Latest News

By Malcolm Grant

The 18^th August was a happy day for two members of Brixham Archers.

Wendy Allen, a teacher from Torquay and Kane Kennedy, an IT consultant also from Torquay were married in a ceremony at Oldway Mansion in Paignton.

Much to Wendy’s surprise, as the couple approached the gardens for the obligatory photo shoot, they were encouraged to walk through an arch of Longbows held aloft by fellow members of Brixham Archers.

Acknowledgement and thanks to the two club coaches, Paul Allan and Malcolm Grant, were made in the bride’s father’s speech, for their successful attempts over a period of time to find a suitable partner for his daughter.

The wedding was followed by a honeymoon in Tenerife, to which the club coaches were not invited!

Brixham Archers wish Wendy and Kane a long, happy and fruitful life together.

Below is an update on the archers who have made the teams in the current winter postals.

Many thanks to Bill Wallworth for compiling this.

Other scores on the Match day:

Dave Pearson 504 (RC)

Other scores on the Match day:

Mike Jackman 534 (CU)
Cameron Wilson 222 (RC)

Other scores on the Match day:

Will Wetherall 505 (CU)
David Howard I 453 (RC)
Fred Clarke 466 (RC)
Tracey Prosser 378 (BB)

Handicap Improvement table is below for the 2010 Outdoor Season:

These archers set new Handicaps:

Kevin Fisher, RC: 33 1st
David Jon Howard, RC: 58 1st
Steve Read, RC: 59 U/C
Keith Summerfield, RC: 54 3rd
Will Wetherall, CU: 36 JB

The outdoor handicap improvement medal for the 2010 season went to long time member - Jerry Handyside. Jerry had been shooting in the recurve style for many years (He still holds the club’s record for shooting 585 with his recurve), but towards the end of 2009 he decided to at least try the club’s compound bow. On seeing that it was quite a challenge and not an easy magical cure all, he committed himself to buying his own compound bow. Jerry started the 2010 outdoor season with a handicap of 45. By the end of 2010 he had improved by 19 points to a handicap of 26. Well done Jerry.

Longstanding Brixham Archers member, Malcolm Grant, has recently received a prestigious national award in recognition of his exceptional contribution during 22 years’ voluntary service to the sport of archery and his club. He was nominated by national archery judge John Poyner, and presented with the Torch Trophy Trust award by His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester at the annual award ceremony at the Army and Navy Club in London on Monday 15 November. This year there were 19 sport volunteers who were honoured at the presentation. Malcolm is one of only 8 people to have won the award for services to archery since the Trust was founded in 1962. Malcolm joined Brixham Archers in 1988 and has served continuously on the committee since that time. He is the Club Chairman and a qualified Archery GB coach. He has worked tirelessly and given much of his free time to promote archery in Torbay; offering local people the opportunity to take part in archery ‘Have A Go’ sessions with Brixham Archers as well as encouraging young people to take up the sport through the club’s involvement in archery training at Churston Ferrers Grammar School and the Herald Express Schools Games event. Malcolm has played a key role in the growth and success of the club and has assisted in the training of other coaches across the Southwest region. Over the last decade he has been instrumental in securing the prestigious ClubMark Award for Brixham Archers, which is now one of only 22 archery clubs nationally to hold this recognition. He has successfully raised additional funds for the club through various grant applications to enable it to purchase essential equipment.

In response to his nomination, Malcolm said. "I feel most humble and highly honoured to be thought worthy of such an accolade as a Torch Trophy Trust Award. I must thank the National Governing body for archery - Archery GB, for nominating me for this prestigious award. I also have to thank the many colleagues and associates for their support over the years. It is only with team endeavour that ideas and projects become successful.”

The Torch Trophy Trust Awards are presented annually to volunteers who are nominated by their sports’ governing bodies in recognition of their outstanding contribution as a volunteer in their chosen sport

Among those attending the presentation were several figures from the world of sport, including football legend Sir Bobby Charlton (the Trust President), the former England rugby captain Roger Uttley OBE and former England cricket Captain, Mike Denness.

According to Malcolm, “The presentation evening was a particularly warm and welcoming event held in the lovely stately rooms of the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall, London. The Duke of Gloucester, who presented the awards and the trustees and officers of the Torch Trophy Trust showed genuine interest and appreciation of the variety of work being done by all the volunteer recipients. After the official presentation, all the recipients and their guests were able to mix, mingle and talk to the Duke of Gloucester and many well known sports stars from many sports.”

