New Year's Roundup
February 2024
2024 was heralded in by the annual New Year’s Day Clout Shoot over at Evesham Archery Club. A Clout shoot involves archers being stood a fair distance- 180 yards for women and 200 yards for men- from a flag stuck in the ground. Archers must try and shoot as close to the flag as possible, with concentric scoring zones spreading out from it. The distance means archers have to shoot high in the sky to try and get the arrows in the scoring zones. Much fun was had by all, despite a fair few misses. Fortunately, all of the arrows were returned to their owners this year!
The 21st of January saw the Club’s- slightly belated- New Year’s meal at the Badsey Rec’ Club. Forty members of the club turned out, new and old alike, to have a drink at the bar and socialise, followed by digging into jacket potatoes kindly organised by the club County Rep., Saskia Bakker. Thanks Saskia! Then came the desserts provided by members of the club, a huge selection of some very delicious cakes. Then, while everyone was digging in, the Club chair took to the stage to make presentations to some of the members present for achievements throughout the year. A special mention has to go to Pete Williams for setting a new national record!
At the start of the February, Evesham hosted another outstanding tournament in the form of the annual World Record Status WA18 shoot. This year saw archers from as far a field as Italy turn out to shoot in the sports hall at Prince Henry’s High School. A huge thank you goes out to all of the field crew who helped set up and take down the event on the Saturday and Sunday evenings. A special thank you also to the club tournament organiser Laurence Fletcher, Cathy Davis who organised the scoring for the whole day, and the team of judges; Andrew Stanford, Jasmine Simpson, and Luke Wilson.
And congratulations to the day’s winners; Edward Grey (Men's Recurve), Evesham's Sally Hallard (Women's Recurve), Yu Chak Ngai (Men's Compound), Evesham's Jacquie Holmes (Women's Compound), Chrisopher Morris (Barebow Men), and Isabel Plowman (Women's Barebow).
​
A final congratulations to Alex Shehata-Morgan for his performance at the County Junior Championships, placing a respectable second to international archer Charlie Medhurst.
Sixty Years Young
August 2023
Saturday the fifth of August was a momentous milestone for the club as we celebrated sixty years since our founding!
The slightly miserable weather of the day didn’t hamper the spirits of the archers who turned out to help mark the special occasion. The day started with a generous gift of some od waterproof target faces from Mike Gilder- that’s my shooting sorted for the next few weeks! Continuing on from that, after some hearty encouragement from our club chairman, Ian Tilston, the beginners’ bows were handed out to all archers present. Boasting twenty pounds, no sights, no stabilisers, no finger tabs (ouch!), the archers shot valiantly. At ten-yard targets.
​
Compound shooter Alfie Wilkes was especially thrilled by the barebow experience- can’t wait to see how long that lasts! Having completely mastered barebow, the assortment of-typically-compound-or-recurve-shooting archers (and our good chairman) decided to have a go at a short distance clout. With truly horrific form and after an executive decision from Mr. Tilston to shift the target closer to his grouping, we launched volley after volley down the field, coming close to striking the post several times.
A special mention has to be given to Pete Williams who managed to have a group of less than a square yard, even if it was on the edge of the field! After the competition of the shooting portion of the day, archers retreated into the club bar to hide from approaching rain. There was a barbeque kindly prepared by the Recreation Club staff- thanks for the great burgers!
Finally came the wonderful cake proudly emblazoned with the club logo, prepared by the wonderful skill of Sarah Trout. All in all, despite the slightly limited turnout, the day was a great success and everyone present had a great time! We hope to see even more club members for the seventieth anniversary!
Evesham make strong showing at County Championship
August 2023
​
Sunday, August sixth saw the Worcestershire county championships take place at Wyre Forest Archery club. Evesham put up a strong compliment of four archers to shoot the WA1440 round.
Evesham star Jacquie Holmes won the field for the women’s compound, achieving the title of County Champion with an incredible score of 1365. In the recurve category, Saskia Bakker battled with six other recurves and placed fourth with a score of 965.
Our two compounds men, Tom Hennessy and Alfie Wilkes fought eight other archers for the compound medal. In the end, Wilkes placed a respectable third with an even more respectable score of 1309. Hennessy placed sixth with a score of 1223.
