Archery in Todays Guardian

[Watch_Man]

Family section, back page (8) an half page article on archery as a family activity.

Mentioned in a previous thread it has finally appeared today.

[tel]

nicely balanced article - HERE if you don't get the paper

[Hidden Hippo]

It does give a nice perspective from the standard family POV, but I was annoyed by the Guardian's grammar (particularly the picture caption) - we don't fire arrows, we shoot them.

[felixity]

i thought bad grammar was the guardians trade mark!

well...as a beginner i thought the article was really good, im glad im already safely on my beginners course because i think it may well inspire quite a few people to have a go.

[FlightyRachel]

I saw the article this morning and thought it was great. The only thing that seemed a bit of a shame was that they chose to visit, as a family, a club whch doesn't take juniors! Seems a little silly, when looking for a 'family hobby' (as this feature does, every week), and when so many local clubs have thriving junior sections. Or am I just being hormonal and grumpy?

Rachel

[Thunk]

Well done to Royal Richmond! That's exactly the sort of write-up that archery needs, and it will undoubtedly generate some enquiries for the club - and hopefully some new members.

Good publicity like this is so easy - I do wonder why more clubs don't do it.

[JohnK]

No, you're quite right Rachel. All a bit odd. Interesting to see the two-finger salute myth being perpetuated as well.

[clickerati]

We do take juniors. In fact, we have one of the best juniors in the southern counties.

[JohnK]

But not under-12s according to the article, which is a shame; especially as anyone reading the article who isn't familiar with archery might think that no clubs would take an under-12 junior.

[clickerati]

Not all clubs can accommodate everyone and our club has certainly done more than it's fair share getting archery into the public eye. Barry, our president, has trained several actors and actresses to do archery for TV and movie roles. We have a member who has taken on a group of local juniors (ok, none under 12) to help train them for the London Youth Games. Because we currently have no coaches at the club (although we have many members who are CRB checked) we don't feel it's appropriate to take on children under 12. Because of where we are located, we get a lot of contact from the press and we do what we can to raise the profile of archery, including running a stall at the local May Fair and holding a Have-a-Go this afternoon, in fact! We have also been asked by the council to provide an archery demonstration in September as a way to publicise the Olympics. Many of the archers for GB will stay locally to Richmond and will very likely train on our grounds.

So we may not take under 12s, but I think we do a lot to make up for that! Oh, and bother our beginners courses were booked solid months ago and our junior course is nearly full. We're looking to add more as they are so successful. We must be doing something right!!