Clubs shooting on multi use sports fields.....

[simon m]

Do you get the impression we are the poor relative?.

I ask because, we (the club) were warned that there was a big hockey do on this weekend on our field and we may not be able to shoot "down" the field Sunday Morning. So we prepared ourselves to shoot "across" (which involves erecting catch netting) I get to the field (feeling ill but prepared to shoot a few ends and then help the better half tune her kit a bit more)................guess what..........theres tents all over our shooting ground.

I say to the four club regulars who are already there " why don't we get 'em to move?". They say "cause we'll end up getting chucked off".............

So, is it that we don't PAY as much as F**TBALL/H**KEY/R**BY?. Or is it that maybe our represntatives aren't forcefull enough during negociations?.

Annoyed Of aylesbury......

[Alex Greig]

We have much the same issue with the village hall we use for indoor shoots. We keep loosing club nights to Pantomimes and wedding preperations and god knows what else.

[Tobytoolbag]

Originally Posted by Alex Greig

...indoor shoots. We keep loosing club nights to Pantomimes and wedding preperations and god knows what else.

Us too - We're uncerimoniously 'dumped' from our school assembly hall the moment the school decides it wants to rent out to someone else (music festivals, etc.), without any consultation. And our Club Sec is one of the teachers at the school, so you would of thought that they'd at least have the courtesy to speak to him first... It's not like they'd have to go very far out of the way.

It's most of the reason why we've gotten involved in a project to build a 60m by 30m indoor arena just outside of town. And whilst they're levelling the ground to prepare the foundations, we thought it only fair that we let them bulldoze us a 250m by 50m outdoor range as well! We'll have to share it with a golf driving range, but since we were the instigators of the whole outdoor range idea, I'm insisting on the right of 'first dibs'!

[geoffretired]

It's been the same at the three sites where I have shot. I think it's economics. The owners can't afford to turn people away. If the archers leave, there places will be filled. Archery clubs rarely cost anything to the land owners, they are pure profit; but, they don't have the muscle that the more well known sports bring to bear. Although the club pays its fees every year, the members don't get seen in the same way or on the same numbers. They appear as a minority and can be pushed around when necessary. "They can shoot another time,they are only playing ," seems to be the view taken.
I know footballers "play" ********, but that has a more serious image because of the fixtures and the media coverage etc.

[Kae]

This is why we now hire our own "private" sloping field.
I think the only reason no-one else uses it is that any sort of ball would roll down the hill into the bog at the bottom, lol.

[Micky]

We have to work around the kickers of the round ball, but our club ground is pretty good really, considering it's shared - we have the pavillion as our club house for example and don't have to share it - the kickers use the main building I think..

[TJ Mason]

Our hosts Halifax RUFC have been very good to us with the outdoor facilities -- we have priority over anyone training, though they have priority when there's a match on. Even with a match on, there's usually a field where we can shoot. We often get bounced out of the indoor facility though, since it's a function room.

This is in sharp contrast to our previous home, Illingworth Sports Club, just a few hundred yards up the road. (Before my time, but I been told...) We were basically forced out by the persistently nasty attitude of Illingworth RLFC. They'd wait for us to set up targets on a field, then turn up en masse and say they wanted to train there. So we'd have to move. They gave persistent verbal abuse, would deliberately run in front of the targets when shooting was in progress, and used every committee meeting to have a go at us. No idea what their problem was, but we quit that ground without another ground to go to. But by a couple of fairly spectacular coincidences and a chance remark, we landed at Halifax RUFC, and have been there for 20 happy years now.

[simon m]

I assume we pay an equal amount to other sports (for the sq metres we use).

So why the crappy treatment?. Nevermind. we try to make up for it by shooting bank holiday mondays!.

If it'd been my call it would have been early morning wake up calls for people in tents on our shooting ground and them beating a hasty retreat

[CPlater1]

we have our own field, but it is in a sports ground/camping site. we can always shoot, but some times we are restricted getting in by people doing car boot sales etc.

Chris

[pwiles1968]

We rent a field from a farmer so have access 24/7 365 if we want, there is currently no facilities, but as long as you remember to go before you leave the house no problem