Welcome to the Bowmen of Adel newspage

The annual Open Tournament went ahead successfully on Sunday, with numbers of entrants pleasingly high. Conditions were near perfect, with only a slight breeze. A constant supply of food kept the archers satisfied, especially at lunch where our new venture of serving chilli proved popular. Many club members turned out to lend a hand, with the result that just about everything ran impressively smoothly – even when, at the first end, several arrows were found embedded in the fence. Many thanks to our Lord Patron, Mike Bartram, and our judges, Amanda Bartram and Gareth Beeby.

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We recently hosted what has become an annual event for a group of the "Catenians", a church group from Cookridge. A group of ten hardy souls braved the chill of a July evening, to start with a brief refresher on archery technique after their first attempt last year. This proved what good teachers we had been, as all the old skills were in evidence.

Then on to competition. A dozen arrows at a shortish distance laid the foundations, and saw some very good scores. Having warmed our guests up gently, we brought them down to earth by asking them to shoot at Mr Grunt, three single arrow each. The rubber pig need not have worried too much, as there were only three hits in total, and none in the "kill zone". Finally, back to the bosses, as the archers had to shoot at apples of various sizes – which proved even trickier than the pig.

Last year, Cedric had fashioned a trophy of a fletched and piled short mounted wooden arrow. He produced another this year, suitably fletched in pink for the ladies. Retiring to the bar, the trophies were awarded to Richard and Magi.

                David Aikin             68-5-312
              David Hood            69-2-297
              Bruce Knights        66-4-276
                Cedric Abbott         37-3-159

The first of the outdoor competition following Easter got off to a great start weatherwise with the St.George Longbow Tournament at Morley on Sunday 18th April run by BoA members.

Paul Winfield has started the year well in first place in his division in the Virtual Archery League.

Paul Winfield brought home the bronze recurve medal from the ever popular Aire Valley Christmas Cracker. He was only ten points behind the winner Les Newsome of Bronte.

Elli Lawson won the Junior Girls Under 12 and Darren Clarkson trying his hand at Barebow came fourth.

Joe Fairburn shot a personal best of 332 in the Portsmouth to take the under 9 title at the Junior National Indoor Championships at Lilleshall on 6th December. As in the outdoor championships it came down to straight head to head with his usual adversary from the south of England. After a shaky first 9 arrows, Joe composed himself and shot his best ever dozen arrows in the Portsmouth scoring 84, to get himself back on track. From then on he never looked back and ran out the winner by a 45 point margin.

The Bowmen of Adel outdoor tournament was held today (6/9/9). With 58 entries (and only four non-arrivals) there was plenty of good competition in all adult categories. The weather held off until the presentations – this is, of course, traditional – and all the archers seemed to be having a good time. This was enhanced by the catering effort, which started with bacon sandwiches at 09:00, went on to a barbecue at lunchtime, and rounded off with cakes and Danish pastries at tea time.

In fact, the day went without a major hitch, thanks in no small part to the large number of club members who came to assist at one point or another. Though it is invidious to single out individuals, we should note that the maestro of catering, Guy Sansby, was first to arrive, before 8am, and was almost the last to leave at 5pm. Thanks also to our two judges, Amanda Bartram and Pat Lightowler, and our Lady Paramount, Samantha Baker, who felt it worth her while as she snaffled the Jack and Jill, the Family and Compound team trophies, as well as coming third in her class. All round another typical Adel tournament. NB

Yes, it finally happened. Having been postponed from the previous week, when it turned out sunny, the Strawberry Shoot took place on Sunday 26^th under a grey and leaden sky. At first only five turned up – 1.6 boxes of strawberries each, then – but numbers soon flooded in.

Archers shot at the traditional variety of targets – The Pig (from kneeling), animals (left-handed), a pointy target (normal), a mini-clout, and, of course, The Snake (from on the trolley). Heading the scores was new member Paul Honeyman – fresh from the Beginners’ course, but he had to leave so his prize went elsewhere.

Helena Beeson 93 (particularly good at the Pig, with 4 Kills a wound and a squeal) winning the Pack of Jelly

The archery range has now been accurately measured and marked out using the Plifix marker system (little tufted brushes sunk in the ground). The distances that Cedric and Paul have fixed these markers are 30, 40, 50,60, 80 and 100yards also 30 and 50meters (coloured yellow). The shooting line is also marked with a Plifix at either end, if there are any left Paul will put in one half way for when there are only a few of us shooting.

