News and events
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6 December 2009
Joe Fairburn of the Bowmen of Adel shot a personal best of 332 in the Portsmouth to take the under 9 title at the Junior National Indoor Championships at Lilleshall today.
As in the outdoor championships it came down to a 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, running out eventual winner by 45 points.
Dave Phillips - 2 November 2009
The YAA Treasurer and Secretary have both announced their intention not to seek re-election to their posts at the AGM in March 2010. The YAA Committee have agreed to publicise these vacancies now, to enable YAA members who may wish to put their name forward, to make their interest known. It also provides time for anyone interested to ask questions about the role. Nominations can be made any time up to the point of the vote during the AGM.
To assist in this process, Job Descriptions for these two roles are published here:
Description of the role of County Secretary
Description of the role of County Treasurer
Additional Job Descriptions to cover all Committee roles will be added to the website subsequently.
If you have an interest in doing either of these roles, or for that matter, any of the other roles, please contact any member of the current committee.
Dave Phillips
YAA Secretary
Shaun Duggan - 26 October 2009
I still have Northern Ireland results to add, but here are the provisional results after Eastbourne:
(Document removed)
I have also received some news today that Mossley Hill Archery Club (near Manchester) are interested in joining the league and some archers from Cheshire will also participate.
Any duplicate scores for October will be sorted on 31 October by taking the highest score to transfer across for the league.
Many thanks to Adam and his team at Eastbourne for an enjoyable day today.
We have had a total of 34 different archers attend during these two events at Crawley and Eastbourne, which is fantastic, thank you everybody, and I hope you enjoyed yourselves. That number compares against 40 different archers for the whole of the 2008/09 winter season.
Regards,
Shaun Duggan
WFAL organiser
16 October 2009
Nick Beeson, secretary of the Bowmen of Adel and the YAA's Juniors officer, has declared his intention to stand for the post of Chairman of the GNAS/Archery GB when Lynne Evans steps down at the next AGM. Below is a brief biography and manifesto.
The YAA hastens to add that we are not endorsing Nick or any other candidate - this is intended purely as a news item. If any other GNAS member, YAA or otherwise, intends to stand for a GNAS post, we will be happy to publish their declaration in the same way.
I would like to announce to everyone that I am seeking nominations to stand for the post of Chairman of the GNAS.
I first took up archery at university in 1972 (both my parents had been archers, briefly, in the ‘50s), and then returned to the sport in the mid ‘90s. I shoot recurve (barebow when shooting clout) and have never quite managed to achieve greatness (though I did become National Barebow Clout champion a few years back). Qualified at “Coach” level, I see myself as a solid club archer.
Where I have been active, though, is in administration. I have been Secretary and Tournament Organiser of my club, the Bowmen of Adel, for many years now. At county level in Yorkshire I am the Junior Officer; I am the current Chairman of both Northern Counties and the English Archery Federation, and, for seven years was Chairman of the GNAS Junior Committee, serving, in that post, on the GNAS Operations Committee. Working “behind the scenes” I took a major role in the revamping of the EAF constitution, which has led to the Federation becoming more prominent and working well, and I have been a part of the group working on the bid for Sport England funding which was successful earlier this year. I am well used to working with outside sporting bodies such as County Sports Partnerships and the Youth Sports Trust.
My approach to everything is based on analysis and evolution; I believe in co-operation, though I do not shrink from taking the inevitable difficult decisions. I would not, at this stage, promise anything other than that all issues brought before me or the board would be examined honestly and fairly and with an open mind. I am broadly supportive of the changes that have taken place in our Society in recent years, and believe that trying to reverse rather than build on them would be unwise. However, I would like to focus more on our grass roots, making sure our competition and coaching structures are fit for purpose, helping clubs to develop themselves and find their way through the minefields of current finance, legislation and responsibility. This is a challenging time for all sports, and archery is no exception. In the middle of a recession we have to prepare not only for 2012, but also, more critically, for 2013, when pre-Olympic funding will inevitably be reviewed at a time when our whole infrastructure is expected to reap the benefits of the Olympics. I believe that, with a strong, club-based Society, Archery will continue to achieve success both Nationally and Internationally
And now the practicalities. The first step is for me to be nominated by “Electors” of the GNAS (30 or more). An Elector is either a club, a direct member, a board member, or a representative of an Associated body. If you feel you would like to nominate me, please write (if you are a direct member) to this effect to Dave Sherratt at Lilleshall or get your club or Associated body to. Please remember that, as a signature is required, nominations cannot be emailed. And let me know you have done so! I have notified GNAS that I am allowing my name to be put forward and I agree to take up the post if elected.