In the Men’s recurve, Jullian Grant shot as the only master recurve on the field, achieving an impressive 1132, placing him second in the recurve category overall! Both Hennessy and Grant achieved the veteran trophy for their categories, awarded to the best shooting archers over sixty!
All arches shooing on the day would like to extend a huge thank you to Wyre Forest Company of Archers for hosting a wonderful shoot!
Evesham Archery Club host another brilliant National Tour Stage!
July, 2023
The Evesham stage of the ArcheryGB National Tour has drawn to a close, with participants from all over the country competing for the gold medals. This fifth leg of the tour, which took place on the 15th and 16th of August, saw some remarkable performances despite some truly tough weather conditions.
An enormous thanks must be extended to the members of Evesham Archery Club who turned up in the days proceeding and during the competition to mark lines, build tents, lay out the field of play, organise score sheets, and pack away. Come rain or wind, volunteers were always willing to show up and help to run this amazing, national event. Their dedication and diligence shone through in the glowing reputation the club maintains as a result of this yearly fixture.
Evesham archer and tour competitor Luke Wilson commented, “I’ve never experienced wind this atrocious shooting here before. When even the world number one is struggling, it really comes down to the comradery archery inspires to get us all through.” It all started on the Saturday with the men's and women’s recurve competition. With gusts expected of over 40 miles per hour, it was doubtful whether the event could even continue. The risk of archers being blown off the line remained a constant threat!
Chair of Judges Sue Richards, responsible for upholding the safety and fairness of the event, decided in negotiation with Evesham tournament organiser, Laurence Fletcher, and ArcheryGB representative, Robert Potts, to continue the event despite the harsh wind and rain predicted for the afternoon. To combat this, it was decided that all qualifying events would be halved from the usual 72 arrows down to 36. The event still enabled archers to claim ranking points though.
Despite the harsh winds archers still continued to perform, finishing the qualifiers and getting down to the first set of 1/32 head-to-head elimination rounds before it was decided that the competition was no longer safe, causing a halt to shooting for the day. Ultimately, Megan Havers came out as the top woman, followed by Bryony Pitman in second, and Penny Healey in third. Healey is presently ranked world number 1 and Pitman at world number 2. The horrific nature of the weather cannot be overstated, with many national-level athletes pulling out because of it.
In the men’s competition, world-ranked number 35 Patrick Houston lead the field, with the U.K. number 7, Connor Hall, and U.K. number 4, James Woodgate, comprising second and third respectively. Sunday saw the turn of the Compound and Barebow archers to battle the ferocious gale. It was decided that the event would continue with the full 72-arrow qualifier. However, the wind was still determined to make archers’ lives difficult.
With gusts blowing archers’ sights from target to target in some instances, world number 1, Ella Gibson, led the women’s compound division and the field, with world number 18 Domagoj Buden leading the men’s compound at the end of the qualifiers.
Over on the other side of the field, Barebow men were topped by Ralph Barwise. Rounding out the leaders was Patricia Hotchkiss for the women’s Barebow. In the men’s compound medal matches, second-place seed and U.K. number 14, Luke Davis, took gold, tailed by eighth seed and fellow GB teammate Ajay Scott who ultimately took silver. In a twist, nineteenth seed Justin Twigg climbed the head-to-heads to claim bronze.
In the Women’s compound, Ella Gibson again took the gold medal with some truly impressive shots through the impudent wind. She was followed by third seed Layla Annison and fourth seed Hallie Boulton for silver and bronze. In the Barebow men’s competition, the seeds and the medals stayed the same with Barwise claiming the gold medal.
Daniel Kilgallon claimed not only the second seed but also the silver medal. Finally, third seed Mark Turner took the bronze. In the Barebow women’s competition, the story was the same again, where first seed Hotchkiss claimed gold, second seed Anastasia Wilson claimed silver and third seed Nadine Parker claimed bronze. Overall, the performance of all archers present was more than admirable.
A final huge thank you is extended to the judges who helped to run the competition. They were the aforementioned Chair of Judges Sue Richards, assisted by Adam Dougherty, Andrew Stanford, Graham Potts, Jasmine Simpson, Jo Orbell, and Margret Marsh.
Evesham archers shoot to success in Junior Nationals
July, 2023
Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd saw the meeting of the best junior archers from around the nation at Lilleshall National Sport Centre for the Junior National Outdoor Championships (J.N.O.C.). In attendance for the Saturday- Metrics day- was Evesham's Alex Shehata-Morgan who shot a gruelling twelve-dozen despite some unpleasant wind, ending up with a fantastic 4th place and 1092 score in the Gent's recurve under 18 category.
