Write on Target

Stourbridge Company of Archers' Newsletter April 2003

Hello - it's nearly Easter. This will be an eggciting newsletter from the eggsecutive. The yolks will be cut to a minimum - are you all white with that? Shell we continue? ENOUGH!


Shoot Reports

County of Warwick Record Status - Indoor Champs - 2003

In early February, John and June Houghton attended this shoot at the Harry Mitchell Centre. The day ended well with June taking Compound Ladies third place, and John taking Compound Gents second place. Unfortunately, they were beaten by Meriden in the team shoot. Congratulations once again to John and June.

Clive Freeman

Evesham - 18m FITA

This was the last shoot of the Garrington cup and once again we were able to field a full Compound team where there was much tension surrounding the participating SCOA archers, as we were leading the competition by just two points! Bob "I've a long one" Hanson and Pete "laid back" Clarke shot the morning session, with John "single figures" Houghton, coupled with " 'er indoors" completing the team in the afternoon session. The tension carried through from the morning to the afternoon, as each archer advised "I'm not shooting my best" but we were, nevertheless, hopeful.

When the scores were totalled, we beat our nearest rivals by 31 points and were able to claim the Cup! June also won two medals for her efforts, taking Second Lady in the Worcester competition and Third Lady in the West Midlands. Well done to everyone!

Garrington Cup - 2002/3

In this year, when SCOA won its first Team Trophy for some considerable time (see above), it is worth recognising those who enabled this feat.

In first place stand the Houghtons. Both John and June have competed in ALL of the six participating events. It is certain that without their contribution we would not have come close, let alone competed for honours. In every one of the six rounds they put in scores that were good enough to count, and with John taking first place in several of the rounds, we were off to a rousing start. Clive (two-hips) Freeman contested five of the six, with Pete Lander supporting in three.

The final event at Evesham was a nail-biting affair as the cup could have gone to any one of three clubs, depending on the day's results. Here we were able to call upon the services of Bob Hanson and Pete Clarke who both contributed to the SCOA cause. There was much "tooing and froing" from competing clubs trying to work out how things were progressing, with Redditch and Redhill checking our scores.

In the end it all worked out to SCOA's satisfaction with a total combined score of three, yes, THREE points better than any other club on the day, ensuring that the Compound Garrington Cup came to Stourbridge for the year. So a six-month long campaign to bring the cup to SCOA boiled down to an inner gold - not a 7 on one arrow: that's close!

Clive Freeman

Wyre Forest Portsmouth

It was mid February, the weather as usual had everything from sunshine to snow and heavy frosts. What could there be to raise the spirits of weather-bound archers? Well, fear not: help is at hand. Mid-Feb - oh yes! It has to be the Wyre Forest Portsmouth. OK, OK, I've exaggerated a little, but let's be honest, what else is there at this time of year?

Well, with sighters at 0930 hours, we assembled in the Somers car park at 0800 hours for the trip to Stourport. Arriving in good time, we were able to book in, assemble our kit and sip a welcome cup of coffee with a relaxing chat with archers from many clubs before the call to sighters.

The shoot progressed without equipment failures (and that's something of a record for SCOA). Our band of seven archers enjoyed the day, shooting close to their individual handicaps. Once again we must congratulate the Houghtons, with June taking Third Lady and John First Gent, both in the Compound section.

Clive Freeman


Bob's Bits

Somers

Can we remind you that members are required to join Somers Sports and Social Club as a condition of Somers' insurance. It is only one payment per family per year and entitles you to a host of facilities.

Postal Match Teams

We enter postal matches (a) for the prestige of the Club, and (b) to offer an organised event for club members. Support is required from recurve archers, because we struggle to get a recurve team. This is odd, because the majority of SCOA members are recurve archers. Please could you help us out and join in some of the postal matches? Details can always be found in the clubhouse, and Derek would be delighted to answer any questions you may have.

