Welcome to the combined October and November report of the 2024/25 shooting season.

Club Records

Neill White – 50+ Men’s Longbow

• Worcester – Score 211 (previous score 196)
• Worcester (Double) Score 416 (no previous record)

Sarah Watson – Senior Ladies Recurve

• Worcester (Double) Score 388 (no previous record)

Andrew Axworthy – Senior Men’s Recurve

• Worcester – Score 289 (previous score 280)
• St Nicholas – Score 740 (previous score 666)
• Warwick 50 (previously short Warwick) – Score 412 (previous score 404)
• WA 18m (3 spot) – Score 546 (previous score 537
• Portsmouth 3 spot – Score 564 (previous score 552)
• Worcester (Double) – Score 544 (previous score 454)

Emma Broadhurst – Senior Women Longbow

• Worcester – Score 132 (no previous record)
• Worcester (Double) – Score 245 (no previous record)
• Frostbite – Score 173 (previous score 163)

Jeni Mattock – 50+ Women’s Barebow

• Portsmouth – Score 491 (previous score 479)

John Pengilley – 50+ Men’s Barebow

• Bray I – Score 235 (previous score 221)
• Frostbite – Score 304 (Previous score 270)
• Worcester – Score 254 (previous score 236)
• Worcester (Double) – Score 480 (no previous score)

Classifications

The following Classification levels have been achieved, and badges are in
the process of being awarded under the new Archery GB Classification Scheme:

• John Pengilley (Barebow) – Indoor Bowman 1st Class
• Emma Broadhurst (Longbow) – Indoor Bowman 2nd Class
• Mark Armstrong (Recurve) – Indoor Bowman 3rd Class
• Tim Cunningham (Recurve) – Indoor Archer 1st Class
• Phil Lomas (Barebow) – Indoor Archer 1st Class
• Sarah Legg (Recurve) – Indoor Archer 1st Class
• David Legg (Recurve) – Indoor Archer 2nd Class and Indoor Archer 1st Class

More information on indoor and outdoor rounds and classification can be found here, or speak to me on a shooting night. You can start to shoot outdoor classification rounds once you have achieved your 20 yard 252, and start working towards your first Archer Classification.

Progress and 252 Awards

Badges were awarded to the following archers:

252 Awards

• Emma Broadhurst (Longbow) – 30yd & 40yd 252
• John Pengilley (Longbow) – 20yd 252

AGB Progress Awards

• Lorelei Armstrong (U16 Recurve) – IAGB Red
• Mark Armstrong (Recurve) – IAGB Gold
• Emma Broadhurst (Longbow) – IAGB Gold
• Sarah Legg (Recurve) – IAGB Black
• David Legg (Recurve) – IAGB Black

More information on the two progress schemes can be found here, or speak to me at one of our club sessions.

Now that we have moved to indoor shooting during the week there is an opportunity for new archers to start to shoot for Indoor Archery GB Progress awards, please see me at your next session and I will explain.

Competitions

DCAS Portsmouth Winter Postal 2024/5

The club has entered the following teams into the DCAS Winter Postal Portsmouth Leagues:

• Three Senior Recurve/Barebow team
• One Senior Compound team
• One Senior Longbow team
• One Junior U16 Mixed Style team

There are three archers per team, and the club will collate the scores in descending order and the highest scores will be entered each month. Scores will need to be submitted on a club score sheet and signed as indicated. The rules for the competition can be found on the DCAS Postal Competitions page, and the associated score sheet on the Club Score Sheets page.

The following scores were submitted for the first round of the competition:

The team positions after round one are as follows:

• Senior Recurve/Barebow team ‘A’ – 2nd place in Division 1
• Senior Recurve/Barebow team ‘B’ – 4th place in Division 3
• Senior Recurve/Barebow team ‘C’ – 3rd place in Division 5
• Senior Compound team – 1st place in Division 2
• Senior Longbow team – 1st place in Division 2
• Junior U16 Mixed Style team – 2nd place in Division 1

The following archers hold the highest scores for the round shot by bow style:

• Neill White (Gents Longbow) – Score 485
• Jack Cunningham (U16 Boys Recurve) – Score 444

Well done to both of you.

