Records

In the first week of August:
One of our compound women set a new club compound record with 72-596-12 in the Long Metric and in doing so scored the six-gold end pictured here at 90m.
A recurve woman set a new Long Metric IV record with 71-525-7 and gained her Archer 2nd Class badge.
A recurve man set a new Long Metric IV record with 72-562-6.
One of our senior barebow women shot a great Metric 122-50 round to score a third Bowman 2nd Class score and thus qualify for her badge.
And not to be left out – another recurve man set a new National 40 record of 72-518-23.

At our club competition on the 18th we also had five records set:
A compound woman set the Long Metric V to 69-388-2.
A barebow woman set the Long Metric III to 70-443-3.
A barebow U16 man set the Long Metric IV to 66-399-1.
A barebow U12 man set the Long Metric V to 47-235-0.
A recurve woman set the Long Metric IV to 72-599-12.

Brilliant shooting, archers, well done.

The opening of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris has had a very positive effect on our archers. During the course of this month we celebrate the following:
One of our very recently joined recurve women who has qualified for her Archer 3rd Class badge.
One of our recurve men who is making good progress through the awards and has gained his Archer 1st Class badge.
A recurve man who has set a new club record for the Western 40 at 96-764-51.
A compound man who has set a new club record for the Short Metric I round at 72-652-27.

The National 30 recurve women club record has been broken again by one of our very recently joined archers, just three days after setting the new record.

Two new records in the recurve women Warwick 30 round. First it was 48-370-25 and then it was pushed up to 48-372-23.
A new recurve men record in the National 40, now at 72-510-30.
A new compound men record in the Long Metric I, now at 72-634-16.
A new barebow women record in the Long Metric V, now at 72-494-8.
A new barebow under 12 women record in the Long Metric V, now at 58-324-1.
A new barebow women record in the Windsor 50, now at 107-717-36.
A barebow woman achieved her Archer 2nd Class.
A recurve woman achieved her Archer 3rd Class.

On a sunny Sunday 28th we had 15 targets out and 21 archers shooting.
Well done to all involved.

Congratulations to:
One of our barebow women on retaining her Archer 1st Class badge for the 2024 Season.
One of our very recently joined recurve men on achieving his Archer 2nd Class badge.
One of our youngest members who achieved his Red Feathers award. Over the past few weeks he has shot the required score on more than one occasion. He also covered the theory and demonstration and passed with flying colours.
A new club record in the women’s barebow Warwick 40.
A new club record in the women’s barebow National 50.
We also saw two archers from the most recent beginners course achieve their first successful score in the 252 at 20 yards.

Congratulations to our archers who have achieved awards this month.
A longbow archer achieved his Indoor Bowman 3rd Class, a barebow archer achieved her Indoor Bowman 3rd Class, and a recurve archer achieved his Indoor Archer 3rd Class.
On the 17th, our newest member achieved the first part of his 252 at 20 yards on his first ever shoot on the field.
Our secretary, usually shooting barebow, is storming through the Indoor Classifications with his longbow. In only his second round ever shot with a longbow he achieved his Indoor Archer 1st Class in the first week of February. On the 18th he achieved his Indoor Bowman 2nd Class award.
Also achieving Indoor Bowman 2nd Class was one of our younger longbow archers with a fine performance, improving steadily as he worked through the round.
And finally, we must mention our Junior Under 12 girl who shot a tremendous Portsmouth round to give her a Junior Bowman 2nd Class score. She just needs to do it again a couple of times to get the award. An amazing performance from one of our youngest club members.

Frostbite Competition

Well done to our 17 Frostbite entries and our 2 Snowflake entries shooting the rounds last week. Wednesday was damp and blustery, Saturday was frosty and sunny, and Sunday was cool and cloudy but no wind. This year’s Frostbite competition was run as a handicap competition. This allows us to compare the performance of each archer with others of different age, gender and bow style. You effectively shoot against your handicap and gain a handicap competition score. Congratulations to our top three archers with adjusted scores of 1527, 1487 and 1455 who will be awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in that order. Well done to all archers who entered, three great shoots and thank you for participating.

Now the weather is improving we will hopefully see more of you coming out of the winter hibernation.