Bob's Bows - A Potted History

Being an avid clay pigeon shooter, I was introduced to archery when SCOA was at Bigmoor Playing Fields in Stourbridge. My training consisted of "This is a bow" (solid fibreglass of course) "that's an arrow, there's the target, get on with it". By lunch time I was back to 50 yards.

Not having the benefit of today's coaching and advice, I had to have a bow NOW, so I sold all sorts of things, including my electric train set, and hurtled off to Severn Products the next Saturday.

Apollo steel bows had not long been superseded by fibreglass composite recurve bows. These were in one piece and not easily transportable. So, I purchased my first bow - a Goldseeker - at £29.00. It was a 66" recurve with a very shiny wooden riser (as they all were at the time); it had a dacron string and a new-fangled sight which screwed directly to the back of the bow. No clickers, stabilisers or any other gadgets. I had eight Goldstrike arrows (aluminium), very crudely matched in spine and weight but, hey ho, I was set up and so on the following Sunday I presented myself at SCOA again, and put all my new equipment and extensive training into use. I'm still here, and still learning!

PS -1 never went clay pigeon shooting again.

Bob Hanson


Dates for your Diary

Be brave! Enter the Club Championships - look on the club notice board for further details.

The Hagley National is specially designed for newcomers. It is handicap adjusted so anyone stands a chance of winning. There should be an entry form in the club house.


Records Report

First of all, special mention should be made here that John Houghton has the distinction of being the first member we are aware of to drop his handicap into a single figure. His handicap is an almost obscene number of EIGHT! Congratulations, John.

STOP PRESS!

In the time between the copy date for this newsletter and its publication on the website, John has dropped his handicap AGAIN to 7 (yes, SEVEN).

New Records

Recurve Alan Brown Bray II 246 Club Record
Compound Bob Hanson Bray II 270 Club and County Record
Compound John Houghton 18m FITA 579 Club Record

British Archer Postals

In the January Postals we:
Lost to Archers of the West in the Compound Portsmouth 1112 to 1131.
Beat Leaves Green in the Compound Frostbite 683 to 658.
Beat Leaves Green in the Recurve Frostbite 1464 to 1459.
Beat Puriton Gold in the Recurve Portsmouth 2529 to 1500.

In the March Postals we:
Lost to Bromyard in the Compound Frostbite section, 663 to 672.
Beat Mole Valley in the Recurve Frostbite 1450 to 1196.
Lost to Newhaven in the Recurve Portsmouth 2527 to 2602.
Lost to Bowmen of Adel in the Compound Portsmouth 1129 to 1135.

West Midlands Winter Postal League

We are third out of nine in Division 2 after the February result.

Derek Peacock


Dave's Quiz

Answers to Quiz No. 26

  1. An alsation
  2. Roger Moore
  3. Mary
  4. Mince pies
  5. Turkey
  6. Christmas rose
  7. Crib
  8. Cracker
  9. Mistletoe
  10. Keith Joseph

Quiz No. 27

  1. Where did the Great Fire of London break out in 1666?
  2. The ancient Italian town of Pompeii was buried when which volcano erupted in 79AD?
  3. Which geological fault caused the San Francisco earthquake in 1906?
  4. Both the Hindenburg and the R101 ended in flames. What were they?
  5. What is measured on the Richter Scale?
  6. What was Krakatoa?
  7. Name the American space shuttle which exploded killing all on board after lift off.
  8. The American volcano of Mount St Helens erupted in May 1980. In which state is the volcano?
  9. Which Indian city suffered a large death toll after a chemical leak at the United Carbide factory in December 1984?
  10. AIDS has become a world-wide health problem. What do the initials stand for?

Another Quiz! - Try these anagrams - they are all connected with archery:

  1. radar mug
  2. rat rowers
  3. bob wag
  4. two bringers
  5. lie as a deer
  6. scared ore
  7. he tips peg
  8. ever cow rub
  9. jilt finch egg


Archerix

If you shoot like an angel, you'll score like the devil!


That's it for this time, folks. Happy Shooting.