The Grand Western Archery Society 50th Indoor Championships will be hosted on Sunday 2nd March 2025 at Hutton Moor Leisure Centre, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8LY.
Robin
GWAS Indoor Tournament Organiser
Latest News
Senior Intercounties Results
The GWAS Senior Intercounties 2024 was held on 22 September at Cleve Archers. GWAS and Counties would like to offer their thanks to Cleve Archers for hosting the shoot and to the archers who took part.
Regional County Champion Team
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 18098
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 17772
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 16941
4th – Dorset and Wiltshire Archery Society 14312
Team Trophies
Janet Faralewski Salver
Recurve team of 4 Gents and 3 Ladies
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 7824
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 7693
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 7203
G.W.A.S. Challenge Silver Bugle
Recurve team of 4 Gents
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 4655
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 4523
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 4506
Dunster Challenge Trophy
Recurve team of 3 Ladies
1st – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 3170
2nd – Dorset and Wiltshire Archery Society 3169
3rd – Gloucestershire Archery Society 2756
4th – Somerset County Archery Association 2697
Compound Team Trophy
Team of 2 Gents and 2 Ladies
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 5364
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 5181
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 5021
4th – Dorset and Wiltshire Archery Society 4520
St Loyes Longbow Team Trophy
Team of 2 Gents and 2 Ladies
1st – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 1744
2nd – Gloucestershire Archery Society 1486
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 984
Barebow Team Trophy
Team of 2 Gents and 2 Ladies
1st – Somerset County Archery Association 4095
2nd – Gloucestershire Archery Society 4036
3rd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 3928
4th – Dorset and Wiltshire Archery Society 3052
Individual Trophies
The Awdry Trophy
Highest scoring Lady Recurve
Sophie Bradford, Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 1122
The Farley Trophy
Highest scoring Gentleman Recurve
Lee Parsons, Somerset County Archery Association 1240
The Chippenham Archers Salver
Highest scoring Lady Compound
Grace Chappell, Gloucestershire Archery Society 1352
The Dorset and Wiltshire Salver
Highest scoring Gentleman Compound
Liam Goodes, Somerset County Archery Association 1369
The Silver Napkin Rings
Highest scoring Lady Longbow
Charlie Semmens, Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 358
The Silver Napkin Rings
Highest scoring Gentleman Longbow
Antony Aplin, Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 612
The GWAS Barebow Salver
Highest scoring Lady Barebow
Alice Bailey, Gloucestershire Archery Society 1039
The GWAS Barebow Tankard
Highest scoring Gentleman Barebow
Bill Wilson, Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 1152
Full Results
Junior Championship and Junior Intercounties Results
The Grand Western Archery Society Open Junior Championship and Junior Intercounties Tournament was held on 21st September 2024 at Cleve Archers. GWAS and Counties would like to offer their thanks to Cleve Archers for hosting the shoot and to the archers who took part.
Regional County Champion Team
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 13906
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 11431
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 9919
4th – Dorset and Wiltshire Archery Society 5358
Team Trophies
Recurve team of 6
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 7495
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 6391
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 6197
Compound team of 2
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 2714
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 2699
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 1813
Longbow team of 2
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 1165
2nd – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 855
Barebow team of 2
1st – Gloucestershire Archery Society 2532
2nd – Dorset and Wiltshire Archery Society 2148
3rd – Somerset County Archery Association 1909
4th – Devon & Cornwall Archery Society 1486
Individual Trophies
Blenkarne Junior Championship Trophy, Highest Boy Recurve
Carlos Amata, Gloucestershire Archery Society 1242
Blenkarne Junior Championship Trophy, Highest Girl Recurve
Ava Snell, Gloucestershire Archery Society 1339
Full Results
Junior Championship and Junior Intercounties entry now available
The Grand Western Archery Society Open Junior Championship and Junior Intercounties Tournament will be held on 21st September 2024 at Cleve Archers.
Metric I – Metric V rounds available.
The Prospectus can be found on the Tournament Page.
Entry form is now available through the Exmouth Archers BookWhen.
GWAS Affiliations 2024/25
Fees for 2024/25 are:
| Club Member – Junior | £2.67 |
| Club Member – Senior (Aged 18 to 20) | £4.00 |
| Club Member – Senior (Aged 21 to 24) | £4.00 |
| Club Member – Senior (Aged 25 & over) | £8.00 |
| Club Member – Archers with Disabilities | £ Nil |
| University Club – Undergraduate & Postgraduate Students | £4.00 |
GWAS fees are pro rated from April 2025 for new members, please see the form for full details.
Club
Direct Members
Message from the Affiliations Secretary
Those of you who have monitored the AGM for Grand Western will know about the increase of £2 for Seniors at GWAS (with proportionate increases for other categories), maintaining the pro-rating of fees over the second half of the affiliation year; but the regime for Archery GB affiliations has changed radically and has only been announced in the last few weeks, see the Archery GB website for more details.
Archery GB has set up just three affiliation categories: Under 21’s, Over 21’s and Disabled, and removed the pro-rating of fees in favour of an annualised fee based on the date of payment of fees. They have also increased the fees by £10 for over 21’s and by £7 for under 21’s & Disabled and announced increases for the following two years, in advance.
