A late summer of targets, trophies, medals, and a mayor!
The last couple of months have been very busy at GAC with competitions, beginners courses, Novice sessions, Skills Development Group and lots of sun!
GAC Longbow Trophy – Sunday 7th August 2022
Longbow archery is is shooting in it’s most original form, with none of the modern aids of sights, stabilisers, cams or carbon, just a bent stick, a string and a wooden arrow.
It provides the simplest way to enjoy the simple pleasure of shooting an arrow, and I heartily recommend everyone to at least try it! The club has a selection of basic longbows and arrows that members are welcome to use during the Wednesday and Friday evening coaching sessions.
There is a small but dedicated corps of longbow archers in the club (many shooting recurve or compound as well) and these were joined by a few others at the GAC Longbow Trophy shoot on the 7th August.
The rounds shot were a selection of Westerns (4 dozen at each of 2 distances), in hot and sunny conditions with no wind, (meaning that there were no excuses!)
As with any longbow event, the emphasis was very much on fun, and everyone enjoyed the shoot, whatever their score. However, there had to be some winners, and the 2022 Longbow champions are:
Gents: John Bedford
Ladies: Eleanor Cawte
Full results can be viewed here
GAC Clout Trophy – Tuesday 16th August
If you have ever wondered how far your bow could shoot an arrow, then Clout is definitely for you! With distances that stretch to 180yards, we aren’t able to shoot a Clout round at the club, and instead hire a large grass playing field at Charterhouse school for our annual Clout Trophy Shoot.
Steve Tully very kindly laid out the grounds to provide 100yard, 140yard and 180yard shooting lines, all facing the same ‘Clout’ (a small flag/target set on a short pole on the ground)
Members picked the distance that was realistically achievable with their bow, providing a lovely mix of ages, bow styles and experience on each shooting line. The round is shot ‘2-way’ meaning that each end is shot in a different direction, providing differing challenges and making for a lot of walking!
Scoring is done very simply with a length of rope, marked into 5 equal sections attached to the pole supporting the clout and then ‘walked’ around in a circle with arrows that have fallen in each of the 5 sections being picked up and scored, with 5 for the closest to the clout down to 1 for the furthest away.
After a couple of ends of getting eyes in and experimenting with the perfect angle to shoot, arrows were getting closer and closer to the Clout, (and even hitting it!) and there were some very impressive scores by the the time 3 dozen arrows had been shot and the light was fading.
The eventual winner of the trophy was Josh Bowden, but I would like to make special mention of the youngest archer on the field – Eliza Thomson, who was shooting with her small bow and arrows, and initially was 40 yards short of the Clout, but never got disheartened and kept trying and trying until with her last arrows, she managed to score at 100yards! – Well done Eliza!
Acorn Tournament – Monday 29th August
The Acorn Tournament is the highpoint of the outdoor season at GAC. It is our record-status ‘Open’ tournament that has been run every year since the club was founded in 1954, and draws in archers from across the whole South East – and even further afield!
After a couple of Covid-affected years, it was nice to be able to put on a tournament with no restrictions and we welcomed just under 100 archers to our lovely club on the August Bank Holiday Monday.
As with all of our tournaments and events, a huge amount of work was done even before the first archers arrived; taking bookings, organising judges, boss hire and catering, preparing target lists, marking the field out and setting up targets, waste bins, flags and shelters. None of this could happen without a small army of willing volunteers, so a HUGE THANK YOU! to everyone that helped in any way.
The weather was good, with sunny intervals, but a bit of tricky Guildford wind to challenge the competitors.
The archers were shooting a mix of Hereford and Bristol rounds of 12 dozen arrows and proceedings were started by the mayor of Guildford shooting the inaugural arrows in front of the assembled archers (which he did very well, having had a brief introduction to archery a few days before)
By the time the shooting had finished, everything was packed away and medals and trophies had been awarded it was almost 7 o’clock, but everyone, including all those who helped had a great day, and we have had some brilliant feedback from some of the many visitors.
Club Championships – Sunday 4th September
Whilst the Acorn may be the biggest of our open events, the GAC Club Championships is the pinnacle of our club competitions. It comprises the longest distance 12-dozen rounds, shot for outright score (no handicap) to produce the top archers in the club.
Whilst there may only be a few members in each category that are realistically in with a chance to win, it is always nice to have a big turnout of members to make a proper event, and this year over 30 GAC members came and shot either the whole day or half day rounds.
It was such a pleasure to see so many members shooting together and enjoying what turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant weather, and all stayed on for the results and awarding of the trophies and medals.
Full results can be viewed here
FLAG Trophy Shoot – Sunday 11th September
The FLAG Trophy shoot marks the last step in our return to pre-Covid shooting.
This is an inter-club friendly competition shot between ourselves, Farnham, Woking and Alton and Four Marks. Previously shot over 2 legs; one in the spring and the other in autumn, with the clubs sharing the hosting.
The rounds shot are Albion and Windsor, and all scores are handicapped and the 4 highest handicapped totals make up each club team, with trophies for Albion Windsor and Junior categories.
The last time we shot a FLAG Trophy was in Autumn 2019, so it is 3 years since we were able to shoot for the FLAG Trophy, and it was fantastic to see almost 50 archers come together at GAC!
The weather was warm and dry, and there was a brilliant friendly atmosphere across all of the targets.
After observing a minute silence to mark our respect for Queen Elizabeth II, we made a leisurely 11.00 start and shot the first 3 dozen before taking lunch.
After lunch and 2 further distances, shooting finished at about 4.00, and was followed by a light tea of sandwiches and cake provided by GAC whilst the scores were collected and results calculated followed by the awards.
There were many medal winners in the outright score category and Guildford were the winners in the Albion, Windsor and Junior team trophies – a great restart to the FLAG!
The full results can be viewed here