Submission of a score sheet for consideration for the Portsmouth league will also qualify for a Portsmouth score badge. The following archers were awarded the relevant Portsmouth score badges:

• Paul Warren (Compound) – 550 badge
• Mark Armstrong (Recurve) – 525 badge
• Andrew Howie (Recurve) – 500 badge
• Tim Tatum (Recurve) – 500 badge
• Tim Cunningham (Recurve) – 500 badge
• David Legg (Recurve) – 450 badge
• Jack Cunningham (U16 Recurve) – 400 badge
• Steve Murray (Recurve) – 400 Badge
• Sarah Legg (Recurve) – 400 badge
• John Pengilley (Barebow) – 525 badge
• Jeni Mattock (Barebow) – 475 badge
• Phil Harley (Barebow) – 450 badge
• Phil Lomas (Barebow) – 400 badge
• Gary Wong (Longbow) – 450 badge
• Emma Broadhurst (Longbow) – 400 badge

A document containing all of Novembers submitted scores can be found here.

DCAS Frostbite Winter Postal 2024/5

The club has entered the following teams into the DCAS Winter Postal Frostbite Leagues:

• One Senior Compound + two of any other style team
• Two Senior Recurve/Barebow team
• One Senior Longbow team
• One Junior U16 Mixed non-compound team

As with the Portsmouth league there are three archers per team, and the club will collate the scores in descending order and the highest scores will be
entered each month. Scores will need to be submitted on a club score sheet and signed as indicated. The rules for the competition can be found on the
DCAS Postal Competitions page, and the associated score sheet on the Club Score Sheets page.

The following scores were submitted for the first round of the competition:

The team positions after round one are as follows:

• Senior Compound + two of any other style team – 1st place in Division 1
• Senior Recurve/Barebow team ‘A’ – 6th place in Division 1
• Senior Recurve/Barebow team ‘B’ – 5th place in Division 2
• Senior Longbow team – 4th place in Division 1
• Junior U16 Mixed Style team – 3rd place in Division 1

The following archers hold the highest scores for the round shot by bow style:

• John Pengilley (Gents Barebow) – Score 304
• Linda Wright (Ladies Barebow) – Score 272

Well done to both of you.

Submission of a score sheet for consideration for the Frostbite league will also qualify for a Frostbite score badge. The following archers were awarded the relevant Frostbite score badges:

• Iain Lees (Compound) – 350 badge
• Andrew Howie (Recurve) – 300 badge
• Gary Wong (Longbow) – 275 badge
• Sarah Watson (Recurve) – 250 badge
• John Pengilley (Barebow) – 300 badge
• Gary Still (Barebow) – 225 badge
• Emma Broadhurst (Longbow) – 150 badge

Exmouth Archers WA 18m Indoor Tournament (27th October)

• Andrew Axworthy came 2nd in Men’s Recurve
• Andrew Howie came 7th in Men’s Recurve
• Iain Lees came 5th in Men’s Compound
• Gary Wong shot in both sessions, coming 11th in Men’s Compound and 4th in Men’s Longbow
• Neill White won his category in Men’s Longbow

Newquay Bowmen Double Worcester Competition (24th November)

Seven Yelverton Bowmen archers (Sarah Watson, Andrew Axworthy, Emma Broadhurst, Neill White, Gary Wong, Linda Wright & John Pengilley) traveled
to Newquay to shoot in the Double Worcester competition: Emma Broadhurst came 1st in the Ladies Longbow, this is a fantastic result given that is was Emma’s first competition.

• John Pengilley came 1st in the Gents Barebow
• Linda Wright came 1st in the Ladies Barebow
• Neill White came 2nd in the Gents Longbow

A good time was had by all those who took part (including our head cheerleader Stan), and we even came away with a significant haul in raffle prizes. The full results can be found here.

Bray 1 League

Running alongside the DCAS Portsmouth Postal and Frostbite Postal Competitions we are also running an internal club competition shooting Bray I rounds. The competition will run from the beginning of October to the end of March, and as such this means that all indoor shooting sessions during this period are considered to be club Target days. This means that archers will be able to shoot rounds and submit scores towards the Bowmen classifications.

Details for this competition can be found here.

Several archers have submitted qualifying scores and the tables will be published in next months report.

Regards,
John,
Records Officer

Welcome to the September report of the 2023/24 shooting season.

In previous years we would now only focus on shooting indoors at the YMCA, however as there is one final round of the DCAS Summer Postal there were 4 outdoor evening sessions planned to allow archers to shoot these rounds.