GWAS Council has decided that there is insufficient time to amend our age-groupings and remove our pro-rating (which would require an Extraordinary General meeting to be called) between now and the time that affiliations need to be collected and submitted; instead, for this year, we will merge the existing and new age groups and resolve the situation at our next AGM (some other Constitutional changes will also be required).
I have summarised the fees and continuing pro-rating of Regional fees on the return sheet (it’s not as complicated as it looks!!).
Clubs will need to prepare for this year’s round of affiliations by registering with Archery GB by 28 August 2024 to submit globally on behalf of members and then complete the renewal process by 1 October 2024.
Archery GB is also encouraging members to pay their AGB affiliation fees direct to them, rather than through the Club. I would ask you to strenuously resist this; otherwise I see it as extremely difficult to monitor who is a fully paid up member (Club, County, Region & National) if submission of fees to those bodies is piecemeal.
Please continue to collect the whole of the fee through the Club.
I have redrafted the Affiliation Submission Form to incorporate the new schedule of categories.
- The system of reporting just numbers of archers on the affiliation form remains in place.
- Please submit your Regional affiliation sheet(s) at the same time as you do the Archery GB submission. This makes it easier for me to keep track of submissions. Thanks.
- Each Regional Return should be consecutively numbered, so I can keep track of them. Please ensure that the Return No. box is completed showing the consecutive number of the Regional Return you are making. We’ll start again at No.1 for your first submission relating to 2024/25, then No.2 for your second submission and so on. I cannot access the “PAY….” number that appears on your AGB invoice, so please don’t use that.
- You can still choose how you will submit the payment associated with the Regional Affiliation: either electronically (preferred) direct into the bank account or by cheque to me by surface mail. If you choose the latter, please put the Return No. on the back of the cheque to facilitate me linking the two together more easily.
- Even if you’re sending me a cheque payment in the post, you must submit the Regional Affiliation Submission Form to me electronically, along with a copy of the electronic invoice from Archery GB for the archers you are affiliating or a list of archers, their AGB Nos. and their membership category (if the AGB invoice is not available). These should all match.
JNOC Success
Congratulations to the Grand Western Archery Society Junior Women’s Team at the Junior National Outdoor Championships who won the regional competition.
Dunster Archery Week 2024 Entries Open
At last, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the release of this year’s Dunster Week prospectus and entry form.
Please take your time to read through the prospectus and in particular take note of the comments around completing your entry form correctly, including all the necessary details and additional comments if needed. Remember, you have one form to fill in, I have hundreds to process 😉
I’m sure you are aware, 2024 marks the 150th Grand Western Archery Meeting and there are a few things going on to mark the occasion. I really hope as many of you as possible can make it this year and join in the fun!
Friday’s Western will see the inaugural “Dunster Vintage Challenge” instigated by Pat Wright, Pete Webb, and Lee Parsons. The idea is that you shoot a recurve or compound from the 80’s or 90’s; Yamaha, Marksman, Hoyt, Browning etc, (anyone out there still have a Nishizawa??), aluminium arrows are a must and if possible, sights and stabilisers from the same era. Is anyone brave enough to shoot with a Kevlar string? Dress code will be GNAS dark green and/or white, or classic 80s/90s clothing which meets current dress regulations which will unfortunately discount double denim 🤣. There will be suitably vintage trophies up for grabs and maybe even a little something for the best turned out bow and best dressed archer. If you would like to take part, please mention this in the “Additional Information” box on the entry form as I would like to put everyone taking part on adjacent targets.
I think (hope) this covers everything and I look forward to receiving your entries.
Best wishes and good shooting
Vikki
GWAS AGM 2024
The Annual General Meeting of the Grand Western Archery Society will take place at West Buckland Village Hall, West Buckland, Somerset TA21 9NA at 1.15pm on Sunday 24th March 2024.
Below is the Calling Notice and Agenda, draft Minutes of the last AGM, Treasurers Report including Tournament breakdown and Council / Officers nomination form.
Please feel free to complete nominations for all posts and return within the stated time.
We are possibly looking for a Chairman, Junior Rep to organise the Regional Junior Championships incorporating the Junior Inter-Counties, two representatives to attend the Archery England committee meetings and an Equipment Officer.
This may seem daunting but we are a friendly team working together to make the region a successful one.
Tea, Coffee and Cake will be available after the AGM, hopefully see you there?
150th GWAM Commemorative Badge
I hope you are all keeping well and looking forward to this years Dunster Week which I hope is going to be something a bit special as it will mark the 150th Grand Western Archery Meeting.
One of the things we are doing to mark this auspicious occasion is to have a commemorative badge commissioned. This will be available for anyone to purchase; you don’t have to have shot at Dunster or even be an archer!
Details and the order form are below.
The badges will be available for collection at Dunster in July, but if you can’t make it, I will sort out an alternative method of getting yours to you.
I must say a huge thank you to Tony Newland for doing the legwork on this, it really is very much appreciated 😊
I look forward to hearing from you and have a great week!
Vikki
GWAS Indoor Championships 2024
Archers may know that Tenzone suffered a devastating fire just over a week ago, so I am currently endeavouring to source enough bosses, stands, etc. (& manpower) to enable the event to go ahead.
Therefore there will be a delay until I can safely publish the entry form for the GWAS Indoor Champs which will hopefully still take place on 3rd March.
I will do my best to alert all those who have shown interest in the tournament as to when the entry form is available.
All the best for Christmas & 2024,
Robin
GWAS Indoor Tournament Organiser