And it hit me like never before

It is the middle of the shooting season and the Scottish weather certainly is showing that. I was at Banchory this weekend with wet and cold on the Saturday, and warm (but not hot) on the Sunday. This is mid July, how can archers get any decent scores if the weather doesn't play ball.

Anyway, this short note is not about my angst at the weather, it's about something all together more worrying.

As long as I can remember, Banchory has been one of the jewels in the crown of Scottish archery. It's a good shooting field, right in the middle of town, with its only fickleness being a gap in the trees between 70m and 90m that can give the gents some issues sometimes.

It has informal, and well used, camping, lots of eateries and is even easily accessible by public transport. It has always been well run, with a raffle to boot. So, what's the beef?

Just 12 targets were filled at the weekend, and no junior ones at that. The field looked lonely, with the usually fence to fence line of bosses sadly depleted.

I won't even start to guess at the reasons for this, but I guess that you look at all sorts of things and see just a gradual change and then something like Banchory comes along and "it hit me like never before" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0as2GKhmuA)

Up the Pole

I promised a few words on crossbows.

These bows are all individually hand made by a local craftsman. From what I could gather, there are hundreds of crossbow guilds (clubs) across the eastern Netherlands and into Germany, and there are quite a number of local artisans who make the equipment.

The target is a 5cm disc on top of a hollow scaffold pole and it is attached to a rope that runs through the centre. The pole is on top of a wooden mast so that the disc is 12.5m off the ground. When you knock the disc off, you have scored and just pull the other end of the rope to get it back on the top.

Shooting consists of standing a little way out from the mast and shooting vertically up with a blunt. The round is a number of shots taken singly at one mast and then doing the same at another mast.

This whole episode takes about 20-30 minutes and then that is shooting finished for the night. The rest of the evening consist of drinking coffee or beer, and talking.

More information on the guild we visited can be found at http://www.schuttersgilde-eersel.nl/ and a directory of all guilds can be found at http://schuttersgilden.startpagina.nl/ (both in Dutch, but have pictures).

Also, if you want to hear a Guilds song, as well as see their uniforms, then visit http://stsebastiaanmierlo.spydar.com/. (thought, once we have chosen a new logo for the SAA, what about a song ...)

Colour, Beer and Tin Men ...

The debate we had about shooting colours seems to have died down and we, more or less, take for granted that we shoot in a rainbow line these days, and, perhaps feel this is all something new.


In the town we were staying in Holland, we came across the local crossbow guild (I'll have some words on that next weekend if I get the pictures out of the other camera). The guild is, of course, intimately tied up with giving men a reason to get together, blether and drink beer/coffee.

During the visit, we heard about the annual procession to commemorate a miracle from the middle ages and I came across this by chance. In the picture below, you can see the guild master and all of the silver on his cape.

The procession had different members of the guild there. In the picture below, you can see the colour of the silks of the flag bearers in contrast to the more sober black of the guild members.

Another bit of happenchance was on a visit to Ommen where I found the tin figure museum. Tin figures are two dimensional and rather easier to make than the ones we are used to. There was a diorama of Waterloo with more than 10,000 figures and well as some rather risque Greek and Roman ones.

However, I did come across this collection of the Royal Company, another reminder of the use of colour not being particularly modern.

It's the summer

Over the last two months, I have been very silent but things have been happening.

I had a three and a half week holiday, during which I did very little actual work (paid or not) - I think this is a sign of age since I was 60 this year. The periods on either side of that were flanked by some pretty intense work activity (the paid as well as the unpaid).

I've just come out of that and so have now the time to post again. I guess that over the next few weeks I'll be revisiting the immediate past, so, if you don't like flashbacks, you have been warned.

It is worth saying something about the SAA logo competition. There are 19 entries which alone is a good sign. We've set up a process to do two things: make sure that the logos are fit for purpose by asking people whether they can be used for badges, on letters, on the web site and so on; and we've also asked the membership for their input. The SAA National Council has asked for more opportunities to be given for people to vote and so a spreadsheet has gone out to all club secretaries in addition to the opportunity to vote through the web site. Pass the word on!

Well that is enough for this week. See you next.