Club Records

• Gary Wong – Senior Men’s Longbow
  • St. George – Score 218 (previous record 104)
• Linda Wright – 50+ Women’s Barebow:
  • WA50 – Score 488 (previous record 459)
  • WA50 (Double) – Score 924 (no previous record)

Classifications

The following Classification levels have been achieved, and badges are in the process of being awarded under the new Archery GB Classification Scheme:

• Gary Wong (Longbow) – Bowman 1st Class. Congratulations to Gary, this is the highest classification that can be awarded within the club.
• Phil Harley (Barebow) – Bowman 3rd Class.

More information on indoor and outdoor rounds and classification can be found here, or speak to me on a shooting night. You can start to shoot outdoor classification rounds once you have achieved your 20 yard 252, and start working towards your first Archer Classification.

Progress and 252 Awards

Badges were awarded to the following archers:

252 Awards

• Nathan Connolly (Longbow) – 20yd 252
• Josie Nuttall (Barebow) – 40yd 252
• Arron Nuttall (Longbow) – 40yd 252

AGB Progress Awards

• Phil Harley (Barebow) – 60yd Outdoor AGB Progress

More information on the two progress schemes can be found here, or speak to me at one of our club sessions.

Now that we have moved to indoor shooting during the week there is an opportunity for new archers to start to shoot for Indoor Archery GB Progress awards, please see me at your next session and I will explain.

Competitions

The club has entered the following teams into the DCAS Summer Postal Leagues:

• One Senior Recurve/Barebow Long Warwick team
• One Senior Compound Long Warwick team
• One Senior Longbow Warwick team
• Two Senior Recurve/Barebow Warwick 50 teams
• One Junior Mixed Style Warwick 30 team

There are three archers per team, and the club will collate the scores in descending order and the highest scores will be entered each month. Scores will need to be submitted on a club score sheet and signed as indicated. The rules for the competition can be found on the DCAS Postal Competitions page, and the associated score sheet on the Club Score Sheets page.

As you can see from above only 5 archers submitted scores across three of the six divisions entered in September, mostly due to the adverse weather conditions. Well done to all those who provided scores for this competition.

The following scores were submitted for the final round of the competition:

• Senior Recurve/Barebow Long Warwick team – Won Division 2
• Senior Compound Long Warwick team – Finished in 5th place in Division 1
• Senior Longbow Warwick team – Finished in 5th place in Division 1
• Senior Recurve/Barebow Warwick 50 team A – Finished in 2nd place in Division 1
• Senior Recurve/Barebow Warwick 50 team B – Finished in 3rd place in Division 2
• Junior Mixed Style Warwick 30 team – Finished in 2nd place in Division 1

The following archers held the highest scores for the round shot by bow style:

• Linda Wright (Ladies Barebow) Long Warwick (Mixed) – Score 223
• John Pengilley (Gents Barebow) Long Warwick (Mixed) – Score 214
• Neill White (Gents Longbow) Warwick – Score 304
• Finley Melia (U16 Boys Recurve) Warwick 30 – Score 370

Well done to all of you. DCAS medals have been requested and will be awarded in due course.

The final table positions are as follows:

A document containing all of August’s submitted scores can be found here.

Submission of a DCAS Summer Postal score sheet also gives you the opportunity to earn a Six Gold, Three Gold (Longbow) badge if you shoot the relevant score on the longest distance of your round. More information about this scheme can be found in the Award Scheme page of the club website.

DCAS Autumn Gold hosted by Redruth Archers (1st September)

Two Yelverton Bowmen archers travelled to Redruth for this DCAS organised competition shooting St George/Albion/Windsor rounds, and both shot well:

• Jill Hudson came 2nd in the Ladies Albion Longbow
• Gary Wong came 3rd in the Gents St George Longbow

Somerset County Archery Association Battle of Britain WRS WA1440 hosted by Burnham Company of Archers (15th September)

Gary Wong was the sole Yelverton Bowmen archer to make the trip to Somerset for this event. Gary shot very well and scored 546 (which is a Bowmen 1st Class score) to win the Gents Longbow competition by the small margin of 2 points. In addition to this Gary won the Highest score by a Longbow Tankard.

Well done Gary.

Grand Western Archery Society Intercounties Tournament hosted by Cleve Archers (22nd September)

Two Yelverton Bowmen archers were invited to represent the Devon and Cornwall Archery Society at the above competition. The competition was shot in really wet conditions, however both archers shot well.