Thank you for your support (if offered), your criticism (happily accepted), or, at the very least reading this far.
Nick Beeson
9 October 2009
Shaun Duggan is running a Winter Field Archery League, to encourage field archers to stay competitive between October and February (inclusive). Scores on FITA Field 12 Marked rounds can be submitted by email. Results and rankings will be published on the GNAS Field web site.
27 September 2009
John Gilroy was presented with commemorative glassware at today's Barnsley Albion, in recognition of his great service as a judge over many years. John retired from judging earlier this year, and this has given him a chance to pick his bow up again. He stormed back into the trophies, winning a box of chocolates for most reds!
John was Lord Patron of the tournament, the first time he's been Lord P in over 30 years of archery.
The decanter was presented to John by YAA Vice President Christine Morgan. Christine made the following citation:
As Vice President of the Yorkshire Archery Association, I have been asked to make a presentation on their behalf to John Gilroy, our Lord Patron for today.
This is to thank him for his contribution to judging. In 2002 he became a County Judge. In 2003 he achieved Regional Judge level. In 2007 he became a National Judge.
He has been a good ambassador for Yorkshire, supporting many clubs and tournaments for many years and was the recipient of the Yorkshire Sword in 2004.
We give him our good wishes for the future.
24 September 2009
Danielle Brown of Aire Valley Archers retained her Women's Compound world title at the 2010 World Para-Archery Championships, which were held in Nymburk, in the Czech Republic, in August. She was the most successful archer of the championships, winning two gold medals and setting three new world records.
She squeaked past Chieko Kamiya of Japan in the quarter finals by 111 points to 110. In the semi final, she beat GBR team mate Pippa Britton by 115 points to 105. She met another GBR team mate, Mel Clarke, in the final, which she won by 114 points to 107.
Dani set new Compound Open Women world records for the FITA round and the 60 metre distance.
Dani, Mel and Pippa won the team gold for Great Britain, setting a Compound Team Women record for the FITA round.
8 September 2009
Below are the teams selected for the Five Counties matches to be held in Cheshire in October. Some juniors are still to be confirmed, and will be added shortly.
Gentlemen Recurve
Mark Farrow
Paul Jones
Alan Bennett
Ladies Recurve
Amy Oliver
Michelle Kiddy
Bev Detoeuf
Gentlemen Compound
Richard Watts
Mick Arnall
Mark Hayes
Ladies Compound
Linda Oliver
Gemma Breese
Renee Metcalfe
Gentlemen Longbow
Adrian Hayes
Robert Powell
Ladies Longbow
Denise Singleton
Boy Recurve
Daniel Baker
Michael Smith
Tommy Price
Crispin Cousins
Girl Recurve
Helena Beeson
Rebecca Smith
Boy Compound
Aaron Barnes
Chris Stanley
Girl Compound
Rachael Smith
Boy Longbow
Harry Spencer
Girl Longbow
Annarose Spencer
8 September 2009
Joe Fairburn of the Bowmen of Adel became the under 10s Scottish Champion over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Despite a howling gale, Joe's score was 73 points higher than the score that won him the British Championships.
Congratulations to Joe on this excellent achievement.
6 September 2009
David O'Carroll has written the history of the Bowmen of Adel. This describes the archery scene in Leeds and Yorkshire in the years before the club's founding, the establishment of the club in 1948, and its history to the present day:
History of the Bowmen of Adel
If any other YAA clubs have written their histories, we'd be very interested in seeing them.
9 June 2009
Michael Ward was presented with the Yorkshire Sword at the county championships on Sunday 6th June 2009. This was in recognition of all his hard work for Yorkshire's archers over a number of years.
