Welcome to the first Records Officer Monthly report for the 2023 outdoor season. There is a lot of news to include in this report so it is substantially longer than I intend it to be for future months.

Firstly for those new to the club, or archery in general, the outdoor season runs from 1st January to 31st December every year. Which means that Classification and progress/252 rounds can be shot at any club outdoor session.

Outdoor Classifications

Archery GB have this season revised the outdoor classification and handicap schemes, and linked them to a revised set of age categories. Details of these changes. More information on classifications and handicaps can be found here.

A copy of each of the classification tables can be found in the Records Officer folder in the storage cabin at Widewell.

In order for the Records Officer to assess your classification level and handicap you will need to complete your Yelverton Bowmen Record Card and return it to me at the end of each month.

These cards should only be used for Classification rounds shot at either club shooting/target days or other Archery GB affiliated competitions (including DCAS). They should not be used for recording 252 or Archery GB Progress scores.

If you do not have your record card yet and are intending to shoot classification rounds please come and see me at a club shooting session.

Archery GB Progress Awards

Archery GB have also introduced a new progress scheme. This has not superseded the 252 scheme; the club has decided to run both schemes in parallel. Both schemes are designed to focus new and improving archers on progressing though their archery journey to the point of being able to commence classification rounds as soon as possible, and then rising up through the Archer and Bowman ranks.

More details of this scheme can be found here and score sheets and be obtained from here or can be collected from the records officer folder in the storage cabin at Widewell School. Completed score sheets should be signed by the archer and a witness, and handed to the Records Officer for assessment before a badge can be awarded.

252 Scheme

The 252 Scheme is still running and score sheets are available to print from here or can be collected from the records officer folder in the storage cabin at Widewell. Completed score sheets should be signed by the archer and a witness, and handed to the Records Officer for assessment before a badge can be awarded.

Competitions

DCAS Postal Competition

The club have re-joined the DCAS Summer Postal competition and have 8 teams included in the event which runs from May to August. More information can be found on the DCAS Postal Competition page on the club website.

Any club member can take part in the competition providing they are able to shoot the relevant distance, i.e. have a 40 yard 252 to allow a Warwick 50 (previously Short Warwick) to be shot.

Scores must be recorded on a club Warwick score sheet, signed by the archer and a witness, as well as the field captain, and returned to me by the end of the month. We will need at lease 3 Long Warwick Compound individual scores, 3 Warwick Longbow individual score, 12 short Warwick combined (but not compound) individual scores and 6 Junior short Warwick combined (max 2 compound) individual scores each month. So please get your May scores in as soon as possible.

Note – DCAS have confirmed that scores submitted for the Summer Postal do not automatically count towards a Bowmen, however as they are intended to be shot on a club Target Day I see no reason why the club cannot count them.

Yelverton Bowmen King Charles III Coronation Competition

The club has also introduced a outdoor season long Coronation Competition offering every club member the opportunity to win either a bronze, silver or gold medal. Medals will be awarded at the end of the season.

 

Details of the competition can be found on the Coronation Competition page on the club website.

As the club has declared that all outdoor sessions up to the end of the Coronation Competition are effectively classed as Target days in accordance with Rule 313, all scores shot in accordance with AGB rules and filed on a completed club score sheet can be counted towards Bowman classification.

April Results

Club Records

Certificates were awarded for the following club records:

• John Pengilley – Senior Men’s Recurve record for:

• • Junior Warwick (now Warwick 40) – Score 370 (no previous record)

• Jenny Kerchey – Senior Women’s Recurve:

• • Short Windsor – Score 748

• Steve Marsh – Senior Men’s Barebow:

• • Windsor – Score 802
  • Short Warwick – Score 340
  • Warwick – Score 314
  • Long National – Score 336

• Neill White – Senior Men’s Longbow:

• • Long National – Score 230
  • Portsmouth (Single Face) – Score 490
  • Short National – Score 431
  • Short Warwick – Score 305
  • National – Score 305
  • Short Windsor – Score 618
  • WA18 (Single Face) – Score 374

• Corey Richardson – Senior Men’s Compound:

• • Portsmouth (single face) – Score 547
  • Junior Warwick (now Warwick 40) – Score 414

• J Nuttall – U14 Women’s Barebow:

• • Short Junior Warwick (now Warwick 30) – Score 252

• J Cunningham – U14 Men’s Recurve record for:

• • Short Junior Warwick (now Warwick 30) – Score 326 (previous record 294)

Classifications

Badges were awarded for the following classifications:

• Indoor:

• • Corey Richardson – D
  • Steve Marsh – E
  • Tim Tatum – F

• Outdoor:

• • Jamie Pruden achieved a Archer 1^st Class with 2 National scores of 454 & 448.

252 Scheme and Progress Awards

Badges were awarded to the following archers:

• Corey Richardson:

• • 30yd – 252 & Progress
  • 40yd – 252 & Progress

• Steve Marsh:

• • 20yd – Progress
  • 30yd – Progress

Competitions

St George’s Day Competition

On 23^rd April 11 archers took the field to compete in the Yelverton Bowmen St Georges day competition. On a good day for shooting some impressive scores were shot, including 4 club records. The majority of archers shot either Archer or Bowman qualifying scores. The results card is shown below and due to the variety of ages, bow styles and rounds shot the club have awarded the following medals:

·        Best Overall Score & Handicap – Corey Richardson – Score 414, Handicap 43

·        Best Classification Ranking score – Linda Wright – Bowman 2^nd Class

·        Best Junior Score – J Cunningham – Score 326

An additional prize was awarded on the day of the competition to Steve Millard for the best outfit.

 

Grand Day Out

Only one Yelverton Bowman competed in this years DCAS Grand Day Out. Jamie Pruden shot a National round in testing, wet conditions and posted a score of 502. This saw Jamie placed 9^th overall in the Senior Men’s Recurve category and gives him 6 dozen arrows towards his Bowman 3^rd Class.

Congratulations to Jamie.

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And congratulations to all of those who set records or received awards this month.

John Pengilley,

Records Officer, Yelverton Bowman

A great St. George’s day shoot was had by all today. Weather held up and was a great way to kick off the outdoor season. Turn out was strong and all had a good time blowing the outdoor archery cobwebs away.

Results will be collated and released throughout the week.

Thank you to Pops (John Pengilley, Records Officer) for arranging the shoot and all to that attended.

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.