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

Due to the Christmas & New Year break there were fewer opportunities for club members to shoot this month.

Club Records

Having reviewed a number of shooting record cards, the following new club records have been set and certificates have been awarded:

• Jill Hudson – Senior Women’s Longbow:
  • Bray I – Score 98 (previous record 73)
• Mic Richards – Senior Women’s Barebow:
  • Frostbite – Score 265 (previous score 245)

Classifications

Archery GB have updated the Indoor Rounds and Classifications, including changes to the age groups to bring them in alignment with the recent outdoor changes.

This means that all previous indoor Classification have been archived and all archers will have to regain their classifications.

The club continued to issue the old style indoor classification badges (A to H), however the new style badges have now arrived and will be issued from here on. Anyone who was awarded the old style badge this season can exchange them for a new badge at one of our shooting sessions.

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

• Paul Warren (Recurve) – Indoor Bowman 2^nd Class
• Stephen Millard (Recurve) – Indoor Bowman 2^nd Class
• Gary Wong (Longbow) – Indoor Bowman 2^nd Class
• Jill Hudson (Longbow) – Indoor Bowman 3^rd Class
• Graeme Bullock (Recurve) – Indoor Archer 1^st Class
• Mic Richards (Barebow) – Indoor Archer 1^st Class

More information on indoor & 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 (outdoor) or AGB Progress award (indoor & outdoor), and start working towards your first Archer Classification.

Progress Awards

Badges were awarded to the following archers:

• Rebecca Ogden (Barebow) – Indoor AGB Gold award
• Gordon Thornton (Recurve) – Indoor AGB Black award

More information on the two progress schemes – including the AGB Indoor Progress awards – can be found here, or speak to me at one of our club sessions.

Frostbite and Portsmouth Score Badges

From January 2024 the club will be awarding new badges for the Portsmouth and Frostbite rounds. To qualify you will need to submit a score to the records officer for entry into the relevant DCAS postal competition. You will then be awarded the badge which the score equals or exceeds. All bow types and age groups qualify as long as the score is shot as part of a postal competition.

Your first badge will free, however as you improve you will have the option of trading in your old badge or paying a £1 contribution towards the new one.

Competitions

December saw the club take part in the second round of the two DCAS postal competitions, Portsmouth and Frostbite.

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

DCAS Portsmouth Winter Postal League 2023/2024

• Three Senior Recurve/Barebow teams
• One Senior Compound team
• One Senior Longbow team
• One Junior 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.

DCAS Winter Postal – Portsmouth Results

The following scores were submitted by members of the club and as you can see from the results below the club performed exceptionally well:

In December we again had 5 wins and 1 loss. This is a fantastic achievement given the reduced opportunity to shoot in December.

Well done to all those who submitted score sheets, please keep this up. Please remember this is open to all club members, so please take time to submit an entry to me because even if your score is not used it could count towards your next badge.

• Senior Recurve/Barebow Team A – Remain in 1^st place in Division 4
• Senior Recurve/Barebow Team B – Remain in 3^rd place in Division 5
• Senior Recurve/Barebow Team C –  Remain in 2^nd place in Division 6
• Compound Team – Remain in 1^st place in Division 2
• Longbow team – Remain in 2^nd place in Division 2
• Junior U 16 Mixed – Remain in 1^st place in Division 2

Furthermore Josie holds the highest Junior girl barebow score (358), well done Josie.

 DCAS Frostbite Winter Postal League 2023/2024

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.

• One Senior Compound team
• Two Senior Recurve/Barebow only teams
• One Senior Longbow team
• One Senior Mixed Non-Compound team
• One Junior Mixed Non-Compound team

In December we improved our position be having 4 wins and only 2 losses, a solid start to the competition. Once again thank you for your scores, please keep this up, and lets see if we can get some junior scores in for the future months.

• Senior Compound Team – Have moved up from 3^rd to 2^nd place in Division 1
• Senior Recurve/Barebow Team A – Remain in 4^th place in Division 2
• Senior Recurve/Barebow Team B – Remain in 1^st place in Division 3
• Senior Longbow Team – Have dropped from 3^rd to 4^th place in Division 2
• Senior Mixed Non-Compound Team  –  Remain in 5^th place in Division 1
• Junior U 16 Mixed Non-Compound Team  – Have moved up from 4^th to 3^rd place in Division 1

Furthermore, Neill White currently holds the highest Gents Longbow Score (264 shot in the November round), well done Neill.

Bray 1 League

Running alongside the DCAS Portsmouth Postal and Frostbite Postal Competitions we are currently running a new internal club competition.

Full details of the indoor season long competition can be found here. A results table will be updated monthly.

To date 7 archers have submitted Qualifying Bray scores post obtaining a handicap. The current leader with a total of 7236 after shooting 5 qualifying rounds is Steve Millard, well done Steve.

External Competitions

No external competitions were attended in December.

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If you have any questions please talk to me at one of our club sessions.

Regards,
John Pengilley,
Records Officer, Yelverton Bowman