The citation nominating Michael reads:
The YAA Coaching Group and Barnsley Archery Club would like to nominate Michael Ward for the award of the Yorkshire Sword.
Michael is now a member of Selby Archery Club but is better known for his long association with the University of York. This year has seen him take on a wide range of responsibilities and achieve a number of goals in his support of Yorkshire archery and regional/national promotion of the sport through his role as University archery liaison for YAA and NCAS, following the role he has had with BUSA. He has played a strong role in developing University archery for some time, working with BUSA and the NEUAL shoots as organiser and supporting a number of Universities in organising shoots in the University calendar.
Michael has passed his County Coach exam this year, consolidating the work he has been doing in coaching. He is involved with both Yorkshire Youth/Junior squads as a coach, and the senior squad as a coach/archer. His commitment has been high. At Selby he has already introduced regular coaching days and is supporting archers of all disciplines in improving their performance.
Michael has now completed his Level 1 tutor and assessor training, and Level 2 tutor/course manager. Over the past year he has led and tutored a University-specific Level 1 coach training course involving Leeds, Sheffield and York Universities with another planned this year, increasing the number of Universities accessing this. Interest is now developing across the region, and some student candidates are progressing to level 2 and beyond.
In supporting the YAA Coaching Group, Michael has taken on the role of Treasurer, introducing a rigorous system of budget management and ensuring that we have a clear picture of our finances and costs. In doing this, he led the request (with Harry Drake) for support from YAA general funds for the squads, and we have been grateful for the support received. This year he has also attended development conferences for coaching for YAA and also the recent GNAS SDP conference for NCAS.
Michael works hard at whatever he takes on, is always supportive, and we feel he is a good role model for the sport and the county, and a worthy recipient of this award.
Kath Fitzpatrick, on behalf of YAA Coaching
Gwen Smith, on behalf of Barnsley AC
Steve Jones - 11 May 2009
Following their Awards For All Lottery Grant, Barnsley YMCA Archers held their first outdoor shooting session on Sunday 10th May.
They were fortunate to have a fine dry day with little wind. For most of the members, this was their first taste of outdoor shooting and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
Wonder if they will feel the same when it's windy and raining.
The outdoor facility is at Worsbrough Bridge Cricket Club and will cater for target shooting up to 100 yards.
Photo taken by Pete Stott.
Steve Jones
Barnsley YMCA Archers
Kath Fitzpatrick - 5 May 2009
It is with great sadness that Barnsley Archery Club announce the death on 4th May of one of its former members Nick Rogalski, who had suffered from lung cancer for three years.
People may remember Nick - nicknamed "fingers" as he had lost parts of several fingers at work, and was the only person to have done his beginners course with a compound. Despite this, Nick made an excellent compound archer and also managed to shoot longbow - quite a challenge. He was well liked and well thought of, fun to shoot with, and in his time with the club over several years worked hard to help build the foundation for the successes we have today. He was a familiar face at many YAA shoots, always keen to enjoy himself and have a laugh, but keenly competitive as well.
Nick met and married his wife Wendy while at the club, and she graced our tournaments as Lady Paramount, helping to man whatever needed doing.
We will miss Nick; it would have been great to have him back with us again and although he hasn't been at the club for a while, he will not be forgotten.
Our condolences to his wife Wendy and family.
Kath Fitzpatrick
Barnsley Archery Club
20 April 2009
Mick Fitzpatrick has been presented with the Award of Merit, the YAA's highest honour. The award was presented by YAA President Stan Snow at the YAA Clout Championships in Bradford on the 19th of April 2009.
The citation from Barnsley Archery Club reads:
The members of Barnsley Archery Club would like to nominate Mick Fitzpatrick for the Award of Merit.
Mick recently left the YAA committee after almost 20 years of service, which we feel should not go unrecognised.
From entering the sport in 1981, Mick soon became involved with the county committee, variously holding positions of Tournament Organiser (following Janet Wales and preceding Andrew Neal), then Chairman for several years, then Clout Organiser most recently. During that time he has also represented YAA on the NCAS committee for around 14 years.
