Mrs Helen Press was elected an Honorary Life Member of the Grand Western Archery Society, at the AGM in April.

Helen, of Andover Archers, is both an archery coach and experienced tournament organiser who has attended the Dunster Archery Week since the early 1990’s, a very popular archer on the shooting line entering every event except the Field and Clout.

In 2005 she offered to help manage recording of the scoring, and has done so each year since, taking a weeks annual leave to attend the Dunster Event, at her own expense. In the last two years Helen has taken on even more duties as the office guardian and is an invaluable asset to the organising team, and the event is now dependent on her organisational skills and enthusiasm for the sport.

Over the years Helen has helped to develop the scoring system, suggesting several changes to the “Dunster Computer Program” which have been incorporated and make it much easier to use.

It was therefore a great pleasure to be able to recognise and honour the significant contribution Helen has made to the Region, which considering she is from Hampshire is even more remarkable.

Congratulations to the archers and clubs of the West who were honoured at this years Archery GB AGM in Birmingham:

 

The Gussy Trophy

Jo Frith was awarded The Gussy Trophy for wheelchair archer of the year. She won W1 mixed team gold with John in Rio, plus individual silver.

Honorary Life Membership was awarded to:

John Poyner, for his outstanding contribution to the sport.

Tim Jackson, for his outstanding contribution to major archery events over the past 15 years.

Bronze Plaquettes were awarded to:

Tony Smith, for more than 60 years of devotion to archery and being an outstanding ambassador for our sport.

Malcolm Grant, for his devotion Brixham Archery Club, his development and coaching roles with Devon and Cornwall and helping wounded veterans into the sport through Help for Heroes.

Andrew Rees, for his dedication as a member of the Archery GB field team since 2005 and his contribution to running the sport at club, county, regional and national levels.

Tim Pratt, for his work as Chairman of the National Tournaments Committee, leading the team that runs some of the sport’s most prestigious events.

Sheena McCullough, for championing inclusivity and helping to make Archery UK accessible to all.

Club Website Trophy

Bristol Bowmen and Golden Phoenix Archers won the Archery GB Club Website Trophy

Toxophilus Trophy

Junction Archers received this award for their e-magazine. The club was praised for the way it engages and supports members.

Archery GB have launched the Range Registration Process, which is being administered through Sport:80.

Every Archery GB club is required submit details of their facilities. The online self-assessment will be completed on the Sport:80 website, and activation links have now been sent to all Regional, County and Club Secretaries throughout the UK.

The new range registration process aims to capture all the facilities used across the country and provide a centralised source of information on location, shooting capacity, access arrangements and Rules of Shooting compliance.

The new registration process for all clubs and tournament venues starts on 3 April 2017, there is a period of 6 months in which to register ranges.

All ranges are included, but not demonstration or have-a-go sites which are covered by separate Codes of Practice. One-off tournament ranges must also be registered, and therefore County and Regional Secretaries will also have access to the system to do this. This process does not have any impact on the running of tournaments in 2017.

To register a range the Secretary must enter information about the range and confirm whether the range conforms to the Rules of Shooting. If the range conforms, the club then has 3 years before having to renew the registration.

Guidance notes on questions to be completed can be downloaded here, these are for gathering the required information only, and all responses must be entered on the Sport:80 website.

If a range does not conform, Archery GB have trained over 30 Range Assessors who will be available to visit, make an assessment and support the club to continue shooting safely.

For more information on the process please visit Archery GB Range Registration Page

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is the only country in the world where Archery is the national sport. Whilst there are no formal archery clubs in the country, archery is used as a social event, at which villages and amateur teams compete against one another on a regular basis.

In 2016 HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visited Bhutan on an official Royal Visit and were welcomed by Princess Ashi Chimi Yangzom Wangchuck, the Kings sister. During the two-day visit, they met the King and Queen of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema, who are similar in age to the Duke and Duchess and are known as the ‘William and Kate of the Himalayas’.

The Duke and Duchess won over the people of Bhutan by participating in an archery event, much to the delight of around 10,000 people who watched their efforts at shooting a traditional bamboo bow.

