And that just might have been the Summer.

Dear Lovely Archers,

The summer seems to have slipped by. All at once we have been Locked in, Bored, Busy, Hectic, and also Worried. The messages of not so great a summer for us all. But at Wymondham Archers we are determined to be as creative and hard working over the Winter as we have been this Summer. As you'll see below our Outdoor Archery Range has been busy, to the tune of over 1,600 tickets being obtained by us all. We have some headline range users who have accumulated huge numbers of tickets in their effort to break the deadlock of virtual house arrest. We take our hats off to any and all of you who have made great strides to get down the Archery Range and get shooting.

Community Award Comes to Wymondham Archers

Our Community Award has arrived. We are so very pleased to announce that we have achieved a community award for all manner of efforts that we work towards. Advertising participation into Archery, A welcoming reception to our Archers, Providing opportunities for new Archers, We are truly open to our members, We are providing Regular slots for all of our Archers, That we actively seek to retain our members with our regular information sharing and lastly that we work to identify barriers to Archery and work to overcome them.

Rejoining our Great Club

Over 70% of our Members have rejoined already Our youngest and our oldest members onboard and shooting at the Outdoor Wymondham Range. It has been fantastic to see so many of our archers using space outdoors and we are looking forward to also seeing you pop along to our indoor range as the freezing out of Summer moves to the chill of the Winter. We opened the indoor range at Easton College on Monday 14th September 2020 with a new set up to enable Covid-Safe shooting. And this year we have brand new bosses to shoot at and will include some music to shoot to also. Suggestions for appropriate Archery tunes always welcome, should any requests be made.

Summer End of Season Tournament

Well our Club Secretary managed to pull off the End of Summer Season Shoot. The results are published below. So we brought our Summer to a glorious finish: or as one of our archers recently said... we managed to continue the Ritual Humiliation, just a little more. Our tournament gave us a little piece of of alternate normality. Well done to all those who took part.

And the winners are....

• Olivia Gurney 1st Junior Ladies Compound
• Robert Norburn 1st Junior Gents Barebow
• Jacob Minns 1st Junior Gents Recurve
• Luca Gardner 1st Junior Gents U16 Barebow
• Andrea Gurney 1st Ladies Compound
• Sam Parker 1st Ladies Recurve
• Damien Lewington 1st Gents Compound
  • John Masters 2nd Gents Compound
• Pete Hill 1st Gents Recurve
  • Chris Norburn 2nd Gents Recurve
  • Carl Offer 3rd Gents Recurve
• Terry Reeve 1st Gents longbow
• Danny Smith 1st Gents Barebow
  • Tim Jackson 2nd Gents Barebow

Well done to everyone who took part.

Winter Shooting Indoors Commences from 14th September 2020

We have worked hard to enable you to continue shooting. Working closely with Archery GB to support us and Clubs across the UK to provide sufficient risk aware processes. We worked hard with other Officers and Chairs from around the country, to enable as many Clubs as possible to begin to open after Lockdown. Now that we are heading rapidly towards Winter the team feel we have Covid-Safe systems to bring the Indoor solutions to our Clubs.

You are now able to book your indoor sessions. We suggest you get in nice and quick as there are only 28 slots per evening (14 early from 6:30pm and 14 late - finishing around 10:00pm). We have negotiated with Easton College, our indoor provider, to bring you an additional night of shooting; initially booked for each Friday from the 18th September 2020. You should have received an email containing instructions and the link for booking sessions - please contact the club secretary otherwise.

WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP TO SET UP AND TAKE DOWN THE ARCHERY RANGE. All you need to do is get there a bit early. Sadly if we do not have sufficient helpers the Range will not be able to open and you may have wasted a trip to the Indoor Venue. Please, Please, Please, do try and help.

Risk Assessements and How We Will Make It Work We know how important it is that we stay safe and remain vigilant regarding the transmission of the Coronavirus. We have put in place instructions (via email) and risk assessments to enable you to remain well and safe to shoot at our Range.

Range Captain Support and Help

Keeping the Range safe is an important factor when it is live. We are seeking folk who are willing to take part as a Range Captain. If you feel you can manage this please do sign up. Our Risk Assessment states that we need a Range Captain with the role as his/her sole job; meaning that they will not be shooting for the duration of time they are running the Range.

Your Club Very Much Needs You!

PLEASE DO HELP US

We can see that Summer is making a final blast right now and it must seem that Winter won't actually arrive... but alas, that is as unlikely as a longbow archer hitting a six gold end at 100 yards. If you feel you'd like to become a Range Captain you will be doing your bit as the colder nights draw in. So, what does the El Capitan, do then, I hear you ask? Well... In a nutshell the Range Captain keeps it all moving. We will provide all the training you may need to be able to fulfil this role safely. Please don't worry we've run a session now and it's really easy.

Junior Sessions - Planned for the first Session on every Wednesday

We will open up the range for our growing Junior Club on Wednesdays for the first session of the evening. If you are the parent of guardian of a Junior please book your session as early as you can. We will provide targets at a closer distance for any of our juniors to practice their shooting. Coaching will also be provided if you would like some. If you wish to you may, with agreement with our Club Secretary, leave young people 8 years and older on the Archery Range under the care of a Club Coach. This will be for the duration of the session only (1.5 hours). We have a Locus Parentis agreement form that will need to be completed first. This form must be completed and handed to our coach prior to leaving your child with us.

Beginners and Novice Progress Awards

Wymondham Archers are now running the AGB progress Awards. This is designed for beginners and novice archers (up to 2 years of shooting). So, if you have been shooting for less than 2 years and want something to work towards indoors please read the information and rules below.

Information

• 5 colours of certificate will be awarded – white, black, blue, red, gold.
• Indoor Compound shooting will be based on Inner Ten Ring scores.
• Certificates will be awarded by clubs at each level.
• The standard for each colour will be set in line with that of Ladies/Junior Ladies AGB classifications – i.e. White standard is based on 3rd class – Gold is based on 1 st class – with Black, Blue and Red graded in between.
• Certificates to be awarded to 6 age groups – U12, U14, U16, U18, Seniors. Over 65 group (using U16 scores).
• No differentiation between genders.
• All colours of awards can be gained again at each age level or bow type, in any order.
• Distances are all in yards.
• Submit scoresheets to our Competitions Officer

The Rules

• Archers will be required to shoot 3 dozen arrows in a single session to gain a qualifying score.
• Archers will be required to shoot 3 qualifying scores for each certificate awarded.
• 6 Sighters are required as a minimum.
• 10 zone scoring.
• More than one round can be shot in the same session/day.
• Only one certificate can be awarded for each qualifying set of 3 scores.

Details of the required scores for each award can be found in AGB Indoor Progression Award

Good Luck.

We have run a huge number of beginners courses over the Summer months. With many of the new Archers joining. Big thank you to one of our younger beginners for this wonderful picture.

For You Data Geeks

The Outdoor Range continues to be very popular but not as popular as you might imagine. During the Summer our, over 130 Archers, have been using the Range at all kinds of times but we still haven't managed to go over 17% usage. Attached below is a heat table that shows just when it is busy... and when it isn't. By all means take a look and see for yourself. Book over the Winter using the link you should have received by email. And you don't have to suffer in that famous Norfolk wind - remember that the shooting shed is there for you. Please put out the signage if you are intending to use it and return the signage once you have finished. Our updated risk assessment means that there should be no more than 4, yes, Four, people using the shed at any one time. This keeps us Covid-Safe and prevents overcrowding.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me via email.

Happy and Healthy Shooting

Pete: Chair - Wymondham Archers