Despite the awful weather over the first few weeks of 2024, our archers are already gaining awards.
One of our barebow women retained her Archer 2nd Class badge within the first two weeks in January.
One of our recurve men has retained his Archer 2nd Class badge in addition to breaking the club record for men’s recurve Short Metric III.
Well done. Starting the new outdoor season in style.

These are all the awards achieved by our archers during 2023. The Castle Leagues shields say 2022 but they were for the Indoor 2022/23 season and were awarded in 2023. Well done to you all. This is an amazing collection of awards at all levels and represents a huge amount of work by archers and coaches.

Congratulations to more of our archers who have achieved an indoor archery award over the past month, great to see the improvements taking place.

• Our junior women’s recurve archer achieved her Junior Archer 2nd Class award.
• One of our compound men shot three indoor rounds to qualify for his Indoor Bowman 2nd Class award.
• One of our barebow women gained her Indoor Archer 2nd Class award.
• One of our barebow men gained his Indoor Archer 1st Class award.
• Our most recently joined club member, a barebow archer, achieved his Indoor Archer 1st Class award with his first two Portsmouth scores.
• One of our recurve men achieved his Indoor Archer 3rd Class award.
• Our very senior men’s recurve archer improved his Indoor Archer award from 3rd Class to 2nd Class with two fine Portsmouth rounds.
• One of our longbow men achieved his Indoor Archer 2nd Class award and is working towards retaining his Blaze awards, already at White Blaze after his first three Portsmouth rounds.
• Another longbow archer retained his Red Blaze award for the 23/24 indoor season.

In another milestone for the club, we have had the 500th outdoor score submitted to the Records Officer in the current 2023 outdoor season. The score was for a National 40 round shot by one of our recurve men. Well done to all archers on achieving this amazing number of outdoor rounds.

A very good turn out with a warm and sunny afternoon on 1st October. We had 15 targets out with archers shooting from a range of 10m through to 50 yards. Lots of archers getting involved in the Portsmouth round as a start to the Castles Leagues 2023-2024. We also saw one of our barebow women shoot a National 40 round which gave her a second Archer Second Class score and thus achieve her badge and set a new club record. At one point in the afternoon we had four archers shooting longbows – great to see.

A bunch of hardy archers started the Sunday 8th afternoon shoot in rain but enjoyed a bit of sunshine breaking through later in the session. Many archers are starting to switch to indoor rounds in preparation for moving inside on 29th October. We have our first group of entries for the Castles Leagues and there is still plenty of time to join them. Sunday afternoon saw a new club record in the compound women WA25 with a tremendous score of 60-546-13.

Congratulations to our archers who have gained awards in the days leading up to the 11th. A novice recurve archer achieved his Archer Third Class badge, a senior recurve archer achieved his Indoor Archer Third Class, and a senior barebow archer achieved her Indoor Bowman Third Class. Also to one of our senior men who set a new club recurve record in the Metric 122-30 with a tremendous score of 72-593-16.

Despite the rather wet weather we have had more awards and new club records towards the end of the month. One of our senior barebow men set a new WA25 record not once, but twice, on two days in a row. And not to be outdone, one of our senior barebow women set new club records in the National 30 and Western 30 within the space of four days. One of our senior compound women achieved her Indoor Bowman Second Class badge and started on the the next award with her first Bowman First Class score.

Great shooting, archers. Well done.

252 Badges on the 24th

Despite the threatening weather in the afternoon, two of our archers achieved 252 badges.
A junior barebow man achieved his 252 at 20 yards with a superb score, and one of our novice barebow women achieved her 252 at 40 yards badge.
Well done to both archers.

Indoor Awards on the 27th

We have our first Indoor Awards as a result of some archers shooting indoor rounds outdoors.
A longbow man retained his Blue Blaze badge for 23-24 Indoor Season.
Four archers have qualified for one of the new Archery GB Indoor Awards – women’s barebow, men’s barebow, men’s recurve and men’s longbow have all scored sufficient points and shot the correct number of rounds to get their awards. The badges are not yet released so we will keep on shooting to improve the scores.

Well done to all involved in gaining more awards for the Bowmen of Backworth.