to the County Indoor Championships, I am reliably informed, that the final session is full but there are still a limited number of places on each of the other three sessions. We will keep you informed as these fill up.
With only a few frantic shopping hours to go before Christmas day, Santa is already loading up his sleigh with all those goodies we all so much deserve. On behalf of the entire Web team here at the HAA I would just like to wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.
This website is here to provide you the archers with all the information you need about what is happening within Hertfordshire and to Hertfordshire archers. So have a browse over a mince pie and glass of mulled wine and let us know if you think there is anything missing or needs updating, a simple e-mail is all that is needed sent to The Webmaster
Herts Indoor Champs February 2010 The D session on the 14th is now full, apart from one compound place. Any takers? (It is still the priority period for Herts clubs). If you wanted to shoot the D session as a 2nd round you can go on the waiting list (currently has 3 names) in case there are any no-shows. If you do book 2 sessions, it would help if you send 2 cheques x £6 for ease of refund if you don't get the 2nd round.
Hertfordshire Juniors' Success at the Junior Indoor Nationals. Held over the weekend of the 5th and 6th December at the National Sports Centre in Lilleshall. Four juniors from Chiltern and one from Abbey represented Hertfordshire. Luke O'Gorman competed in the Junior Gentlemen under 18 recurve section, and despite achieving a good score finished in 33rd place, the scoring in these under 18 sections are well up into senior levels. Mary Perrott finished third in the junior Ladies under 18 compound. Jonty Edgar competing in the junior gentlemen under 16 recurve section finished in 8th place. Finally in the junior gentlemen under 14 recurve, Ali Postoyko was 7th and Alex North 14th. In addition Mary Perrott was presented with an award, as runner up in the Archery GB ladies compound archer of the year. Many congratulations Mary, and well done to all our junior archers this weekend
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.