He has taken part in all disciplines of archery over the years, achieving MB field, shooting at MB and GMB levels in target archery once he moved to compound. His passion for clout archery has always been evident, and he has contributed much to the growth in the sport. As a recurve archer Mick won titles at county and regional level; with compound he took titles and records at county, regional and national levels, for several years until recently holding all the national clout records. He was only the second person to receive the gold tassel when it was first introduced. He has been equally successful with longbow, winning the YAA championships, and taking it up in the year compounds were banned to finish second, pipped in the last dozen to the title by Malcolm Clint.
Mick's other passion has been coaching, and he has played a large role in developing the coaching organisation we have today. Initially tutored by Tom Musgrove, Mick took his first coaching level in 1984, moving on to County level by 1990. He has been an active coach, working with individuals at all levels including international. He has also been an excellent coach educator, working on coach training courses for the past 16 years, and supporting the YAA Youth squads since their inception in the early 1990s.
Although no longer on the committee, wishing to return to his own shooting more, Mick is still an excellent role model and ambassador for the sport, and our members feel he should receive this recognition which is so richly deserved.
Mick sporting the Award of Merit.
Steve Jones - 11 March 2009
Barnsley YMCA Archers are delighted to have been awarded £8765 from Awards For All, part of the National Lottery.
Barnsley YMCA Archers were formed just over a year ago and have grown from 3 members to over 20 members in the year.
The grant will be used to provide outdoor shooting facilities and purchase the necessary equipment to allow the club to expand and allow greater participation in the sport.
The club has members from 8 years old to over 50 years old, with many family groups taking part.
Steve Jones
www.awardsforall.org.uk
Iain Smith - 3 March 2009
The Barnsley charity shoot, which was held on Sunday the 1st of March, was a great success and proved a very enjoyable day for the club and hopefully all the archers who participated. The spirit of the shoot was fantastic and very upbeat in spite of a very chilly wind.
The number of archers who took part far exceeded our expectations and I would like to extend our thanks to all the archers who supported the shoot and were most generous in their donations throughout the day.
As a result of the generosity of the club members, archers who attended, sponsorship from archery suppliers and from collections at the Shaw Lane facility, the day has raised £820 so far which will be donated jointly to Cancer Research and Macmillan Trust.
These two charities are very deserving and I feel that this shoot has allowed me to give a little back to enable their good work, from which I have benefitted over the last year, to continue.
I would like to extend particular thanks to the following people:
- Aardvark Archery for sponsoring the target faces.
- Merlin Archery for sponsoring a number of very interesting and fun raffle prizes.
- Barnsley Archery Club members for their hard work leading up to and on the day.
- Finally many thanks to everyone who braved the weather and came along, without you the day could not have been such a success.
Thank you once again.
Yours Faithfully,
Iain Smith
Chairman of Barnsley Archery Club
www.barnsleyarchers.co.uk
Ray Chaplin - 25 February 2009
It is with regret that Ebor Archers will, for the time being, be retiring the Les Kent Clout from the shooting calendar. The loss of a ground and various other factors make it impossible to run the tournament for the time being. We would like to thank all archers who have supported the event over the decades and we are sorry not to be able to continue with the event which we know was enjoyed by so many of you.
Ray Chaplin
Chairman
Ebor Archers
Colin Fairburn - 1 February 2009
Below is a pic of Joe presenting his cheque to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance - I thought it would be good to place it on the YAA website so that everyone who contributed has a chance to see that their generosity came to fruition! An article should be appearing in the Yorkshire Evening Post sometime next week.
Total raised £589.84 (£737.30 with Gift Aid).
Many thanks to everyone who contributed.
Colin Fairburn
5 January 2009
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.
Cedric Abbot (right) receives the Yorkshire Award from Jim Routledge (left). Club President Bob Key (centre) looks on.
Do you have someone (or a couple) like Cedric in your club? If so, please consider nominating them for this award. Details can be found on the Administration page:
Details of the Yorkshire Award
NCAS Five Counties Seniors Match 2009 results
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