Alex returned to the field of play on the Sunday for the championship Bristol rounds, joined by fellow Evesham junior Luke Wilson who missed the first day due to prior commitments. The two archers shot twelve dozen but early disaster befell Alex when an equipment failure struck. Fortunately, the issue was repaired after the first three dozen. Phew!
The rest of the day proceeded without much incident, eventually culminating with the awards ceremony. Both finished in the top ten, Alex taking eight place with a score of 911. Luke, competing in the under 18 gents compound, achieved a score of 1112, which was enough to give him a bronze medal for the event!
Well done to both archers for an amazing performance!
2023 AGM Events
March, 2023
Thursday 23rd of March saw members of the clubs assemble at the Badsey Recreation Club to discuss the goings on of the year. The evening started with the officers' reports from the year. Chairman Ian Tilston and President Ian Trout spoke about the club's various events and achievements over the last twelve months, from the new roof over the storage container to the National Tour Stage. The pride from both was palpable.
The A.G.M. is also when the new committee is elected to sit for the new year. Most of the familiar faces chose to stay on, with the only change being the election of new publicity officers. The meeting drew to a close after this, and so began the presentations for the evening. A myriad of archers won awards throughout the evening. A list of everything won throughout the evening will be coming to the website soon however I have composed some highlights here.
Starting off with the biggest award of the night: the Victor Ludorum. This trophy is awarded for a member who has consistently posted high scores in club competitions- like the Ian Trout Warwick series or the Club Championships- as well as county shoots and postal leagues. This beautiful trophy was won by Saskia Bakker with a total of 268 points, beating joint seconds Jacquie Holmes and Sarah Trout by just 7 points! This was only one of thirteen awards swept up by Saskia, great stuff!
It was also a good evening for Luke Wilson, winning six awards. These included the Junior Bowman Award and the club Beginner's award. Joining Saskia and Luke with a small pile of medals was Jacquie Holmes who claimed First for Ladies Compound in the outdoor and indoor club champs, and the Bill Clemson Portsmouths. In the end, Jacquie left with five awards.
Alex Shehata-Morgan, who claimed the Junior Handicap Improvement Trophy as well as first in both the indoor and outdoor club championships also won five awards! All that remains now is to see who will come to claim these awards next year!
Gold for Evesham juniors at Worcestershire Indoor County Championship
February, 2023
​
It was a good day for the junior side of the club on the 18th of February as both Alex Shehata-Morgan and Luke Wilson took the top trophies for the junior Gents county recurve and compound respectively!
The event took place at Redhill Archery Club in Wythall Park judged by Andrew Stanford (Lord Paramount) and Matt Allcock. Both Alex and Luke placed top in their age categories and top in the county for their disciplines, with Alex shooting a new Personal Best! Well done to both archers! This also comes after both Archers shot together at the County Outdoor Championships in September of last year, where Luke won the County Outdoor trophy.
A thanks also to Redhill Archers for a wonderful day of shooting and some fantastic bacon and sausage sandwiches!
New Years Clout shoot
January, 2023
On New Years Day, 13 archers and one spectator/supporter turned up despite the wind to participate in the Clout shoot. The goal was to get an arrow within 3.5m of the clout flag, shooting from 180 yards for men and 140 yards for women (and one junior). For many participants, it was the first time taking part in a clout shoot, but the more experienced people gave some useful advice - which mostly involved aiming up into the sky above the tree line, and hoping for the best!
In third place, we had newcomer Callum with 36 points (14 hits). The top spot was hotly contended with a 2-point difference, but in the end it was Sarah in second place with 76 points (26 hits), while Sally took home the lovely little trophy with 78 points (25 hits).
Sally Gilder and Jacquie Holmes win gold on home ground
November, 2022
On the 13th of November we once again hosted the CWAA and WMAS Senior Indoor Championships, a world record status event, at Prince Henry's High School in Evesham.
Under the watchful eye of Sue Richards and Andy Stanford, the morning session saw 38 participants and the afternoon 37.
A big thanks to the judges Sue and Andy, Laurence and Callum as tournament organisers, Cathy and Sue for the score administration, Mike and Ian for the equipment and all members who helped with setup, takedown and during the day.