• Alex Rowe shot in the Recurve team
• Linda Wright shot in the Barebow team

Both archers helped to ensure that the DCAS team achieved the following
results:

Paris 2024: Aim for Paris Virtual Challenge

Six Yelverton Bowmen archers submitted scores for the Aim for Paris Virtual Challenge and AGB badges are in the process of being awarded to the following archers:

• Jack Cunningham
• Steven Millard
• Corey Richardson
• Mic Richards
• Neill White
• John Pengilley

2024/25 Indoor Season

DCAS Winter Postal

The club have applied for entry of the following teams in the DCAS Winter Postal competitions:

Portsmouth (indoor)

• 3 in number Senior Recurve/Barebow teams
• 1 in number Senior Compound team
• 1 in number Senior Longbow team
• 1 in number Junior (U16) team

Frostbite (outdoor)

• 1 in number Senior Compound plus (1 compound archer + 2 other bow types)
• 2 in number Senior Recurve/Barebow
• 1 in number Senior Longbow
• 1 in number Senior Mixed non-Compound
• 1 in number Junior Mixed non-Compound

As with the summer postals these will be open to all club members. Archers scores should be submitted to the clubs records officer at the end of each month on a fully completed and signed club score sheet. However only one score should be submitted each month for entry into these competitions.

Both of these competitions start in November, however details of the competitions can be found here. If you have any questions please come and talk to me at one of our shooting sessions.

Scores submitted for these competitions will also qualify for individual Frostbite & Portsmouth badges.

Bray 1 League

Running alongside the DCAS Portsmouth Postal and Frostbite Postal Competitions we are also running an internal club competition shooting Bray I rounds. The competition will run from the beginning of October to the end of March, and as such this means that all indoor shooting sessions during this period are considered to be club Target days. This means that archers will be able to shoot rounds and submit scores towards the Bowmen classifications.

Details for this competition can be found here.

The DCAS 45th Open Indoor Championships will be held on the 26th February 2023 on our home ground at the YMCA Plymouth. Members can enter via the DCAS website or by completing the application form we have emailed you.

Next beginners course will run March 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th at the YMCA, Plymouth. Cost is £50 per person. Places are limited. Contact us via our Contact us page, or through our Facebook or Instagram pages

Kyrton Archer are running their Winter warmer competition in January 23. See their website for details

Our current indoor classification scheme only caters for Recurve and Compound shooters, leaving other bow styles at a disadvantage and struggling to compete.

With this in mind the committee and club have decided to extend the classifications to Barebow and Longbow for Portsmouth scores.

The Longbow classification will include other traditional bows without a shelf.

The usual rules apply for a classification rating; three separate qualifying (witnessed) scores must be submitted to the Records officer to gain an award and ultimately what everyone wants, a badge. Make sure you get a score card from Paul if you don’t have one already.

You can now download the updated score sheets from the records page

On Tuesday 25th October we will be holding a SPOOKTACULAR fun shoot for Halloween.

Fancy dress is optional – as some don’t need it ;P We do remind you that if you want to shoot in fancy dress, please make sure you don’t have loose items that may catch in your bow!

This shoot will be open to all members.

We’ll also run a raffle for the evening, with all proceeds to the club.

DCAS AGM is being held on 20th November 1400hrs at Yelverton memorial hall. They’re looking for some new members, please contact the DCAS secretary if you are interested.

It’s that time of year again….. sort of. With restrictions finally starting to relax we’re happy to let you all know that our AGM will be going ahead on Sunday 27th June at Widewell Primary.  This is a much later date than usual as we’ve had to hold off until it was safe for us to all meet together.

This year it’s really important for our members to attend. Not only will we be voting in the new committee but there will also be a review of our shooting venue and a vote on updates to our constitution.  More details and a full agenda will be emailed out to members closer to the date.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all there.

Welcome to the final League Report (and report in general) of the Indoor Season. This will also probably be the last report for a while (for obvious reasons).

March proved to be chaotic for shooting in general and the Postal Leagues in particular, with many clubs not being able to enter any scores at all. Fortunately, many Yelverton members managed to get in their Grand Prix and Portsmouth scores before the lockdown came into effect. Unfortunately though, only a few were able to shoot a Frostbite.

In the wider scheme of things, the indoor Postal Leagues are now finished, as is the inaugural Grand Prix and the Indoor Season in general. Below are the final results from those, as well as a couple of things that would normally be dealt with at the AGM.

DCAS Indoor Postals (Portsmouth) – March – Complete

For those unfamiliar with the format; Archers shoot a Portsmouth round under competition conditions and the top three scores for each bow type form a team (and the following archers form the ‘B team’, ‘C team’, etc if a club enters multiple teams). These scores are sent to DCAS and clubs compete against each other from November to March.