All the yardage markers are white at present, but at the groundsman's request we will spray them a different colour so as to differentiate from the football markers which use the same system.We will still need to use flags for aligning the bosses, but we now know that the flag position will be accurate and we don't need to measure out shooting distances every time the grass is cut!

BEESONMANIA

The Beesons have been shooting far and wide - well wide in the case of Nick who managed to win the Worst White at the YAA Championships.

Helena shot for Yorkshire in the team which lost against Lincolnshire but she won the Girl’s recurve at the St George’s Westerns and the Girls Visitor recurve at the Lancashire Champs.

The Nock was a success, with 16 taking part, and several spectators. The barbecue was fired up at lunchtime, and kept going all afternoon, so we browsed – and still Nick returned home with over a kilo of sausages. Gold Nock– Carol Wood 1615; Silver Nock- Phyl Abbott – 1578; Bronze Nock - Helena 1492.

Lis O'Carroll returned to Margam Park in South Wales to secure the BLBS Ladies Welsh Championship, and honour which had been denied her the last time, as she did not live in Wales. This time there was no argument and the trophy is now installed in her new home on the Gower.

The first of the outdoor competitions following Easter got off to a great start weatherwise with the YAA clout at Bronte and the St.George Longbow Tournament at Morley on Sunday 19th April, both attended by BoA members.

Club Secretary Nick Beeson scooped the last place in the clout barebow section by one point, beaten by his arch rival Tim Mason of Phoenix Bowmen. Although Nick had been only 9 points adrift from the leaders after the completion of the single clout he could not repeat his performance in the second session.

Meanwhile, over in Morley, Lis and David O'Carroll had travelled back from Wales to join David Aikin, David Hood and Bruce Knights at the longbow tournament hosted by the Bowmen of Adel on behalf of the Royal Armouries. Bruce got off to his usual flying start which would have seen him to the finals if it had been maintained. Lis and David's journey was rewarded with the winning of the Jack & Jill trophy. Meanwhile... members of the Bowmen of Adel were kept busy throughout the day in providing a taster of archery for the gentle folk of Morley. They did a busy trade which will help replenish the club's coffers.

Lis O'Carroll        49-199-5
Bruce Knights     65-299-3
David O'Caroll     64-278-4
David Aikin           64-257-7
David Hood          54-218-3

Many thanks to all those who took part and helped with the setting up of the field and the have-a-go.

Cedric Abbot of the Bowmen of Adel has become the latest recipient of the new Yorkshire Award. The Yorkshire Award is intended as recognition of individuals and couples who have performed outstanding service to their clubs over many years - and there can be few better exemplars than Cedric.

The award was presented by Jim Routledge, Vice President of the YAA, at the Bowmen of Adel Indoor Open Tournament on Sunday the 4th of January 2009. The citation from club secretary Nick Beeson reads:

The Bowmen of Adel would like to nominate Cedric Abbott, of our club, for the Yorkshire award.

Cedric has been an active member of our club since the mid-seventies. At low times, it has seemed as if he was the only active member. During that time he has filled just about every committee post in the constitution, and several more besides. He is currently the Equipment Officer, and it is hard to imagine a suitable replacement; certainly no one could equal his dedication and energy, burrowing away behind the scenes.

Many will have come across Cedric as the immaculately dressed Field Captain at the club's open tournaments; at every tournament he will also have almost single-handedly set out the field the evening before. For our indoors, it is Cedric who transports all the bosses to Quarry House. When we have beginners' courses, who is ever-present, advising archers and mending equipment as it gets used - Cedric. When we had to erect a fence to protect our indigenous hockey players, who was first to start designing, purchasing and building - Cedric. Who provides all the Danish pastries at club events - Cedric. Who is the only diplomat who can manage our tricky relations with our host association - Cedric. And sometimes he actually shoots.

This may give the impression that our club members are lazy and leave everything up to him. This is only partly true, and it would take a braver man than I to tell Cedric that he is not needed and should take a rest. But a more caring, honest and upright ambassador for archery could never be found. We recommend him to the County.

The club Indoor Tournament was a great success on Sunday. We had 100 entrants – both sessions full – and, to be honest, space was at a premium. There was still some very good shooting, as the results testify. In addition, Barnsley took the compound team trophy, Aire Valley the Longbows, and Savile the Recurves. Charles Ramsden and Naomi Faulkner of Savile were our Jack and Jill.

