PROGRESSION

The club has members who shoot for both pleasure and competition, but whatever their reason for doing archery we find that people like to see their scores improving over time so we offer a range of schemes and incentives for progression, such as badges to be earned by shooting at club sessions. We also keep members informed about upcoming competitions and any other opportunities we become aware of by email, so keep an eye on your inbox!

If you want to shoot a round at a club session or at a competition, there’s more information on rounds at the top of the Competitions Page, and you can download a scoresheet for a Portsmouth round here if you want to score yourself during the indoor season (a Portsmouth is the most common indoor round). And whether it’s the indoor or outdoor season, you’ll really benefit from setting yourself a goal to work on and keep yourself motivated – have a look at our suggested goals document for some ideas!

Archery GB runs some very cool progression schemes over the indoor season – the November Challenge, for juniors only, and the January Challenge, which is primarily for seniors though juniors are welcome to enter if they want to take on the seniors! The way these work is that Archery GB collects the best scores from everyone who enters nationally and puts them into a huge list (divided up by bow type, sex, etc.; see left for an example) so that you can compare yourself to the whole country. We’ve had a number of people enter the last couple of years and it is very cool when you see yourself up there in a national list! For more information on the schemes, including past results, click here for the January Challenge and here for the November Challenge.

Our Junior Organiser collects the scores to send off as a club batch for the November Challenge – please send the following details to juniors@nortonarchers.co.uk by 1st December to enter:

• Forename

• Surname

• Sex: Gent/Lady

• Age on 31st October

• Bow Type: Recurve/Longbow/Compound/Barebow

• Your best score for 36 consecutive arrows shot in November (shot after only the standard 6 sighters you’re allowed when scoring): Please give your total score, the number of hits and the number of 10s

And for the January Challenge, please email the following details to januarychallenge@nortonarchers.co.uk by 1st February:

• Forename

• Surname

• Sex: Gent/Lady

• Bow Type: Recurve/Longbow/Compound/Barebow

• Experience: Please state the year you began archery

• Your best score for a Portsmouth round shot in January: Please give your total score, the number of hits and the number of 10s

(Indoor & Outdoor Seasons)

If you’re really up for a challenge, why not go for a club record? You’ll need to shoot at a competition or in one of the organised rounds we hold from time to time at club sessions. Then, if your score is higher than the current record, just send it to our Records Officer to claim the record for yourself!

If you want to get into competitions but aren’t quite sure how it all works, definitely think about having a go at our Club Indoor Championships in February so that you can experience a competition (scoring, medals and all) in the familiar club environment first! We try to ensure there’s an experienced, supportive club member on each target to look after novices and juniors in particular and answer any questions you may have. There’s no pressure to put in an Olympic performance or anything, just enjoy trying to better your own scores!

Persuaded yet? Okay! If you want to take part in competitions outside of the club, those in the Durham and Northumberland area are listed here on the county website, along with entry forms for the events when they become available, and the results lists when they are published, too, so you can see exactly where you placed for your category. We are often asked which competitions are best for novices and juniors, and whilst all competitions are really welcoming, we would particularly point people in the direction of the below for target archery (field and clout competitions are also available in the county). We’ve given an indication of the month in which the competitions usually take place, but please check the county website for the exact dates as they may vary a little from year to year.

As a trial for 2015, we produced a ‘Competition Banding’ document to help first-time competitors choose suitable competitions to enter. The document is still available here and again this might be a useful starting point because although the dates will differ slightly from year to year, the overall competition calendar is quite similar.

Novices

• DNAA Novice Indoor Championships (Indoor competition: March)

• Hartlepool Amalgamation Shoot (Outdoor competition: June)

• DNAA Novice Outdoor Championships (Outdoor competition: July)

• Teesside Championships (Outdoor competition: September)

Juniors

As ‘Novices’ (with the exception of the Novice Indoor and Outdoor Championships for those who have been shooting for more than one year), plus:

• Killingworth Junior Shoot (Outdoor competition: June)

• Cleadon Junior Shoot (Outdoor competition: July)

If you want to go to a competition not just to win against the people who are there, but also the county’s best ever archers, then check out the County Records for each of the rounds and bowstyles here to see what you need to score! You can also aim for a place on the County Team – ask at a club session if you’re interested in this and we’ll be able to tell you how to go about it. And thinking about your own personal performance, there are various badges to be earned for shooting certain scores in certain rounds; for example, if you shoot in a Record Status WA 1440 round in England, you can claim English Crosses and there are also Rose Awards, WA Stars… basically, lots of shinies you can ask about at the club if you want to know more!