Notice Board

     This notice board is for general club use.  Any club member can "post" a notice here. Simply send an e-mail to webmaster@targetcraft.org  with the subject "NOTICEBOARD" Please make sure the text for your notice is clearly indicated within the e-mail. Most recent notices will appear at the top. Notices will automatically be removed after one month unless you specifically request longer.

Notices

04-12-2022 Another Opportunity to represent Northamptonshire County Archery Society: Following on from last summer’s very successful postal shoot Bedfordshire have challenged Northants to a postal Frostbite. This would seem to fit into Bob’s cunning plan of promoting a Club Frostbite league over the winter! You can enter as many scores as you wish, but final scores need to be with the County team captain by 26th February 23. Bob will compile scores and he and I will ensure they reach Martin Ross in time. Our field is currently set up with four bosses at 30m to suit a senior frostbite round. The county are looking for scores from Junior archers who will shoot at shorter distances subject to their age. I plan after Christmas to invite all the clubs juniors to shoot their appropriate round and submit their scores. Juniors are of course welcome at other times and on Sunday mornings. The field layout will be adjusted to suit providing there are sufficient persons available able to make the changes needed. Scores from all bow styles are being accepted, if shooting in a traditional class please ensure that wooden arrows are used otherwise the score will not count. I would be delighted if Targetcraft could provide the backbone of the County Team and who knows, you might just earn a County badge :) If you have not yet tried a frostbite, this hopefully provides a good incentive, 36 arrows, 10 zone scoring and what’s more Bob has AGB Frostbite badges to “give away”! Tim Chair – Targetcraft Archers CIO

15-11-2022 NCAS - AGM 10/11/22 The County Society AGM was again poorly attended by the Counties clubs and archers. The AGM provides an opportunity to discuss important issues concerning our sport, elect or re-elect the Societies officers and celebrate the individual success of archers in the county. From Targetcraft Archers: Jon Bull won both the JF Taunton Trophy and the Caswell Series Trophy. The JF Taunton Trophy has been awarded each year since 1983 for the highest combined compound scores shot in County and Inter-County tournaments. The Caswell Trophy is awarded to the overall winner of the three tournaments that make up the Caswell series. This year Jon won the 720 and 1440 tournament and came second by 1 point in the American round shot at Long Buckby. Receiving their year bars for being selected to represent the County: Lulia Petre Jessie White Aaron Waddington Jon Bull Steve Allen Tim Bull Congratulations to all.

20-10-2022 Targetcraft Archers - Double / Double 720 Tournament - April 2023 Our club, for many years, has been synonymous with high quality tournaments that attract many of the countries top archers to our West Lodge facilities. I’m delighted to inform you that we have applied for and have been granted by AGB approval to stage a Record Status Double – Double 720 tournament on 29th and 30th April 2023. The 720 is one of the most popular formats for both archers and tournament organisers and we expect to sell out all available spaces. This tournament is a central part of our clubs development plan to raise additional funds that are needed to support our community and resource ambitions. We would welcome the support of the membership to help make this tournament a resounding success. How Can you help? • We will need a Work Party to help set the field prior to the tournament • We will need a field party on both days to help with finding arrows and .. changing faces • We will need help to provide refreshments • We will need help to support our tournament organiser None of the above need be all day, both days. Nearer the event we will put up a matrix for club members to volunteer some time. Please take a look and do what you can. Another option is to support the event is to shoot. If you would like to the Entry form is available from our website. Tim Bull Chairman Entry Form

20-10-2022 David Clark Memorial Indoor Triple We are pleased to announce that the 8th. David Clarke Memorial Indoor Triple Tournament will be taking place at Montsaye Academy in Rothwell on Sunday January 29th. 2023 This event is being run by Duston Bowmen, but using out equipment for a fee. Voulenteers will be needed to help set up and pack away equipment. This event is open to all to take part, if you would like to join in click here for more infomrmation

05-10-2022 A trip into the noble art of Field Archery When Tim, our illustrious Chair, mentioned a have-a-go session for Field Archery, images of green, triangular hats with feathers in, Robin Hood and lots of gorgeous woodland came to mind…I was IN! Long Buckby Field Archery Club were our hosts, with their Chair, Martin Ross, a talented archer and all-round good chap, tasked with taking the Targetcraft Archers around the course. The date was set for 25 September 2022 and Chris T, Charles C, Izz T, Laura S and I set off for Daventry Sports Club and field…. not the sort of place I had in mind for field archery but once there, the woodland was tantalisingly calling to us, in the distance! Martin went through the safety aspects of the course and had kindly set up a few practice bosses for us to check sight marks etc. The course consisted of 16 targets, set out throughout the woodland, some at known distances and some unmarked distances. The maximum score for each target is 18 points; three arrows, six scoring points, giving a maximum score of 288 points….I was going to be happy to get anywhere near the target and so had no expectations whatsoever! Still being a relative newbie to the sport, I only pull a 16lb bow, which meant that some of the distances were way beyond my capability and I was a little concerned about this. Martin was so kind and wanting everyone to have fun, made sure that I and anyone else who felt the distances were too great for them, could stand at a flag, nearer to the targets. After some checking and re-checking of sight marks, the course being in metres, not yards, as I am used to...we set off. The course is set in beautiful, undulating and winding woodland. Sturdy footwear is essential, and a degree of fitness and mobility is required, as some of the terrain is up/downhill. The targets are basically set within the woods, with the ‘stand’ flags for distances, being set out. The archer’s ‘standpoint’ to the target, can be uphill, downhill, to the side or slightly obstructed by scrub/branches. It made for interesting shooting! The biggest difference for all of us was that known sight marks are only accurate when you are square or almost square to a target face and on flat terrain. There was much laughter as arrows flew exactly where you were not aiming! It took a few targets for us to adjust sights and for me to also adjust my expectations, as this was a lot harder than I had anticipated! None of our little group lost arrows, which is always a bonus, and we laughed our way around the course, as we all took time to adjust to the new way of shooting. At the end of the course, our scores were not too shabby, and I was most surprised to be in triple figures! I would say to anyone interested in giving Field Archery a go, please do! Be prepared for laughs, some exercise, take good footwear, water and a snack plus no expectations of a high score for your first time! We all had a thoroughly enjoyable time and said that given the opportunity, we would do it again. I never did see anyone with a green, triangular hat with feathers in and Robin Hood was nowhere to be seen, which was a shame, as he could have helped carry the bows up and down the hills! Catherine F

05-10-2022 Indoor Shooting Our indoor season starts on Friday 7th October. Last years indoor season was more restricted due to our COVID 19 precautions. This year we are returning to “normal” but have decided to retain the booking system via the clubs web site and members area. It was found that this was helpful, especially for our newer members, who by booking knew which boss they would be shooting on and who they would be shooting with. Last year we were allowing only two people per boss, this year there can be up to four. To accommodate this change the booking form has been amended with the addition of “shooting details” If more than two archers are on a boss, detail 1 shoots first followed by detail 2. After arrow collection and in competition the details alternate shooting first and second. On Tuesday’s we leave this to you to decide and agree, on Friday’s we will alternate when shooting a recognised round. There is also the option of A,B,C and D. These references indicate your position on the shooting line in front of your boss. A and B are detail 1, A stands on the left of the centre line and B stands on the right. C and D are detail 2 with C on the left and D on the right. We hope you all have an enjoyable indoor season and take part in the clubs regular activities. Bob will again be looking after archer classifications, handicaps and the monthly Medal, John will be re-introducing his archer league table and challenge and David will be looking after club records. The club coaching team will be in hand most Tuesday evenings to provide support and assistance, time slots for individual coaching can be booked via the members page booking form. Tim Bull Chairman

30-09-2022 NCAS senior and junior coaching programme - Winter 22/23 I’m delighted to confirm that the county are again offering the County coaching programme. There will be sessions for both junior and senior athletes. Please take a look at the Northamptonshire County Archery Society web site and book your space, it’s a first come first served offer! Targetcraft Archers

30-09-2022 Move of Equipment from West Lodge to Montsaye Thank you to those who helped and those who offered to help with the move. It was done in record time so apologies to anybody who turned up at the requested time only to find the work had already been done. Whilst Montsaye is all fully equipped for our indoor season, West Lodge has also been prepared for those nice winter days which we get from time to time, We have left on the field the following: 2 bosses x 20 yds 4 bosses x 30 m (to accommodate the Frost bite league, please support these shoots if you can) 1 boss x 50m 1 boss x 70m 1 boss x 30m If these distances don’t suit you for any reason please feel free to create your own shooting line if it is safe to do so, Regards Tim Bull Chairman

22-09-2022 Club Members News It’s been nice to welcome back tournaments and tournament shooting this outdoor season and it’s been good to see a number of our club members excel in local and National competitions. Archie Bromley claimed silver in the U18 Mixed Team and bronze in the U18 Gents Team competitions at this years Archery GB Youth Festival and Iulia Petre interrupted her university studies to qualify for GB selection for next year’s European competitions. Locally Archie won the NCAS County Championships (Recurve), Jon Bull won the NCAS Caswell series (Gents Compound) and the County Championships. Six of our club members were selected to shoot for the County, congratulations to Iulia, Jon, Shahram, Steve, Aaron and Tim. And finally one of our newest club members, Derek Bett, secured a New National Barebow record for a York round last Sunday, beating his own record. Congratulations to all. Targetcraft Archers

22-09-2022 Indoor Shooting We had intended that our first evening of indoor shooting at Montsaye would be on Tuesday 4th October. Unfortunately we were advised yesterday that the school were having an “unexpected” open evening on that day and as such we have cancelled our booking. Our first indoor club night will therefore be Friday 7th October from 6pm to 9pm. We anticipate that our indoor club nights will be back to “normal” this year, with no booked time slots, but we would like to retain the booking in system on the clubs web site. This provides two useful functions: The first it allows club members to “book” a shooting lane and they therefore know when entering the hall which boss they are on. This saves considerable time and some anxiety for our newer members. It also helps the club keep a record of who are using the indoor facility and enables us to check that we are providing value to our membership. As in previous years, the Tuesday indoor club night will provide an opportunity for practice, coaching and socialisation. During the Friday club night those who wish to can shoot a formal round which can then be used for AGB classification, handicap, the clubs monthly medal competition, club and county records. (As we are starting our indoor season this year on a Friday, our first session on the 6th will be a general practice evening, but coaching will not be available). Please remember that your club membership fee covers both your outdoor and indoor shooting, there is nothing more to pay. We very much hope that as many of our members as possible get best use out of our outstanding facilities. Club nights at Montsaye Tuesday and Friday Evenings Time 6pm to 9pm Commencing Friday 6th I look forward to seeing you there. Regards Tim Bull Chairman

21-09-2022 Moving to Montsaye – Friday 30th September Dear Club Members With the evenings now drawing in we need to turn our attention to our indoor season commencing with the move of equipment from West Lodge to Montsaye. As always any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I am however conscious that we don’t need huge numbers of people for each part of the process and its not necessary that the same people are there to select the equipment being taken, load the vehicles, unload the vehicles and then put away. On the members page (where you would normally book for Friday or Sunday shooting) you will find a new booking form where you can volunteer to assist in the moving process. The form is divided into three sessions: The First will be from 2pm on Friday 30th September. We will select the bosses, stands and other equipment that needs to be taken to Montsaye and stack these on our car park to await collection. We will also re-arrange the field and set it out for the winter shooting programme. We hope to leave out up to eight bosses, many set at 30m to accommodate the Frostbite league. The second (time to be advised subject to the availability of transport) will be to load the equipment at West Lodge. We are hopeful that just one trip will be needed but it may be necessary to await a return trip. The third (time to be advised) will be to go to Montsaye and assist with the unloading of the vehicles and putting neatly away in our storage facility. I’m envisaging that between 8 and 10 people will be needed for each of these activities. I will add times on the booking form as soon as transport has been confirmed and thank you in advance for your support. Once the booking form has been filled in there should not be a need for others to volunteer on this occasion. There is currently a little confusion with regards to our first indoor shooting session due to an “unexpected” open day at the school but I will confirm details when I have them. Best regards Tim Bull Chairman

06-09-2022 Targetcraft Archers Update A busy two weeks for Targetcraft’s archers! Whilst approaching the end of our outdoor season the past two weekends have seen a flurry of activity with County matches. On the 30th September Leicestershire and Rutland County Archery Association played host to Northamptonshire at the Bowmen of Rutland’s ground near Oakham. Northamptonshire were well represented by Targetcraft members. Shooting a WA1440 round Iulia Petre achieved the highest score of the day with 1366, Jon Bull took the honors in the Gents compound, Steve Allen achieved a top 4 finish and I achieved a new PB but had little impact on the leader board :). On Sunday 4th October it was the EMAS intercounty match, an annual competition first held in 1958, it was hosted by Lincoln Bowmen at their Washingborough ground. This time we were shooting a more traditional York round Targetcraft were again well represented in the Northamptonshire team. Aaron, Shahram, and Steve were selected in the recurve team and Jon and myself in the compound team. Whilst we did see some good individual scores Northamptonshire were unable to field a “complete” team in either of the Recurve or Compound categories and were denied the “top honor’s”. The County did however win the Barebow category after a fabulous shoot from one of our club’s regular guests Derek Bett. If you would like to be considered for selection to the County team next season you will need to be entering County competitions (The Caswell Series) achieving 1st class or better scores at AGB “age appropriate” distances and make it known that you would be interested. The County has, each year, a match with Leicester and Rutland, Bedfordshire and a three Counties match that includes Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. During the indoor season there is usually a match with Bedfordshire. These tournaments are always friendly and provide a great opportunity to meet and make new friends. Tim Bull

23-08-2022 Archery GB visit to Targetcraft Archers We were delighted to welcome Helen Smedley (AGB Regional Development Officer) to West Lodge on 17th August 2022. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce our club and our development plans and for Helen to explain her role and how she may be able to assist us to reach our goals. We started the meeting by giving a brief overview of our club detailing when it was formed and our long association with the West Lodge Rural Centre. We explained what we did to try and enthuse and retain members through the COVID pandemic and provided an outline of our current ideas for development. Helen then explained her role which is to help facilitate the growth and uptake of the sport across the West and East Midlands. She went on to explain that AGB does not offer direct financial assistance for development projects but instead offers advice and direction as needed. We spoke at length around two key subject areas, our “On Target” club status and our participation in AGB’s Start Archery – The Big Week programme. AGB introduced some years ago the On Target status for clubs, where you could, based on set criteria be registered as a Community Club, a Performance Club or one other. Targetcraft were a performance club but at some point our registration lapsed. Helen will provide details of the various options; the committee will review these and will apply for the most appropriate classification. In 2012, AGB developed the concept of the Big Weekend. With the benefit of a national advertising campaign clubs opened their doors over the same weekend to introduce the sport to anybody interested with the aim of gaining additional members. We have not participated for some years and it’s something that I and the committee would like to reintroduce. The event is now the “Big Week” and we can decide if we want to do one or more events over the week and what the events will look like. AGB provide assistance with PR, advertising, and some merchandise. We are very grateful to Catherine who has agreed to act as the club’s coordinator for this event with AGB. In the past we made this a celebration of our club, we had have-a-go sessions, demonstrations at the Olympic distance, we had different bow styles on show and in use plus information on our clubs activities. We would like to use this event as a driver to increase club numbers and we will be planning a new beginner’s course soon after this event to take advantage of any interest generated. Any assistance that our members can offer in putting on this event would be greatly appreciated. Whilst AGB do not normally provide funding to clubs, Helen introduced us to a small fund that AGB are offering to assist with post COVID recovery. The maximum amount we could claim is £500 of which the club has to put in 25% and there has to be a compelling reason behind the claim to explain how it will help develop the number of people actively participating in the sport. The closing date is the end of this month. We do hope to get a claim in on time and if it’s successful any funding we get will be used for more club equipment suitable for juniors. Helen also reintroduced the “boost” archery concept, a refresher for more experienced archers. We will most likely incorporate this within our TEMPO programme during the indoor season. Tim Bull – Chairman

29-06-2022 The 2022 European Youth Cup will take place in Bucharest, Romania from 25-31 July Targetcraft Archers are proud to announce that our club member Iulia Petre has been selected to represent Team GB at the 2022 European Youth Cup. Her selection is well deserved and follows a very competitive selection process at AGB headquarters in Lilleshall. Please wish her all the best for this competition. We very much hope that she will also be selected for the European Youth Championships which this year will be held in Lilleshall. The team for this event is expected to be announced in July.

27-06-2022 Northampton v Somerset 1 Round to be shot: Short Metric, including all the junior rounds (M1, M2,M3, M4, M5). TB Note (AGB rules on appropriate age groups / distances / rounds shot to be observed). 2 Eligible archers: All genders and ages. If a junior please give your age and round/distance shot. 3 Bow Styles: All Including Traditional ( Wooden Arrows , BB & Horse Bow) outside of Longbow 4 When to be shot: Between 25th June 2022 and scores to be sent to either Martin Ross (County Team Captain) or Tim Bull by Midnight of the 24th July 2022 5 How round is to be shot: Where possible can the 6 dozen be shot on the same day. 6 Record all the scores as you would normally, X`s, 10`s and so on. Please submit the final score totals only (not each individual arrow value) in the normal format, including the following information. Archer, Gender. Club. Bow Style. Senior/Junior (if junior age and which round shot). Example: J Doe. Female. Middle Earth. Longbow. Senior. X 23. 10 13. Score 360. 7 All the scores will be on trust. We will be watching you. 8 Scores can be submitted either by • sending the details direct to myself or your club selection committee volunteer (Tim Bull). If these are to be sent direct to me please let me know details as mention in point 6 Shoot well, Have Fun

04-06-2022 Club Nights Note From Chairman (AKA Sir Steve) Dear all, Please click here to see note from the chairman regarding outdoor shooting on club nights

11-05-2022 Northampton County Archery Society Caswell Series of Open Competitions We recently put on the clubs website this years entry form for the 1st Caswell. The 2nd and 3rd Caswell entry forms are now available on the County Website (go to the Tournaments and Events tab and then NCAS Calendar). There is also a section on the site which explains what the Caswell series is all about. For those of you who have not yet entered an “open” competition there is nothing to fear, you will have an opportunity to make new friends, shoot some arrows and hopefully have a nice day out with like minded people. You don’t have to shoot the longest round appropriate to your age, pick one you are comfortable with and enjoy the experience. If you are tempted to give one a try but are hesitant about what round to shoot, what to do or what to wear come and have a chat with me, I’m always happy to help. The key thing to remember, whatever you think of your shooting, there will always be someone worse than you! Tim Bull Lead Coach

11-05-2022 Targetcraft Archery Shop - Burton Latimer - Closing Down As many of you will know, Colin Thwaites, the owner of The Targetcraft Archery shop in Burton Latimer has decided to take a well earned retirement. Colin was, over many years, an integral part of our club and contributed greatly to its longevity and success. We would take this opportunity to thank him for everything he did and to wish him a very happy retirement. Colin is wishing to clear as much of his remaining stock as possible and is offering discounts between 20% and 25%. If you are looking for something, it would be worth an enquiry to see if he has it.

 

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