The day was a landmark for three of our stalwart club members. At the between-session break, Cedric was presented with the Yorkshire Award – only the second recipient – a separate report will be posted. Our Lord Patron for the day was David O’Carroll, who, with Lis (who was our Lady Paramount at our outdoor) is leaving the club to move to Wales this month. Lis and David have been regular workers at all our club tournaments, and “The Management” wish them the very best in their new life.

MAny thanks to all those who helped with the set up of the hall and to Nick and Helena Beeson who organised the tournament. RESULTS

Whilst the nation was glued to the box watching the athletes of the dance floor there was more serious stuff going on in Keighley. Over thirty longbowmen from seven Yorkshire clubs were contending for the monthly honours of the Airedale Longbow League. The BoA team were hot contenders all shooting at their best during the previous week, but alas, as one member found his form another one floundered. But if taking part is more important than winning then it was a great success and the sherry and mince pies and the cake were a big additional plus to the success of the afternoon. And who wants to sit watching the telly?

WHAT A CRACKER - 14th December

With fifteen club members taking part, the Bowmen of Adel was one of the largest club contingents and we had high hopes of bringing back the silverware and medals again. The recurve and longbow teams had strength and depth but on this occasion too much depth! Still Helena won her age group and Bruce even with 417 was pushed into third place. Spot prizes were won by Lis and Paul and Helena made many journeys to collect raffle prizes. It was good to see Amy, Angie and Morag taking part in their first competition as well as Cedric and Phyl who had not been seen at the Cracker for many years. RESULTS

Joe shot at the Junior National Indoor Archery Championships on Saturday 6^th December and came Third in the under 9's Junior Gentlemen Recurve category. He shot a round of 159 - not his best but then not his worst! The most important thing is however, that thanks to kind and generous archers around Yorkshire Joe has raised in excess of £500Tfor the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity, and with gift aid the figure will be in excess of £600.

The club held its AGM after the 2pm Sunday session. The Chairman, Alastair Cameron addressed the meeting saying farewell to Lis and David O'Carroll who are shortly off to Wales and thanking Cedric Abbott, Richard Clarkson and Robert Finch who left the committee. The club has had a successful year with members taking part at regional and national level as well as at many local competitions. The highlight of the year was the well attended club championships which had been very well attended and sharpely contested.

Changes were made to the constitution to allow new members to take part on the committee and to include a representative for members new to archery. The new President is Bob Key who is ex officio a member of the committee. Bob is a long standing member of the club and was a member of the committee in the 90s before work commitments down South gave him less time for archery......but he is back! Other changes in the committee are Pete who takes over a Treasurer; Chip and Pin swapping roles and the arrival of Ian Haslam as the representative of new to archery members.

Chairman: Alastair Cameron
Secretary: Nick Beeson
Treasurer: Pete Thurlow
Training: John Mirfield
PRO: Chris Furminger
Social Secretary: Guy Sansby
New archers rep: Ian Haslam
Junior rep: Helena Beeson
Ordinary members: Paul Winfield and Som de Silva

The competitions organiser is Nick Beeson; the Child Protection Officer and Webmaster is Chip Furminger. If you want to know what the committee members look like click here for a handy spotters guide.

A number of awards were made including the GNAS handicap medals, Selby postal badges for the two recurve teams and the 2nd longbow team; the awards for highest scores at 100 yards in a York or Hereford round, the Chip'n Pin trophy for beginners, the Taxidermy Tankard for most improved first year archer and a certificate for the only club record broken during the year. Thanks to Paul for the pictures of the awards ceremony.
The club's photo album is now on photobucket

Airedale Longbow League - 15th November
Despite putting in a strong team BoA were only able to manage fifth place. David Hood led the Adel scores coming fourth overall with 391. full results

Latest medals - 9th November
On Sunday 9th five members took part in the Northern Counties indoors championships at Wakefield. Joe and DOC brought back the goods and Paul Winfield won a raffle prize. Joe was given a special medal in recognition of his performance against archers many years older than him in the under 12 category in which he came a commendable second place beaten by an eleven year old. A pb as well. DOC also came second in the longbow - with his second best score of the season. Nick and Helena completed the Adel team with Lis and Colin in support.

Frostbite madness
This month we saw the start of the frostbite season and a massive entry of ten archers competing for a place in the Frostbite team.The November team (in descending order of score) were: Chris Furminger, Paul Winfield, Guy Sandsby, David O'Carroll and Darren Clarkson - Darren pushing David Aikin out of the team on golds. Chris retains the Icicle trophy. See the results page for the full results.

HaG
On Saturday 8th, the club organised a very successful have-a-go at Abbey Grange school - thanks to all those who helped.

