Only one month left and the team competition is very close in both the recurve and barebow sections. The weather, family holidays and the evenings drawing in have reduced the number of scores submitted for August. September’s rounds are relatively short distances and so I would encourage as many of you as possible to get out there and shoot some arrows

A tri-county match between Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire will take place on Sunday 6th October 2019 in Northamptonshire. The round will be a Hereford for seniors and age-appropriate Bristols for juniors. If you are interested in representing the county at this match, e-mail secretary@bucksarcheryassociation.org.uk, giving your name, bow type and club.

Keith Burton from Middlesex AA has arranged a disability awareness course for coaches. The course is to take place on 2nd November at: Perivale Community Centre Horsenden Lane South Perivale Middlesex UB6 7NP He's hoping to keep the fee to a maximum of £45.00. Start time 09:00, please arrive before 08:45 for registration. The seminar is run by Tim Hazell and Pippa Britton. Tim Hazell is one of the most successful Paralympic Coaches in Britain. Pippa Britton is a Paralympian archer, who has attended both the Beijing and London Paralympicpic Games in 2008 and 2012 respectively. The course is initially intended for coaches, however, anyone can attend. The more people are aware of the issues facing archers with disabilities the better. If you are interested, or have further questions please get in touch with him. email address: mr_netgen@hotmail.com

The Recurve Setup and Tuning workshop was attended by 19 archers, 12 of them from Bucks and one very keen archer from North Wales. It was run by Lloyd Brown, one of the GB national coaches. With a mix of Powerpoint, lots of anecdotes from Lloyd, some amazing high-speed videos and practical hands-on work it was a was really great day. Many thanks to Whiteleaf Bowmen for giving up their ground for the event, and to the individuals from Whiteleaf who helped to ensure the day ran smoothly: Alan Shepherd, Denton Capp, Dave Bates, Chris Roberts, John Hall, Alun Pugh and Neil Allen. Bucks archers who attended can claim back half of the cost from the county by sending proof of their payment to AGB to the County Treasurer (treasurer@bucksarcheryassociation.org.uk), together with details of how they wish to be paid. In the course of the workshop, questions about technique came up. There is another AGB Workshop on the Technical Framework which is designed primarily for coaches. Lloyd is keen to set up a new workshop aimed at archers and focusing on shot execution. If anyone is interested in this, please let me know and if we have sufficient interest, I would propose holding it in Bucks early next year, possibly indoors if we can find a venue. If you have any thoughts, please get in touch,

Fifteen archers from NPA, SALT, Silver Arrow, South Bucks and Whiteleaf represented Bucks in recurve, compound, longbow and barebow as follows: Recurve:  Vernon King, Julie Morling, Andy Rickard, Chirag Sawjani Compound:  Paul Birch, Tim Griffiths, Rich Hutchins, Elisabeth Moro (NPA) Longbow:    Lesley Herriott, John O’Keeffe, Jan O’Keeffe, Richard Wethered Barebow:    Sue Cook, Phyll Griffiths, Ken Wheeler Many thanks to Elisabeth Moro, our official team photographer. More of Lis’s great images from the day can be found here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGe4CiU The results for the Western round: Bow Type Beds Bucks Recurve 1919 2044 Bucks win Compound 2546 2433 Beds win Barebow 1469 1200 Beds win Longbow 953 802 Beds win Congratulations to Sue Cook, who achieved a personal best score. A great day was had by all and we will be hosting Bedfordshire next year for the return match.

I will be stepping down from this role in the autumn to focus completely on the job of County Secretary.. I felt it was an important to get something up and running and start to generate a sense of being part of the county, and in this I feel I’ve been successful: we entered three gents' teams for the National County Team Competition at Lilleshall in June; we held a friendly with Bedfordshire in August with mixed recurve, compound, barebow and longbow teams; and 26 archers from 6 clubs have expressed interest in shooting for the county. We therefore have a great platform from which to develop further next year. Please e-mail secretary@bucksarcheryassociation.org.uk if you are interested in taking this on.

This workshop will be held at Whiteleaf Bowmen's ground at High Wycombe (postcode HP27 0PP). Any Buckinghamshire archers who attend will be reimbursed half the cost by the County on production of proof of payment and attendance. This means it will cost you £32.50 for a full-day workshop with a GB Olympic coach - pretty good value!

South Bucks Archers archery club took part in Archery GB’s ‘Big Weekend’ event on Sunday by inviting members of the public to come and try out archery. This was the 3rd year for the club and over 40 people attended the open morning to try their hand at archery. The event proved to be popular with men and women of all ages. Children over 10 years old were also able to pick up a bow and shoot. Club secretary, Mary Blumbergs, said “It was great to see so many people come and have a go at archery. Our experienced archers supervised members of the public as they shot over 600 arrows between them. We were really pleased with the amount of interest in the club and had a great time sharing our passion for archery with the local community. A big thank you to our volunteers who made the event possible' The Big Weekend is a nationwide initiative, by governing body Archery GB, that encourages archery clubs to open their doors to the public to raise awareness of the sport and provision in their local areas. South Bucks Archers was one of 95 clubs nationwide to take part.

On 8th October 2017 Whiteleaf Bowmen held their first Sam Fowler Memorial Shoot, in memory of a much-loved club member who passed away from breast cancer after battling the disease heroically. Sam combined being a top class archer, qualifying to shoot for England, with a tremendous sense of fun. We were all asked to wear something yellow as it was her favourite colour. The round chosen as a fitting tribute to her was the Pope and Young. This is a round that combines shooting skill, speed, and plenty of scope for barracking and laughter. It is great fun, chaotic and very demanding. We finished off with a ‘split the wand’ which was won in the first round by Alison Shearer from Melton Mowbray. Justyn Fowler was Lord Paramount for the day and donated the trophy, he also said a few words about Sam and their relationship with the club. Soup and rolls were served during each break, there was plenty of tea and cake too. We had some excellent raffle prizes donated by local companies including Chiltern Archery and Quicks. The weather was kind and the shoot was a tremendous success, with all proceeds going to the Iain Rennie Hospice. If you want a great day’s shooting doing a round that had faded into obscurity but is definitely worthy of being revived, please join us next year on Sunday 7th October.

South Bucks Archers archery club hosted an Archery ‘Big Weekend’ event on Sunday 17th June so that members of the public could come and try out archery, many for the first time. Over 40 people attended the open morning to try their hand at archery. The event proved to be popular with men and women of all ages. Children over 10 years old were also able to pick up a bow and shoot. Club secretary, Mary Blumbergs, said “It was great to see so many people come and have a go at archery. Our experienced archers supervised members of the public as they shot over 450 arrows between them. We were really pleased with the amount of interest in the club and had a wonderful time sharing our passion for archery with the local community. A big thank you to our volunteers who made the event possible' The Big Weekend is a nationwide initiative, by governing body Archery GB, that encourages archery clubs to open their doors to the public to raise awareness of the sport and provision in their local areas. South Bucks Archers was one of over 80 clubs nationwide to take part. South Bucks Archers welcomes new members who must first undertake a beginners’ course before joining. More photos here