The Kings and Princes of Bhutan have long mastered and encouraged the skill of archery and the sport has come to embody the sovereignty of the nation. Much like in England, archery has played an important role in ancient battles, and Bhutanese archers were key to defeating eight major Tibetan invasions.

Bhutanese legend speaks of an Indian Prince, who 600 years before the Common Era, won the hand of the beautiful princess Yosodhara in an archery contest. Another story that links the country to archery is that of the well known ’Divine Mad Monk’ Drukpa Kuenlay, who found his destiny in Bhutan after he followed a divine vision asking him to shoot an arrow south from Tibet, following the arrow, he found Bhutan.

[div class=”col-sm-4 col-md-4 col-lg-4 pull-right”][end-div]In traditional archery, the targets are placed at a  ‘long distance’ with archers going back and forth between two targets. Traditionally they shoot one pair of arrows each way, with a bamboo bow.

Most of the Bhutanese archers now shoot compound bows in ‘traditional style’ without sights or release aids. While recurve archery, in international format is left to a select few that are trained by the Bhutan Archery Federation.

The Bhutan Archery Federation is located in Thimphu, the capital of the country, and have recently started a program to promote archery in schools, as well as the training of an international recurve archery team.

The Himalayan nation organises training camps during school holidays to identify talented archers, the criteria for selection has nothing to do with scoring, but with the form of each archer. Over 1,100 archers participated in four camps, each held in a different region, that were organised to select the recurve team for the South Asian Games.

[div class=”col-sm-4 col-md-4 col-lg-4″][end-div]At the February 2016 South Asian Games, held in India, Bhutan collected one silver and four bronze medals. That silver medal came courtesy of Bhutan’s compound men’s team.

Bhutan’s National Championship, the Yangphel Archery Tournament, is held on an archery pitch which is centuries old, normally just as the monsoon season ends.

For more than 10 years now, archers in the tournament have been allowed to use compound bows in place of traditional bamboo ones. However, in a typically Bhutanese manner, modern sights and release aids are not allowed.

Archers competing must wear traditional robes and knee-high socks, which whilst is not quite compliant with Archery GB Rule 307, is nevertheless an acknowledgement that the presentation of the sport and standards of dress are not just a British thing!

Tournaments normally start at 8:00am and finish at 4:00pm, shooting in teams of six archers, typically with 15 rounds. Archers shoot two arrows each round at a small wooden target, set in the ground, around 150 yards away. Each time the target is struck the archers sing and dance, with songs about love, enlightenment and karma. The dance steps are a simple back-and-forth shuffle.

Because compound bows are more accurate than bamboo ones, the frequency with which the targets are hit has increased as has the time required for the traditional celebrations, making the tournaments last even longer.

Teasing and taunting of opponents is common, much like at many events in the England! It has been reported that historically one of the most common reasons for hospital admissions in Bhutan was due to archery injuries, possibly due to the fact that tournaments include drinking and celebrating.

Archery and Buddhism have long been linked, and Buddhist fatalism may have played a role in tempting fate when archers would stand in front of the target and get shot rather than allow their opponents to win, something that is not practiced today with the use of compound bows.

Prince Jigyel Ugyen, a regular competitor at the National Archery Tournament, is quoted as saying, “Buddhism is about emptying your mind, and so is archery. Once you pull the bow, you forget about everything else and find complete bliss. If you can hold that mentality for 24 hours and 365 days, that’s enlightenment.”

[div class=”row”][div class=”col-sm-6 col-md-6 col-lg-6″]For more about the Bhutan Archery Federation, click here[end-div][end-div]

For those planning to attend the GWAS AGM and the Coaching AGM on Sunday 2nd April, there may be traffic disruptions around Taunton, so please plan your routes carefully.

A poll of the Senior County Teams resulted in a preference for changing the format of the Senior Inter-Counties event from York / Hereford to WA 1440 rounds.  Following a discussion and vote at the GWAS Council meeting in October 2016, it was agreed the format will be changed from 2017 to become a WA1440, World Record Status / Star event.

It is planned to shoot in ends of 6 arrows at each distance, with Long Bow archers shooting at a full size 80cm faces at the shorter distances.

The venue for the event remains at Exeter School, and will revert to the usual weekend on 17th September 2017