Latest achievements
Chris Dent gets his first frostbite badge [8/11]. Joe pb at NCAS indoors [9/11].

Selby Postal results
All through the summer (what summer?) club members have been shooting Short Metric rounds (3 doz @ 50 metres; 3 doz @ 30 metres) to win postal medals. We entered four teams and have won three divisions -Recurve A & B teams and Longbow B. Poor old Longbow A came third despite winning three matches out of five. Medals will be awarded at the AGM on Sunday 30th November so if you shot in any of these winning teams you will need to turn up at the AGM! And if you didn't take part you will need to turn up to see what you are missing!

Back in the Hall - 26th October
Not something to be repeated too often - but its great to be back in the Hall so that we can prepare for the indoor season. The first indoor competition is the Northern Counties on Sunday 9th November at the Quenn Elizabeth's Grammar School, Wakefield. [Ring Wendy Fryer 07950821237/01132538678 to see if there are any spaces left.]

The "2 o'clock" session was at full capacity and the only scored rounds were by the archers who shot later.

BoA 60th anniversary - 18th October
This was the night we had all been waiting for to celebrate the club moving into its 61st year. The evening started at 7pm at the AWMA hall. Our thanks go to Chris, Guy and Som for organising a great evening. We enjoyed a buffet dinner interspersed with music and singing by "Archery Mom" Suzette as well as awards for achievements in last weekend's shoots for beginners and the short metric and Icicle.

The President's challenge for members to win 60 medals in the club's sixtieth year has now been surpassed. Well done to all who have been competing in competitions this year. The tally is now 70 and there are still quite a few more competitions to be won in 2008!

Have a look at the 60th anniversary page for a breakdown of the medals and their winners.

GNAS National Clout Championships - 18th October
A small group of five BoA archers represented the club in three disciplines - recurve, barebow and longbow - with mixed results. The most outstanding performance was from Helena winning the medal for her age group. Lis managed to score 50 in the first clout with the third highest score but was not able to repeat this performance after lunch in the second clout and ended in fourth place. Nick's unchallenged reign as national clout barebow champion came to an end last year. First he was challenged and secondly his challengers held the day. This year was not the year for him to retake the crown. Stan came ninth out of eighteen in the longbow.

Next year we hope to see many more club members taking part. The clout is the only national competition held in Yorkshire so there really is no excuse for not turning up and taking part. There were well over 120 archers with a goodly contingent from Yorkshire - so nag Nick to arrange clout training.

Beginners
A band of hearty members were rewarded for turning up to shoot outside in October by a balmy autumnal but sunny afternoon. There were three compeitions - a Short Metric to determine the hold of the Sun Dial over the winter and the Icicle to determine the one person who would have to turn up for the first Frostbite. For those new to archery and the club (aka beginners) there was the new Chip'n Pin trophy and promises of unspecified prizes at the anniversay dinner.

The scores for the Icicle demonstrate a resurgeance of skill at 30 metres which should stand the club well in this coming winter season in the BA Frostbite postal shoots. results

BoA archers at Penrith - 4th/5th October
The Bowmen of Adel provided two archers for the Yorkshire team at the Nothern Counties intercounties tournament. Lis O'Carroll had the better deal shooting on the Sunday in very pleasant autumnal weather, whilst Helena Beeson had to sruggle through very wintery weather the day before - and still won her age category. Junior report.

SEPTEMBER

Bronte Back End Westerns - 14th September
Forty five archers competed in the Bronte Back End Westerns. Joe was the only BoA entrant. Despite a below par first 4 dozen at 30yds, Joe managed to regroup himself and shoot a creditable 425 in his Short Junior Western to take Silver behind a competitor twice his age. The day stayed dry (ish) and a good time was had by all.

The Wharfedale - 14th September 2008
The Bowmen of Adel once again hosted this longbow tournament which is shot two-ways. The best result for Adel was by David Hoodw with 78 hits, 360 scored and 6 golds which put him in 5th place on hits and score. Lis O'Carroll, Bruce Knights, David O'Carroll and Cedric Abbott also took part but no trophies were won. Results.

The Ascham - 13th September 2008

The heavy dew on Saturday morning was a signal for all those venturing onto Bedquilts to put on waterproof boots but the weather soon cleared up and we were in for a delightfully sunny day. The shooting was restricted to ladies with longbows and recurves at targets set out at 80 yards. Shooting was two ways with three arrows at each end. Lis O'Carroll was the only archer from the Bowmen of Adel and on her first time at The Ascham she won the trophy for most hits by a longbow and the worst white.