The Torch Trophy Trust has its origins in the 1948 Olympics held in London. Before every Olympic Games a torch relay is organised from Athens to the Host City. Following the 1948 Games, the Torch designed for the last leg of the relay into Wembley Stadium was presented to the Trust, which believes that the flaming torch symbolises its dedication to helping and recognising the efforts of volunteers in sport. The successful nominees for the award are presented with miniature replicas of the torch.

2nd September 2010

Councillor Robert Excell visited Brixham Archers during one of their regular club sessions held at Churston.

This visit by Councillor Excell follows a previous engagement at the club in May when he acted as the Lord Patron to Brixham’s Open Tournament.

On that occasion the councillor very kindly donated and presented a specially commissioned - “Excell Endeavour Award” to one of the club’s junior archers. This is to be awarded annually.

It was during that last visit that Councillor Excell noticed how many archers were using spotting scopes on tripods. Realising that he had a few spare tripods that were no longer in use he thought to donate these spare and unused tripods to the archers where they will be put to good use by members. These tripods will be useful for mounting spotting scopes, cameras, video cameras and some other training and tuning aids.

Accompanying Councillor Excell on this visit were his assistant Mary and Brixham Councillor Terry Manning.

To keep the councillors busy, they were asked to present certificates to the graduates of the Archery Beginners course who were finishing their course on that evening.

With both councillors having very strong interests in the provision of sporting opportunities within the bay it was no surprise that they readily accepted the challenge to try the sport of archery for themselves.

Their competitive nature quickly became apparent as both councillors (and their Maid Mary) were soon sending their arrows whistling around the middle and centre gold area of the target.

Brixham Archers chairman, Malcolm Grant said the club much appreciated the visit and would like to thank Councillor Excell for his generous donation of several tripods and both Councillor Excell and Councillor Manning for their interest and support of not only archery, but sport in general within Torbay.

Anyone interested in trying archery can contact Malcolm on 01803 843097 or through the club’s web site: www.brixhamarchers.co.uk

Accompanying pictures:

Click on the picture for a large version. Uses JavaScript, so if you use NoScript in your browser please enable it for this website.

 Windy weather provided challenging conditions for more than 60 competitors in Brixham Archers’ Rose Award archery tournament at Churston Ferrers Grammar School on Sunday. The archers had gathered from clubs across the southwest, including a large number from Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. They competed in one of 3 categories: recurve bow, compound bow or longbow, and in a variety of rounds. The Gents’ York round involved shooting 6 dozen arrows at a distance of 100 yards, 4 dozen at 80 yards and finally 2 dozen at 60 yards. Competition was fierce between the leading recurve archers in this round, with Paignton’s Gary Wilde finally edging ahead to beat his fellow club member Glen Wilde into third place by 15 points with a score of 926. In the Ladies’ Hereford round, shot at a distance of 80, 60 and 50 yards, first place was awarded to Devon County team member Zena Barker, while Brixham’s Wendy Allen achieved fourth place in what was her first competition at this distance. First place in the National round in the Gents’ Recurve category was won by Kane Kennedy of Brixham Archers.

Trophies and medals were awarded to a number of Torbay archers in the Junior rounds. Michael Bryan-Harris of Paignton Archers won first place in the Junior Gents Recurve Bristol 1 round with a score of 964, while his fellow club member Amy Wilde achieved second place for Recurve in the Bristol 3 round. Other notable achievements were a perfect ‘6 gold end’ (6 maximum scoring arrows out of 6) by Brixham’s Junior Compound archer Josh Noakes, as well as an excellent score of 477 in the Short Junior National round for Brixham’s Ethan Read, who was competing in his first competition after only just completing a beginners course with the club.

Lord Patron on the day of the tournament was Torbay Councillor Robert Excell, who spent time talking to the archers and paid tribute to their abilities. "It was a great honour and privilege to be invited by the Brixham Archers to be Lord Patron on Sunday 30th May 2010 for their Tournament.

Having never been to such an event before, I was glad to have been given the opportunity to have a full insight and explanation of the different types of bow used in competition. As Children's Champion for Youth Provision in my role as a Councillor for Torbay, it was most welcoming to see quite a few youngsters there. I was very impressed by their skills, and their obvious dedication to the sport.  I would definitely recommend the sport to any youngster looking for an alternative sport, and I found the Brixham Archers to be a friendly and approachable club."

Brixham Archers run beginners’ courses throughout the year, led by qualified Archery GB coaches, and are currently taking bookings for their summer course. Anyone wishing to book a place or make enquiries about joining the club should refer to their website f or details: www.brixhamarchers.co.uk.