In March, we won two of our matches (Recurve A and B) and lost three (Recurve C, Compound and Longbow). Below are the final results tables from DCAS and a table that I keep myself for progress within the club.

As you can see, we had a mixed bag of results this year. I’m confident though that we will do well next year, as our Compound, Longbow and Recurve contingents all have either new talent or existing members have made great improvements this year (for example, at least three Recurve shooters have broken that magical 500 boundary this season).

DCAS Outdoor Postals (Frostbite) – March – Complete

The Frostbite teams are selected in the same way as the Portsmouth, with the top three scores forming each team. As with the Indoor Postal, archers shoot a Frostbite round and the top three scores form a team. Unlike the Portsmouth, teams are not bow specific (with the exception of the new Longbow team). Archers from any bow style can contribute to the teams, although there is a maximum of one Compound allowed per team.

In March, we won our Longbow match but lost the other two (technically we lost one and entered no scores for the other). This is unsurprising due to the lockdown hitting early in the month, so few people had a chance to score. Below are the final results tables from DCAS as well as the table that I keep myself.

As with the Portsmouth, we had a mixed bag. The lockdown (plus the terrible weather in February) really caused problems for people scoring. A lesson to take away from this (also applicable to the Portsmouth but especially for the Frostbite), is to get scores in early in the month. We can’t guarantee the weather or otherwise uninterrupted shooting. Another observation is that our Compound shooters (unsurprisingly) make a huge difference to the Frostbite teams. I would encourage more of them to put in scores next year.

AGM Items

The following sections would normally be announced and presented by me at the Annual General Meeting but given the current situation, I will report them here.

Yelverton Bowmen Grand Prix – March – Complete

I mentioned the Grand Prix results in last month’s League Report but I would have announced them at the AGM, so here’s the post again.

The Grand Prix has now concluded. Based on the popularity of the inaugural event, I shall look at running it again next season (assuming I’m re-elected at the AGM).

The use of handicaps has made it very interesting to watch the leader board change over the months, especially as the eventual winner was actually placed quite low after the first month but climbed ever higher as the rounds progressed.

Congratulations to Jamie and thank you to everybody who took part.

Yelverton Bowmen Tavistock Trophy – March – Complete

The Tavistock Trophy is an internal competition run using the scores entered in the Indoor Postal. The highest cumulative score for each category over the five months wins. In the event of a category only having a single participant, they are included in the most appropriate alternative (normally forming a unisex bow category).

The individual category winners are:
Compound – Darren Bennion,
Longbow – Alister Smith,
Ladies Barebow – Linda Wright,
Ladies Recurve – Sarah Watson,
Gentlemen Barebow – Pasty Cain,
Gentlemen Recurve – Darren Bennion,

Congratulations to all. The full scores and standings can be seen on the table below.

Handicap Improvement Medal

This is an award given to the person who has improved their handicap the most between two outdoor seasons (scores from the indoor season don’t count unfortunately). Your best three handicaps of the year are averaged and compared with the previous year (in this case the 2018 outdoor season compared to 2019). The winner receives an official medal (the one in the image). This must be returned to the club by the next AGM, as it actually belongs to Archery GB and is on ‘permanent loan’ to the club.

This year, the winner of the Handicap Improvement Medal, with an improvement of seven points is Linda Wright. Congratulations.

Indoor Handicap Improvement Award

As mentioned above, the official Handicap Improvement Medal doesn’t recognise scores and development indoors. I thought we’d rectify this and introduce an indoor specific handicap award.

Unbeknownst to everybody (well… most of you), I’ve been keeping an eye on the 2019/20 indoor handicaps and comparing them to 2018/19 in the same way as the outdoor handicaps work.

The inaugural winner of the Yelverton Bowmen Indoor Handicap Improvement Award (working title) is Sarah Watson with an improvement of 15. Congratulations. This was highly entertaining for me, as Sarah and Andy were unknowingly locked in battle for this award. They spent much of the season with equal improvements and only near the end of the season did Sarah enter the deciding score.

Finally

As a final note, I received 442 scores from all members this indoor season, compared to 347 last year and even less the year before. I’m glad that things are picking up and more people are choosing to pursue their handicaps and classifications. The introduction of the Grand Prix contributed to this total and also exposed members to rounds other than the Portsmouth (and occasional WA18). Thank you to everybody who supported the Grand Prix.

I also awarded in the region of 70 new club records and 23 new classification badges (some beating previous records and others filling previously empty spaces on the record tables). Congratulations to all the recipients. I hope there are many more to come.