Write on Target
We are heading outdoors! We can look forward to a significant rise in temperature - not just the sun!! Club days are Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays (once the footballers have finished).
Fifty Years of SCOA
This year, the Club will be celebrating its fiftieth birthday. The focal point will be the Rat's Ashes American competition on July 9th. We would like your help. If you know any ex-members, please invite them to come along and remenisce, as we would be delighted to see them.
Also, we would like to cater for our guests. Will you help? All that we need is for you to provide a small edible contribution, ie sandwiches or a cake. If you are prepared to help, please contact Bob or Maggie, and we will let you know what we need (so that we don't get buried under a million sandwiches and have no cake!!)
It might also be nice if you were to blow the dust off your bows, and take part in the tournament. You might even win one of our special commemorative medals!
Records Report
New Records - Compound
Louise Lammas, 25m FITA - 517 - Club Record.
B.A. Postal League - February
B.A. Postal League - March
West Midlands Winter Postal League
We are still 7th out of 9 in Division 2 of this competition.
Worcester County Handicap Improvement Trophy
Matt Ingram has won this trophy with his reduction of 24 handicap places, in the Junior Gents section. Congratulations Matt!
Shoot Reports
The Wyre Forest Portsmouth - 12th February
How can it get much better? There you are at 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning, putting your equipment together in a host club's venue and you need to decide whether to shoot in a T- shirt or not. Seriously, the temperature inside the hall was oh so warm!
Well, there we were again shooting the penultimate round of this year's Garrington cup. The shoot (the morning session) went reasonably well for SCOA archers with no equipment failures; a first for 2005/06, but with varying end results. Peter started below par but picked up through the shoot; Matt was suffering with what was probably a bout of the flu but gamely shot on to register a score for the club. Louise shot well but just missed her target for the day of 560 by 2 points and Clive also shot to his standard with a 534.
We were rewarded for an early turnout as we shot our rounds, whilst outside the weather turned decidedly black and the noise of the rain on the roof was something else. Returning in the early afternoon to Somers we found a hardy group of club members huddled around the heater in the club's lounge, occasionally venturing out to determine if shooting was possible, only to return to the heater shaking their heads. So Indoors can be good!!
Clive Freeman
Evesham 18m Fita - 5th March
This was the last round in the winter 05/06 season Garrington Cup. This competition is over 6 shoots hosted by clubs within the County, with the best 5 rounds for each club counting. It was also the Worcester County and West Midlands Regional Championships as well. This meant that there were many archers from all over the region as well as the County. In addition, as this was a record status shoot, there were archers from clubs from far and near.
SCOA sent 4 archers to compete putting in a full team for the Compound section and a part team in Recurve. If we ignore the catastrophic day that was had by the author, our club's representatives in the main performed well. Matt shot but had one wayward arrow that returned to him at great speed, bouncing off the goalposts and ending up in two pieces. Pete Lander put in a sterling performance but the competition was such that he returned empty handed. Louise achieved a third in the West Midland Region Ladies Compound competition. But best of all was Matt, winning the Worcester County Handicap Improvement Trophy with an amazing reduction of 24 places.
Clive Freeman
Charlecote Park Roving Mark - 19th March
It was a cold but sunny day with a tranquil drive up the M42 to Charlecote Park - that is if I had been on the right motorway; the shoot was located off the M40! Arriving slightly late and missing the first 2 marks, I thought things didn’t bode well; however, this was my first shoot of this kind and I was very excited at the thought of being able to shoot arrows over trees, across fields and generally as far as we could. With a large amount of "Boys with Dangerous Toys" enthusiasm we set off.
Bob, Owen and myself were representing S.C.O.A and Bob was the first to score with a 3. At our next mark we had to shoot over a group of trees, probably about 200ft high, and then to a target we could barely see. However, I actually scored a 3 and was instantly fascinated by this sport steeped in history.
We walked to our next mark through fields of new born lambs with deer in the background. Bob scored again taking his final score to 6. At the next mark it was once again over trees but it was a tad close to the river and I unfortunately ended up well into a mud bank with just the fletching showing.
But at the last mark Owen and myself both scored a 7 taking the final S.C.O.A. score to: Bob 6, Owen 7 and myself with a very satisfying 10 - going to show that a roving mark can be a great opening to even the newest of longbow archers.
We failed to win any awards but what a great day with my immortal quote of "It’s a bit like golf with arrows", but a damn site more fun.
Report by Martin Woodhouse.
Dates for your Diary
Saturday 29th April - Club Maintenance Day
Your assistance would be appreciated to tidy up the clubhouse and do bits of painting and general maintenance, ready for our first tournaments.
Shoots
Beginners' Courses
This year's courses will start with introductory nights on 25th and 28th April, and then run for the following six consecutive weeks.
During this time, the clubhouse will be fairly crowded, so please be patient.
If anyone would like to offer a helping hand to our students, especially on the introductory night, to assist in putting bows together, you'd be very welcome!
Dave's Quiz
Answers to Quiz 39:
Quiz No. 40:
Thoughts from the Shooting Line
Yawning on the line at full draw is not considered a good relaxation technique