Is that the time?

Have you ever got up from your seat and said "is that the time?". I worked in computing most of my working life, and done a fair amount of programming. In that, you are always saying, I just need this last little tweak, and, before you know it, you are stiff when you get to stand up and the time has just flown by. Perhaps that is just the male ego, meaning that us blokes can always beat the machine.

Over the last few weeks, it has been like that with me, and I am over a week late in posting this blog. There have been quite a few things got in the way.






The first is that I have moved the caravan over to Holland for three months, and you can see it in its resplendent glory above. The picture below is the view from the window, as it were.

The advantage (supposedly) is that I get a bit more free time and opportunity for archery practice. The practice hasn't emerged yet but I did get to compete at Boekel the other weekend. A dry day with a bitterly cold wind as it turned out, but I managed 1314 with a 350 for 30m. It was the usual civilised Dutch shooting for the early season with archers inside shooting through windows at targets outside. The wind was just in the wrong direction blowing though the windows, so we might as well have been outside. The day starts at 9am, finishes by 4ish and the prize giving is done by 5pm, so there is time for a beer or two after you have packed up.

There was a GNAS Board meeting the next weekend and the AGM. It was my first one and was quite an enjoyable event. The formal (dry) business is done in the morning and the afternoon is an open discussion session in which there was lively debate and frank, but polite, exchange of views. More attendance is required, and people would benefit from that.

The prize giving was the last order of the day and we saw many clubs stepping up to the Clubmark challenge. This seems a sensible way to help to raise standards through GNAS.

Lastly, and most deservedly, Derek Sangster was awarded a life membership for his many years of quiet and diligent work.

I am on my way back to Holland as I write this. First stop off on the way was to see my almost 6 month old grandson who is a robust type. There was much discussion of weaning, the merits of organic baby food and of the evils of mass produced baby food in bottles. When I was a nipper, it was at the tail end of rationing and I can just remember going with my Mum for the bottles of orange juice. The second stop was at Lilleshall for some meetings about IT and the like, and that is where I am writing this from.

We are fast approaching the end of an era with the Archery GB corporate re-branding coming into play. No more GeeNAS or G-NAS, it will be archery GB from now on - reminds me that I need to change the title for this blog.

Take care everyone and good shooting for the start of the season!

Is Spring here yet?

The question in the title is very relevant. I am now living in my caravan in Holland and sometimes I think that I just left Scotland too early, as the weather has been wet and windy since I arrived. But, of course, as soon as you write it down, then the weather improves and it has been sunny today.

I was along at the handicapped training camp at Boekel over the last couple of days. The archers get to stay inside and shoot where the mere mortals like me go to run up and down getting their arrows in the rain (OK, I have exaggerated about the running).

There were archers from the Netherlands, Germany, Israel and Ireland there. As well as getting practice and sight marks, they shot ranking rounds at 70 meters, individual head-to-head and also team head-to-head. Huge quantities of food, of course, were made available as well as the continuous coffee.

Everyone is getting ready for China now. The qualification scores seem very high to me (but what do I know!) with compound being 339 and recurve being 306. They seem to be set from the last year's world rankings and taking the sixth place as the level.

I have added a few pictures for interest.

Ready for the off ...

You may just have heard about the City of Edinburgh Council bidding to run the Archery World Cup in 2010 or 2011. It was reported in the Evening News (see http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Another-string-to-city39s-bow.3860349.jp) who did not quite get all the details correct.

It seems that FITA were not strong enough in their guidance to applicants that they should be in partnership with their local National Governing Bodies, and so it was vary late in the day that the Council hooked up with GNAS.

I won't bore you with the details, but there are procedures to be followed if funding is to be secured, and there was a lot of activity needed at the GNAS end to ensure that the Council could bid.

In the end, the bid went in, but that is just the start of the work involved. One of the venues being consider is Holyrood Park which will provide a spectacular backdrop if the Council is successful.

My personal archery activity has been in packing the caravan for my annual trip to the Netherlands. By stopping off in York, I get to visit my three month old grandson on the way over, so that is something to look forward to. Nearly everything is done now, so I am just about ready for the off ...