We began September by going to shoot against The Wakefield Archers in our annual challenge match for the Speak Trophy, when we defend “the honour of Robin Hood”.
There has been a lot of publicity this year linking Robin Hood with Wakefield, so we expected the home team would be keen to win back the trophy. It was a cold and windy morning, which added a further challenge for both teams, so we waited for the results with some apprehension. Yes, we won by a convincing margin! So Robin Hood and the Speak Trophy rest with Sherwood for another year thanks to the winning team of John Watts and Peter Burns[recurve], Arthur Williams and Jon McLaughlin[compound] and George Brown and Mario Stankovic[longbow].
The same weekend we hosted the Sherwood Meeting of The British Long Bow Society. This is a traditional Two-Way shoot, with targets at each end of the field, one hundred yards apart. Society members from the Midlands and the North enjoyed a good day at Southwell, and we were pleased to have their President and Secretary shooting too.
Our Club Championships were held at the end of the month on a day more like the middle of August than the end of September. After a good day’s shooting, the Champions for 2014 were Martyn Smith[recurve], Lee Waterfield and Ashley Buckland[Compound],David Seymour[Longbow], Alex Hawley[Barebow]. Junior champions were Phelix Fountain, Nikesh Mistry and Daniel Fawkes[recurve] and Adam McLaughlin[Compound]. Phelix won the worst white wooden spoon, and the Handicap Trophy was won by Ashley Buckland.
Our final Beginners Course of the year, organised by Arthur Williams, attracted 20 aspiring archers. Several of them have already joined us and are practising hard for the end of season Pie and Beans Shoot. Archer is clearly “alive and well” in Southwell. Well done everyone!
George Brown