Photos in the gallery

1st Shoot - 12th June 2010

2nd Shoot - 17th July 2010

Note: On 2 way Nationals, the winner is the archer with the most hits, then the most golds, then the scores if there is still a tie.

Handicap Improvement table is below for the 2009-10 Indoor Season:

These archers set new Handicaps:

John Cavie, RC: 63 F
Bob Cunningham, RC: 44 D
Kevin Fisher, RC: 35 D
Jerry Handyside, CU: 23 C
Jal Heartlander, RC: 65 E
Theo Hembury, RC: 52 E
Mike Jackman, CU: 37 D
Kane Kennedy, RC: 43 D
Lucy Mackay, RC: 46 D
Kerrie Mifsud, RC: 71 F
Chris Noakes, RC: 40 D
Josh Noakes, RC: 43 E
Mike Prosser, CU: 44 F
Tracey Prosser, RC: 49 D
William Wetherall, CU: 37 E

Brixham Archers introduce Matthias Kurth of West Country TV to Field Archery.

Malcolm Grant's report

We were recently approached by Matthias Kurth of West Country TV enquiring as to whether we could be filmed introducing him to the pleasures of 3D Field Archery. Real bow hunting is banned and not allowed in this country. 3D archery is a popular variation of archery where animal like targets made of dense foam are set around a woodland course and shooting takes place in a safe and controlled manner. This growing branch of the sport is enjoyed by many people of all ages throughout the UK and many other countries.

Matthias is regularly seen on the West Country regional news programme trying out and experiencing a range of different sports and activities.

It seems that the world of TV works to pretty tight and last minute schedules. We were originally contacted by Matthias on a Tuesday. He wanted to film the action two days later on the Thursday!

I said I would phone back in an hour or so as I would have to make phone calls to see which of our club members were available. Fortunately, I was able to rustle up some experienced field archers who were prepared to face the TV camera.

The gang arrived at our Target shooting field at the appointed time and awaited the arrival of the TV crew. This time it was not to happen. Matthias phoned to apologize – He was in hospital expecting the sudden and early arrival of his new son!!!!

However the event was re-scheduled for a couple of weeks later.

What luck! This particular day seemed to be the start of summer. Beautiful blue skies and plenty of sunshine were to stay with us throughout the whole day.

We arrived at our target field early on the appointed morning and set up a 3D target and appropriate equipment for the TV crew to have ultra fast training and a safety talk. When I say training – I mean almost as quick as “wriggle your body to warm up, hold the bow this way and point it that way before letting the string go!” I must say that the task was made much easier due to the natural aptitude of both Matthias and the cameraman, Roger.

Training over, we travelled the few miles to our private regular training woods where the “Field Course 3D Targets” were already in place. This is quite a challenging course to carry heavy camera equipment around, but Roger made the task look easier than it must have been.

At this time of the year the wild garlic creates an abundant and aromatic green carpet throughout the whole woods. In another couple of weeks the colour would be changing to the mass blue of countless bluebells. Walking through these types of surroundings are just another of the delights and benefits of “Field Archery”.

First target and Norman was the first to be filmed shooting three arrows at a rubber javelina…. “hit, hit, hit”. What a fantastic start to set the scene. In fact I think Norman managed to perform all his ensuing shots to a high degree of accuracy. That takes some doing when being filmed! Matthias also hit this target. He is now a member of the gang!

Filmed interviews to the camera took place between some of the active shooting takes. This again is quite a nerve-racking experience for those of us not used to speaking before the camera.

• Wendy, who was adamant that she wouldn’t do this, was very professionally encouraged by Matthias to face her demons and do it. Well done Wendy. You are now a TV star(let).
• Paul, (Mr. Cool) managed his interview as though he was a seasoned old pro. Which as we all know of course, he certainly is.
• Steve, (Mr. Longbow) also shot consistently throughout the filming. Perhaps one of his highlights was the shot of him shooting from a fallen tree trunk, uphill to the rubber turkey.
• Myself (Mr. Mouth) as usual had a lot to say about everything and did very little shooting.

After a body count just to make sure no-one was missing we trudged back to the cars and made our way to the local pub for refreshment and to debate over which of us produced the best shot of the day.

Due to the ease of Westcountry TV’s Matthias and cameraman Roger we all enjoyed the outing to the woods and hopefully will manage to convey the joy and challenge of field archery to the TV audience.