Open tournament - 7th September 2008

Latest achievements
Lis O'Carroll has been selected to represent Yorkshire at the Northern Counties inter county tournament at Penrith, Cumbria on 5th October 2008.

Joe Fairburn has achieved his First Class badge. - Well Done! Its not too late for you to put in that score for a classification badge. All you need is three qualifying scores for any qualifying round. Guy Dixon achieved a six gold end during the club championships. Late news. Its just been confirmed that the longbow New National record set by Graham Potter in 1992 has fallen to DOC taking it by 32 points and a Bowman score.

Pomfret 60 30th August 2008
Well we did shoot 60 arrows but only at 50 yards in this well attended competition at Pontefract Castle. The weather was ideal and there was some excellent scoring. BoA were represented by Bruce Knights, Lis and David O'Carroll but despite both Bruce and David getting to wear the best gold at the last end medalion there were at least five arrows that took the cross out at the centre of the target. During the lunch interval there was a wand, a 3D bear and a speed shoot. Lis and David were Lord and Lady Paramount giving out the prizes.

Best ever turnout in living memory 25th August 2008
We can't be sure, but no-one could remember as good a turnout for the club championships as we had this Bank Holiday Monday. Over thirty members and one visitor took part in the club championships representing all disciplines, ages and sex.

The championships included York, Hereford and Bristol rounds for the championship trophies; National rounds in the afternoon for those wishing to take part in the handicap shoot.

It was great to see so many returning members- the entire Pearce clan - John, Mandy, Lee and Daniel last seen shooting a decade ago and Steve Bush who was using the same sight marks he had in the last century. And there were a fair number of new members as well. We were also pleased to welcome Philipa who was making sure dad John Armitage was behaving himself.

The best achievement of the day must be Big Guy's six gold end which he shot at 80 yards. His claim will be winging its way to GNAS Towers.

Our thanks to Nick for organising and scoring; DOC for field captaining; and Pete for wrestling some heat out of the charcoal. Thanks to Alison and Phyl behind the counter and all members who helped out.

Latest achievements
Tom Dent put in a pb of 226 for a Short Junior Warwick. If that was not enough, it also gave him his Second Class classification. Joe Fairburn scored a six gold end at 10 yards. - Well Done!

New members spotted
As usual at this time of year, new members are joining in their droves. So please welcome:

Morag Clunie, Ruth Dent, Joel Dent, Jillian Dorrington, Peter Dorrington, Alice Fox, Aaron Furminger, Ian Haslam, Lisa Kitto, Irfan Labbar, Jack O'Nions, Amy Sansby, and Helen Wood . All well taught and eager to shoot—so please could experienced members help them out.

We also welcome back to the fold several old members who have been taking a break for a couple of years: John and Mandy Pearce, with their sons Lee and Daniel, and Steve Bush. Having seen all these shoot, I think all current members will have to look to their laurels.

YAA Longbow championships 9th August 2008
The longbow archers in Yorkshire are not content just to take part in the county championships in June but also shoot a two-way York (for men) and a two-way double National (for ladies). Many attempts have been made to have the men shoot at a shorter distance but this is always refused.

This year's competition was held at the Aire Valley shooting venue near Keighley- the second time there. The weather was atrocious and after two dozen arrows many men had yet to score. At four dozen arrows it was decided that the competition should be changed from a York to a New National for men and a single National for ladies.

Adel archers Lis and David O'Carroll took the coverted Dennis Whiteman trophy awarded for the highest scoring married couple and David also won the Best Gold at 100 yards. Three more medals towards the club's 60th anniversary target making 9 medals for Adel in the space of a week! Full results.

IIn near perfect weather conditions the Adel recurve team swept aside the opposition at Harvesters on Sunday 3rd August and took the team shield and gold medals.
Chris (Chip), Bob, Paul & Joe combined to produce a tournament winning score of 2640. The result came as somewhat of suprise considering that there was stiff opposition from strong Barnsley & Aire Valley teams. However consistency and determination paid off in the end.

Individual honours went to: Bob - 2nd (Gentlemen's Recurve)
Joe - 2nd (Junior Gentlemen's recurve u12's)

and Chris narrowly missed out on 3rd by just 2 points. Paul, by his own admission had a score he would rather forget, however, everyone had a very enjoyable day and we now have 4 more gold medals to contribute to the medal target of 60! Joe incidentally shot his 2nd best western round ever and continues to produce the goods under tournament pressure.

Round scores were as follows: