Copy
View this email in your browser

Wicklow Archers Newsletter for
September 2021


It's coming to the end of the summer and kids are returning to school. We've had quite a busy summer, despite the strange times we find ourselves in. With some of the covid restrictions, there have been loads of competitions and medal winners from our club and looks like a full calendar of events going on. We've had loads of new archers join and there is still lots to look forward to. So let's crack on!

End of Season Shoot + Pizza Night
Friday 17th September


Don't forget we're having a Friday evening shoot to mark what would be the normal end of outdoor shooting season. It will be a free evening for members, with the gate opening at 6.30pm in Dargle Valley. There will be pizza after 8pm, if you stick around.
 

Triple A Alliance Come and Try
on Saturday 18th September


We are hosting a Come and Try event in Dargle Valley for the Triple A Alliance. This is a charity group for supporting families of those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Aspergers or ADHD. It will be held Saturday 18th September. If you'd like to help, please reach out Jane Ward.

Congratulations!


There has been so many competitions from other Archery clubs over the summer now that we can run outdoor events.

But first, a big congratulations to Alan Callister who represented Ireland at the European 3D championships in Maribor, Slovenia. He had an absolute amazing experience and got to shoot with some of the top World Archery 3D competitors. Alan has kindly shared some of experiences later in this newsletter. Congratulations also to Jai Popplewell, who competed as well and has recently moved to Wicklow Archers.

Some highlights from for club members:
 

Irish Open 3D Championships 2021


This was the first competition run after covid restrictions were raised. Hosted by our neighbour club, Slaney Archers in Wexford.

Well done to Micheal Kaikov (Gold in Compound), Column Griffin (Gold in Barebow Masters), Alan Callister and Luke Power (Gold and Bronze in Longbow), Jane Ward and Grace Donnelly (Gold and Bronze in Longbow), Steven Kirwin and Tony Murphy (Gold and Silver in Recurve), Aislinn Edwards (Gold in Recurve Cadet), Gerry Edwards and Tom Fox (Gold and Silver in Recurve Master) and Donnacha Kirwin (Gold in Recurve Youth).
 

Irish Open Field Championships 2021


Slaney Archers hosted the first Field competition this season.

Well done to Garrett Byrne, Mark Cunningham and Tony Murphy (Gold, Silver and Bronze in Recurve), Aislin Edwards (Gold in Recurve Cadet), Tom Fox and Gerry Edwards (Gold and Silver in Recurve Master),  Donnacha Kirwan (Gold in Recurve Youth), Shay Fitzsimons and Rohan O'Duil (Silver and Bronze in Barebow), Coloum Griffin (Gold in Barebow Masters), Simon Moore (Silver in Instinctive), Alan Callister and Luke Power (Gold and Silver in Longbow) and Jane Ward (Gold in Longbow).
 

The Slaney Classic 3D WRS Shoot


Slaney's third competition!

Well done to Michael Kaikov (Silver in compound), Shay Fitzsimmons (Gold in Barebow), Coloum Griffin (Gold in Barebow Masters), Luke Power and Simon Moore (Gold and Silver respectfully in Longbow), Jane Ward (Gold in Longbow) and Mark Finch (Silver in Instinctive).
 

Irish National Outdoor Championships


First Target competition this year, hosted by Millennium Archers.

Well done to Aisling Edwards (Silver in Recurve Cadet), Gerry Edwards (Gold in Recurve Masters) and Garret Byrne (Gold in Recurve).
 
*

A shoutout also to Andras Nagy and Csilla Fekete, who have been representing Wicklow Archers in IFAF 3D shoots over the summer and winning medals as well!

It's also worth calling out Kerrie Leonard, who shot for Ireland in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, finishing ninth place overall!

And on a final congratulations, Tony Murphy, our club president and Gerry Edwards, our club secretary, have also just got their First-Aid qualification recently.

Welcome all our new members!


The club is now over 90 members again and is yet again, the biggest archery club in Ireland. Since the covid restrictions were lifted during the summer, our coaches have been flat-out running our introduction to archery Beginner Courses, outdoors in Dargle Valley. There have been some ups and downs with the weather, but overall it's been a massive success with many attendees joining the club and becoming regulars on our Wednesday and Sunday trainings.

If anyone wants to help with the Beginner Courses, you don't need to be a certified coach nor do you need to be an expert or senior archer. You just need to know the basics, the safety rules and a willingness to help. The courses are great fun and it's amazing to see people enjoying the sport for the first time. If you interested in helping out, even just once in a while or your interested in becoming a coach, please reach out to our Jane Ward, our coaching coordinator. We are dependent on Archery Ireland for coaching courses however, but hopefully now that restrictions are lifting, there will be some coming up.

Alan Callister along with a few of the senior archers are running a Beginners Target League down at the Beginners range for our new archers, to show the basics of shooting in a competition. Keep an eye on Facebook and the Website for the next one!

#HerOutdoors Come and Try


As part of the Sports Ireland campaign #HerOutdoors, we hosted a Come and Try event in Dargle Valley. We had to postpone the first attempt due to bad weather, but on the second attempt it went amazingly well. Many of the women and girls who attended have signed up for Beginners Courses!

Check out out the writeup we got in Bray People:

International Women's Day


For International Women's Day this year, the club showcases many of our female archers on our social media. We got a lovely writeup in the Bray People and Jane was interviewed by East Coast Radio FM for the event!

2020 Sports Capital and Equipment Program


The club were successful in winning a grant of €15,000! This is a great achievement as the club has not had any grants in the last few years. Thanks to Gerry Edwards and the grant application team for their efforts.

The committee are now in the process of looking how to spend this inline with original application. The focus will be on replacing our beginner bows, new targets and other equipment for the club.
 

Dargle Valley

Thanks to our Dargle Valley venue, we've been able to keep going over the summer. We've been able to keep up a 16 target field course the whole summer. Tom Fox and several helpers have worked to maintain the grounds around the course and have done a complete make-over for the course for the winter months.

The ranges have undergone a few changes over the summer. We had to move from the meadow, so we created two mini ranges. One is the Beginners Range, where you can shoot up to 20m. This has become our venue for running Beginner Courses and the new Beginner Target League. The second range had a few targets from 30m to 60m. However we will be able to return to the meadow and we  will need help to move the targets and setup the meadow again. We will be keeping the Beginners Range as it has proven to be very useful.

Currently we have training on Wednesday evenings, however it's now starting to get dark early, so we're not sure how long we'll be able to maintain it, and on Sunday mornings. We will also have occasional Saturday morning sessions, so keep an eye on Facebook or the Webpage for info.
 

Latest on Shoreline and St. Gerards


Normally around this time, most of the club activities would be indoors and we would be making use of Shoreline for competitions and events. However as of this time we have no update on when we will be able to return to Shoreline or the hall in St. Gerards. Shoreline have assured us that they will keep our slot but currently they don't know when they'd get the hall back, which is being currently used for Covid vaccinations.
 

Darge Valley Field League 2021


We've been running a Field League on our 16 target range up in Dargle Valley. The course has recently been re-designed to freshen it up and give our archers a challenge. We've already had 5 stages of the league over the summer. But there is only 5 more to go and you need at 5 entries to be eligible for a medal, so loads of chances to get a score in.

The next one, Stage 6, will be 19th September, this Sunday coming.

If you've never shot field archery, you're always welcome to try it on Sunday or Wednesday training. We'll pair you up with a Senior archer who can take you around the course and show you the ropes. For beginners, you start on the white page which has max distances of 20 metres, the same as the Beginners Range.

Check the Facebook page for results.
 

Beginners Target League


We've had many new archers join the club over the summer and normally they'd have the opportunity to get into competitions in Shoreline via our Archer of the Year league, which can't happen this year. So several senior members of the club have setup and are running a Beginners League on our Beginners Range. Stage 3 was just last weekend. 

The next one, Stage 4, will be on 26th September.

Keep an eye on Facebook and the Webpage for details of the next one and the current scores.
A short video about the first stage of the Beginner's League. Our first youtube video as well!

Winter League!


Yes, winter is coming and with it comes our Winter League, which will run in Arrowfield. This is a popular league with our field archers, as the location, near Crone's Wood, is beautiful and has some really fun shots - like shooting from the top of a boulder or beside a waterfall.

Details will be shared soon.
 

We have the YouTubes now!


Wicklow Archers is entering the video age! We now have a YouTube channel. Check us out!

More content to follow soon.
 

Important: Upcoming Wicklow Archers Annual General Meeting


Just a short heads up, that the Wicklow Archers AGM will be happening in October. This is an important event for the club and all members are encouraged to attend. This year is quite important as several roles are coming to the end of their terms.

We'll be sending out details later.
 

Upcoming Archery Ireland Annual General Meeting


You will probably have already received an email about this from Archery Ireland already. Tony Murphy, our club president, will be representing the club at this. There are several issues we will be raising. If you have any views about what AI can do for clubs and the sport of archery, please email Tony.
 

Upcoming Events & Competitions

 
  • Triple A Alliance Come and Try, 18th September
  • Dargle Valley Field League Stage 6, 19th September
  • Beginners League Stage 4, 26th September
  • Dargle Valley Field League Stage 7, 3rd October
  • Beginners League Stage 5 (Final), 10th October
  • Wicklow Archers AGM, October (TBC)
  • Dargle Valley Field League Stage 8, 31st October
  • Dargle Valley Field League Stage 9, 14th November
  • Dargle Valley Field League Stage 10 (Final), 28th November
  • Winter League Stage 1, TBC
 

 Outside Wicklow Archers

 
  • Archery Ireland AGM, 18th September
  • Harbour House Archery Club WRS (Double 720), 18th/19th September
  • Slaney Archers: Irish Nationals Field Competition, 25th/26th September
  • Harbour House Archery Club WRS (Double 720), 3rd/4th October
  • Slaney Archers: Irish 3D Nationals, 16th/17th October

Don't forget...


