Archery in Todays Guardian

[phil_r_58]

I liked the article, but it had two tiny but important omissions, IMHO, at the end. The article was supposed to be about archery as a family sport, not the GNAS?, so perhaps,

NFAS (National Field Archery Society)
and
English Field Archery Association

should have appeared. Unless the several thousand archers who do not recognise the GNAS as their governing body do not count as archers? And in recognition of family groups, the NFAS actually do a family membership for two adults and two children for £40. In todays economic climate, a far more attractive membership fee than some organisations.

[clickerati]

As the story was based at RRAC, it was GNAS based, as we are a GNAS club. If they want to do a story on NFAS or EFAA, they should contact one of those clubs. But this article was influenced by the upcoming Olympics. They don't do 3D at the Olympics.

[Watch_Man]

I think Phil has a point and while the article was excellent perhaps a link EFAA or NFAS would have just finished it off nicely. But any publicity......

[FlightyRachel]

Originally Posted by Murray

The other thing that stops kids staying, is that we insist the adults stay with them for the full session as we ARE NOT a babysitting service. Unfortunately, few parents have the commitment required.


Anyway - that's all a bit off topic... any publicity is good publicity, right?

We have the same rule at Mayflower, and I agree that with child protection at the forefront of people's minds atm, it's the only sensible thing to do. However, while it's fine for those who have taken up archery as a family thing, or as a dad/son activity (or mother/son in my case!), I think we can underestimate how tedious a sport archery is for a spectator, not to mention the fact of how long it takes to shoot even a 6 dozen round 'properly'. If you have other children, or even a life, it can be almost impossible to support your child in this hobby, especially when you compare it to other sports. So no wonder the drop out rate is so high. A child would need to be incredibly motivated to stay involved. I personally find the NFAS far more child friendly and family orientated (although that is changing with the new rules of membership..)

LOL and yes, we've gone waaaaay off topic now!!

Can I start moaning about how the Guardian only ever features activities from posh bits of London now? These broadsheet journos want to get out into the sticks sometime!

[Harlequin_UK]

finally an article which use's gold rather than bullseye

NIce article. Hope we see more like this

[Thunk]

Do I hear the distant sound of axes being ground?

RRAC is a GNAS club. The reporter and his/her family fronted up and were introduced to GNAS target archery - in exactly the same way that lots of other people are inducted into the sport on a beginners course. That, surely, is the point; most people come into archery through that route. I stand to be corrected but I doubt that more people become archers through NFAS or EFAA. They probably migrate there having learned target and find the idea of field more to their liking.

If a single article about an introduction to archery, aimed at non-archers, had gone on to describe all the different forms of the sport just to be 'fair' to everyone (what about clout? popinjay? and don't for heavens sake forget flight!) the article would have become un-focussed and unreadable.

I'm not a member of RRAS but I give them full marks for initiative and getting themselves this write-up. The Guardian is a national newspaper and the article may well inspire people in other parts of the country to get off their bottoms and find out if there's a club in their area - so we all benefit. And if there are some new recruits to the sport, in time some of those will try field - or flight - or whatever. If all clubs were as successful in publicising themselves as this, trhey might not be looking at shrinking shooting lines and increasing average membership ages.

[Watch_Man]

Interestingly enough the only TV news coverage (ITV Calender) I have seen recently of archery was this weekend's coverage of the Scorton arrow. A nice piece showing the archers shooting en-masse and then a brief interview afterwards with the Captain of the arrow. The way it was shown did actually make archery look like fun and for any non archers watching I am sure it would have grabbed their attention.

While I agree with Thunk in giving credit to RRAC I do not agree that mentioning other forms of archery would have meant that the archery lost its focus or would have become unreadable. Something like a simple link after the article with NFAS and EFAA's url's would have been fine. I am sure readers who's interest in archery was fired up could have gone to the web and done their own research.

Anyway, well done again to RRAC and to the organisers of the Scorton arrow. Newspaper and TV coverage in one weekend - whatever next, Olympic Archery on TV? I hope so.

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by wanshu

Olympic Archery on the BBC.... Was that a pig flying overhead.
I hope it gets some airtime too.

A squadron of them, the newly formed 'Pink Arrows' practicing for their summer season

[Furface]

Originally Posted by Watch_Man

A squadron of them, the newly formed 'Pink Arrows' practicing for their summer season

Oh come on! How many pressure groups would you offend with that one? Homosexual-Jewish/Muslim-vegetarians for starters. Ban 'em.

[Thunk]

Oh please...I have enough grief washing birdsh*t off my car without having pigs up there as well! Or have you been looking through your Pink Floyd album covers again?