Please make sure to fill in the Covid 19 Back to Sport form before attending training.

And help where you can. This is your club and it can't function without the help and time of it's members!

~~ Wicklow Archers Committee 2021
Alan shares his experience representing Ireland and competing internationally at European 3D championships in Maribor, Slovenia:

On Friday 27th August, Team Ireland, (Orla O’Connor, Sharon O’Connor, Jai Popplewell, Alan O’Connor and myself), set off for Maribor, a ski resort in Slovenia, for the European 3D Championships. We eventually arrived at the venue at 22:30, exhausted, however, we were not the first to arrive, as some teams who were able to travel overland, had arrived before us. We soon made the place our own, by hoisting the Irish flags over the various accommodations!

The following day was “free practice” and being a ski resort, we soon realized that an early arrival was worthwhile as we were able to acclimatize to the conditions, climbing slopes, arrows performing differently to what we were used to, less oxygen etc etc. and still the teams arrived! 22 nations were represented with a total of 218 archers plus 33 officials! Ianseo were on site to carry out accreditation for all archers, without which you were not competing!

Day 3 saw official practice where we saw all the teams on the practice field, some had come with their full backroom staff (managers, coaches, physios etc) and we knew that Ireland is a very small fish in a very large pond. However, we were undaunted and vowed to give them a run for their money. At the end of shooting, it was a joy to get into the pool to rest aching limbs.

Day 4 saw the start of qualifications, and we were split up, Alan O’C to the Red course with the compound archers, the ladies to the Blue course with the bare bows, and I was assigned to the Yellow course with the longbow archers. We were to find out that each course would test us in ways that were far more challenging than that experienced at home. The Red course was physically challenging with steep gradients and cross slope shots, the Yellow employed “dead ground” so ranging to the target was difficult. I didn’t shoot the Blue, but was assured it was a combination of Red and Yellow. I was shooting with the Italian No1 who was a complete archery machine, but a really nice guy. I was happy enough with my score, 275, however, he, as an experienced veteran, came in with 407. 

Day 5 saw all the groups move course, I went to Red, Alan O’C to Blue and the girls to Yellow. We were also split into different groups, overall, I shot with Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian and Estonian archers. At the end, only Orla and Sharon survived their respective cut score, and the rest of us could become supporters.

Day 6 was the team event, as we were not allowed onto the courses to watch and not having a team entered, we decided to take the gondola down to Maribor for the day, which turned out to be really warm, I’d like to say the architecture was amazing, but being a former communist country, it was pretty drab.

Day 7 and 8 was great, as we were able to watch semi finals of the individuals and teams matches, which are held on a separate field set up for this purpose over 21 targets where each archer shoots only 1 arrow at each target and is either eliminated or survives to take on the next archer. It’s at this stage that the remaining survivors of Team Ireland were eliminated, but they had done us proud by getting this far.

The last day saw the finals for the various categories, and the atmosphere on the finals field was electric and immense fun. Being able to watch experienced archers buckle with the pressure, and less well known rising to the top, there was never a foregone conclusion! Jai was asked to be co-commentator for the You Tube channel and did a great job keeping everyone informed and interviewing winners. The day finished off with a Gala party in one of the hotels, where everyone was able to relax and let their hair down and say their goodbyes to friends that had been made and friends that had been re-met.

On the whole, it was an amazing experience, one that I would definitely do again. I have made friends with Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Russians, Belgians, Spanish, French the list goes on. The unwritten currency in the archery community is the swapping of badges (and sometimes jerseys), we were all armed with AI pin badges, however, the badges that created the most interest and had the highest value were the Wicklow Archers pin badges. I could almost write my own terms for swaps with these. Thanks to Tom for furnishing me with these, I nearly had to order a re-supply, they were so popular!

We were all honored to wear our national colours, however, despite being competitors, there was a fantastic sense of camaraderie, as Jai was to find out on Day 1, when she had an equipment failure during the qualification round and was immediately helped by her fellow competitors. True sportsmanship!

To any archer who would like to, attend one of these events, I can thoroughly recommend it, as you will have so much fun at what can only be described as “A Festival of Archery”, with everyone coming together as one big archery family.

If you fancy your chances at doing something similar to us, here are a few tips:

Keep your expectations realistic, keep training, take onboard your coaching and attend as many competitions as possible to prepare yourself for this extravaganza. 

I still keep in touch with many of the new friends made over there, and they promise to visit Ireland in the near future to compete alongside us
.


~~ Alan Callister
Our Facebook Page
Instagram
Website
Our Twitter Account
YouTube
Copyright © 2021 Wicklow Archers, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp