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Performance Archery Coaching with Jane Rees and Andrew Rees in Somerset GWAS SCAS England

This page contains news about what we are doing and archers with whom we work.

Forthcoming Events:

28th April 2019 - Invicta Coaching Group Seminars, Gravesend, Kent - Andrew is giving a talk on barebow archery.

Saturday/Sunday 25th/26th May 2019 - 52nd All British & Open Field Championships, hosted by Lough Cuan Bowmen - Mount Stewart - Newtownards - County Down - Northern Ireland.

15th June 2019 - Somerset County Archery Association Championships - Dunster Castle - Somerset. York/Hereford.

Weekend 22nd/23rd June 2019 - Grand Western Archery Society Championships - Dunster Castle - Somerset. Double York/Hereford.

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Saturday/Sunday 27th/28th May 2017 - 50th All British & Open Field Championships, hosted by Pentref Bowmen - Glyncornel Archery Centre - Wales.

The 50th staging of the All British Championships was a great occasion: made better by the awards ceremony, which involved many former champions presenting the 2017 winners with their trophies. Jane and I were honoured to be invited and joined some of the titans of British Field Archery, including barebow greats Trish Lovell and Roy Mundon.

On both days, the shooting was made difficult by demanding courses, with steep uphill shots in abundance and a couple of vicious downhills in the upper and lower quarries, whilst heavy overnight rain, prior to the first day, made the ground underfoot very slippery.

No stunning results, but I managed to win the veteran’s barebow category, which was not bad given the amount of time I had dedicated to the County Coach course.

Weekend 20th/21st May - Final Exams - AGB County Coach Course - Wincanton - Somerset.

Having undertaken this course in around a third of its normal time, Jane and I were quite tired by the time we reached this final assessment. Lizzy, on the other hand, had recently been awarded a first class degree in sports performance at Bath University and sailed through the assessment on the first day. Jane and I were assessed later and we both passed all modules. We were, however, thoroughly tested on all aspects of our archery knowledge over a period of some hours by two national coaches. The title ‘County Coach’ is not easily gained, but we are proud to have earned it.

Also congratulations to fellow candidates Martin and Luke, who both passed at the same assessment.

Friday 31st March 2017 - Gillingham School A.C. - Dorset.

The last day of shooting for this term. Jane and I have spent a great deal of time on the club over the last three or four years and we now run a couple of after-school sessions a week, plus beginner’s courses. The reward is seeing a number of young archers progressing well and starting to gain the confidence to move into tournament archery.

Saturday/Sunday 13th/14th August 2016 - Fort Purbrook - Hants.

Back to field archery at the wonderful Fort Purbrook venue.

For those of you who do not know, this is a field shoot with a big difference: it is staged in a Victorian fort, which was built to defend Portsmouth from attack from the land. It is a mighty brick-built folly, made swiftly obsolete by the adoption of high explosive shells and the invention of the machine gun.

It is also a venue that is, more than most, subject to the vagaries of the weather. Two years ago, this was as evil a place to shoot as could be imagined, with howling gales, thunder rolling overhead and a shoot curtailed by by 8 targets. This year the weather gods saw fit to smile upon us and we were treated, for the most part, to two days of warm sunshine and gentle breezes.

I had the pleasure of shooting with old friends Jon Shales and Tom Duncan, who proceeded to demolish all opposition in the mens‘ recurve and compound divisions. I rather failed to keep up with our sometime protege, Jason Meehan, who shot an exemplary barebow score, but, on the whole, the family shot well, with Lizzy first, me second and Jane third in our respective categories. It was particularly pleasing to see a good showing from Steve Hamilton, whose work with us earlier in the summer is bearing fruit.

This was Lizzy’s first win for a while: she has been busy at Bath University and has not had enough time for serious archery practice. It just shows that even outstanding archers need to have time and mental freshness to enable them to shoot well: it is asking a lot to undertake taxing intellectual study and shoot at international level. The lesson is there for all - archery is a mental game and a tired mind will result in poor performance, no matter how good a technique the archer has.

Sunday 7th August 2016 - Double WA720 - Downton - Salisbury

Continuing my lone excursions into the world of target archery, I found this shoot in the calendar and booked myself in for a double 720.

The shoot reminded me that we field archers live sheltered lives when we shoot in the woods where we are unaffected by the wind which so often ravages target competitions.

The wind certainly turned up for this shoot and scores suffered as a consequence. Scores were way down on my Andoba British Record, but a 1000 plus score was good in the conditions.

Sunday 7th August 2016 - WA3D - Pentref - Wales

With a growing interest in the WA form of 3DPentref Bowmen have invested in a set of targets and put on the first shoot since my own club, Ballands Bowmen, did so 10 years ago. I thought about going, but left it to Lizzy, who disappeared west as I went east (see above).

This type of shooting has World and Continental championships and next April, Pentref will host the GB & NI selection shoot for the World Championship team, so this was a good opportunity for those interested in this discipline to get a feel for how that event might be arranged.

Lizzy is shooting for the GB & NI Team at the forthcoming European Championships in Slovenia, together with Adam Strachan-Stephens, whom we also coach. We shall see how these two shoot in Slovenia at the end of this month, but for now, Lizzy seemed in good fettle, though Adam may yet be a little new to the game.

Saturday/Sunday 30th/31st July 2016 - ‘Andoba’ Double WA1440 - Andover - Hants.

With no available field archery, Jane had a weekend off and I went and did a lot (for me) of target shooting, a few miles down the road in Andover.

I arrived at a particularly ungodly hour of 7.30am (field usually starts about three hours later) to find the serried ranks of tents already massed behind the shooting line. Unusually, the weather was as good as could be imagined: light overcast, with no wind at all!

After three dozen at 90m, using a convenient tree as aiming point, we moved to 70m, where I commenced with five golds and a red. i continued in a similar, though less exalted vein, ending with a new British Record for the distance, taking it to 293.

Sadly, the perfect conditions did not remain, but I did take the British Record for the double round - a matter of particular pleasure, as the record had been held since June 1985 by the great Roy Mundon.

Sunday 22nd March - GWAS AGM - West Buckland - Somerset.

An important event for our Region, with the Regional Coaches meeting in the morning and the Regional AGM in the afternoon.

Sad to see only two or three young faces there: these organisations need a blend of youth and experience!

The coaches felt a general dissatisfaction with the AGB/First for Sport Level 1 and 2 coaching courses and made some positive moves towards improving coach education in the region: we shall see if they are fruitful.

Sunday 8th March - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

An unusual day of coaching, with a group of aspiring coaches from our own club paying for a lesson for one of our new archers, so that they could see, in more detail, just what Jane and I do. We felt it was very productive, with the archers getting some free coaching and the prospective coaches picking up some useful techniques.

27th/28th February & 1st March 2015 - GB & NI Field Archery Squad, Eaton Manor, Shropshire.

With Jane away for a couple of weeks, I drove north to Eaton Manor, where the Great Britain & Northern Ireland Field Squad was assembling for a weekend workout prior to the start of the main part of the field season. Lizzy, James, Caroline, Louise and Jason represented archers coached by PAC, with Lizzy part staff and part nutrition coach, whilst I did some admin, some barebow coaching and some Field Committee work.

We were fortunate to have some brilliant archers coaching some of the most promising: Tracey & Greg Hill coaching compound, Jon Shales and Naomi Folkard coaching recurve and Derrick Lovell and myself coaching barebow.

A rather rudimentary indoor shooting facility did not deter the archers or the coaches, all of whom were impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm shown by all the aspiring Team members: a thoroughly worthwhile weekend!

7th February 2015 - Telford, Shropshire.

Saturday saw the BUCS Indoor Championships taking place in Telford.

Once again Lizzy, despite a fearsome cold, won the senior ladies barebow, with a score of 540 for the Portsmouth round; the highest score in either barebow division.

Congratulations to her and congratulations to the other University of Bath archers who performed so well. We are looking forward to further work with them at the end of February.

Sunday 25th January 2015- Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

Jane and I were really enlivened by our students this week. We love being questioned by them and see it as an opportunity to reflect on, and refine, our own points of view.

There was much reinforcement of mental strategies to compliment the continuing work on technique: a most satisfactory session!

Sunday 18th January 2015 - Somerset County Indoor Championships - Taunton - Somerset.

A good time had by all, with solid performances from Lizzy, James, Caroline, Jane and myself. Plenty of medals and very nice to see so many of our County friends in action.

Sunday 11th January 2015 - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

I am continually amazed by the people we coach. Their desire to improve, their tenacity and their thirst for knowledge makes coaching them a delight.

I am also deeply impressed by the mental strategies taught by Jane; she has an extraordinary empathy with the archers she coaches.

We really enjoyed our work today.

Sunday 23rd November - British Barebow Indoor Championships - Wincanton - Somerset.

A big event, but very far removed from what will happen at the Ricoh (National Target Champs) in December, the British Barebow Champs are run simultaneously at several venues across the UK & NI, with results correlated centrally and relayed to the archers when all the venues have completed shooting.

With 170 seniors and 70 juniors, it is the show-case for barebow target archery in Britain.

Only eleven days ago we were coaching C.M.O. Bowmen’s Jason Meehan (see below) and helping him fine-tune his bow. In the process, we discovered a flaw in his bow-limbs which caused him to switch bows and then worked with him to set up his other bow.

He is now the British men’s Champion, claiming the title with the second highest score (542) in the thirteen years since the competition’s start.

Jason has tremendous potential, but we feel that our recent session may have had a decisive influence on his indoor shooting performance.

Sunday 16th November - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

This was our final indoor session on Sundays before Christmas: the hall we use is very popular and, sadly for us, is fully booked for weekends until the New Year. However, mid-week and evening bookings are still possible, if required.

A full day for Jane and also a lot of work for me: technique, posture and mental approach were all addressed with a committed set of archers. They all show great promise, but we are continually amazed at the lack of basic technical knowledge which archers bring to our sessions. With the enormous number of lower level coaches being produced by Archery GB, we wonder what they are being taught: if they learn about equipment set-up, they are certainly keeping it to themselves!

If you need help, even with the basics, we will explain and teach you what you need to improve your performance: our knowledge and experience is only an email away and dates for sessions in the New Year will soon be fixed.

Wednesday 12th November - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

Not for the first time, we were working with archers from well outside our normal area: the session was booked by members of one club from Croydon! A full-on day for Jane and myself: only five archers, but a lot to do on bow set-up and tuning, as well as coaching on technique and posture.

All went well and a further session has been requested in the New Year: a testament to their satisfaction with our work.

Sunday 9th November - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

Our second session of the winter and good, steady work from all.

We often lament the lot of the club coach and the endless calls on their (unpaid) time and knowledge by people who are here today and gone tomorrow.

We are very privileged in having archers willing to pay for coaching because they are fully committed to their personal improvement. As a result, we always feel our work is like planting seeds on fertile ground.

Sunday 2nd November - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

This was our first indoor coaching of the winter. We welcomed back old friends and did some good work - especially when acquainting pupils with a new way to move groups left and right on the face! It is very useful to remember that if you are shooting good groups in the wrong place, it is very likely that your set-up needs a check: the relationship of bow weight to arrow spine is very critical. Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Park didn’t put adjustable bolts on their risers just to alter tiller....

Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th October - Exmouth Archers Open Field Shoot, inc. the Grand Western Championships - Exmouth - Devon.

This tournament afforded an opportunity for high scoring: a relatively flat course, unseasonably warm weather and shelter from a very brisk wind.

With James still far from fit, Caroline stricken by food poisoning and Jane & Louise generally ill-at-ease with their shooting, it was left to Lizzy and myself to take a serious crack at the course.

With the majority of targets sheltered by dense undergrowth and tree cover, we had the luxury of shooting in still conditions. Our rewards were the highest scores of the season for both of us, wins in our respective G.W.A.S. Championships and first (me) and second (Lizzy) places in the Open event.

Just a pity that the penultimate shoot of the season was disappointing for so many of our archers: it has been a long slog since Pentref at the beginning of March.

Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th October - Overton Black Arrows’ S.C.A.S & Open Field Shoot - The Warren - Watership Down - Kingsclere - Hampshire.

Last time we were here I wrote: ‘shooting on a ground used for a World Championship is always a pleasure and a challenge’. However, it has been the custom to shoot this course in summer, not autumn: cold and dense mist makes even the most attractive of venues seem slightly less inviting, but the forecast rain did not arrive and there was good shooting to be had once the fingers warmed up and the mist had cleared!

With an alternative AGB field shoot in Cheshire, many of the country’s top field archers were absent, but there were still selection scores to be shot, competitors to challenge and competitions to win.

The first day saw, for the most part, manageable shoots, although some were a particularly difficult combination of unmarked distance, steep slopes and dead ground. Lizzy and myself fared well, taking comfortable leads in our respective classes, whilst James, for the first time this season, really struggled due to the effects of a nasty cold.

As ever, the increases in distance on the second day took their toll on many of the archers, with low scores the order of the day.

Thankfully, Lizzy and I maintained our form and won with scores likely to be well above those required to qualify for the G.B. & N.I. Team for Poland in October next year.

Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th October - Ballands Bowmen’s ‘Major Robin Archer Memorial Shoot’ - Ballands Castle - Pear Ash Farm - Pen Selwood, Nr. Wincanton - Somerset.

This is our own shoot; as T.O., I was responsible for much of the course design, as well as the administration of the shoot.

Having set what I considered to be a good course, interspersed with challenging shots, I resolved to shoot Saturday’s unmarked round with G.B. internationals Jon Shales (Rec), Alex Bridgman (CUL) and Steve Burke (LB), with a view to seeing how well these highly experienced archers dealt with the tests we had built into the course.

As so often happens, hubris is often quickly followed by nemesis: in this case in the form of Jon, who subjected every trick to careful scrutiny before despatching his arrows with unerring accuracy to the centre of the target. There is a reason why Jon has won World Championships: he is simply an extra-ordinary judge of field targets and a brilliant archer.

Alex, a Junior World Champion in his own right, seemed more troubled by a shoulder injury than by the subtleties of the course. It is difficult to lay shots that test very fast compound bows handled by expert archers, when the distance is limited to 55m or less. Still, the introduction of six-zone scoring has made a difference over the last five or six years, so the inherent difficulties of the course, combined with the troublesome shoulder, took the edge off Alex’s score: lots of gold, but a reduction in the number of sixes.

The test for longbows proved somewhat more onerous: not for Steve the luxury of bubbles, sights and rings to provide gauges for the estimation of distance. For the blue peg archer, dead ground and slopes provide much more of a challenge and Steve, excellent archer though he is, struggled on a few shots. However, one of the marks of a good field archer is their ability to recover from a miscalculation and in this, Steve showed his class, recovering on several occasions from misjudged shots to salvage an adequate score from a potential failure.

Since all our courses are unique, there were very pleasing performances by Ballands’ members Lizzy and Caroline, together with a fine performance by James, who produced one of his best scores of the year.

All in all, a good shoot, which was well received by the archers.

Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th September - Welsh Open Field Championships - hosted by Pentref Bowmen - Glyncornel - Rhondda, Cynon, Taff - South Wales.

By Pentref’s standards, this was an almost benign course: only three or four steep shots on the hill behind the club-house and the obligatory quarry shot. Allied to unusually warm and pleasant weather, the tournament seemed like a stroll in the park compared to some previous incarnations of this shoot. The course, designed by Carl Day, was also much more compact than many in the past: indeed, a couple of the targets were a little too close together and needed the intervention of the judges to ensure safety.

PAC had a good turn-out, with Caroline, Lizzy, Louise, James, Jane and myself shooting.

Louise continues to struggle with lack of practise, low confidence and tiredness. A very demanding job often leaves her both physically and mentally exhausted: this is something which coaching cannot solve: mental exhaustion will prevent good shooting and has to be tackled at the root, so Lou is looking for a new job....

Caroline and James both did well, but lacked inspiration. They have both worked really hard this year and managed creditable performances at the World Champs last month: maybe it is time for a little down-time to allow the batteries to recharge.

By contrast, Lizzy, whose form had been crushed by a year of ‘A’ Levels and the upheavals of a first year at university, started to show signs of revival: we look forward to her returning to form by the end of the season.

Speaking of revivals, my own shooting was not too bad.

Tuesday 18th to Sunday 24th August - World Archery Field Championships - Zagreb - Croatia.

So, the biggest event of the Field Archery year is upon us: a great way to take an archer out of their comfort zone.

We have five archers in the GB & NI Team: Caroline shooting recurve, together with James, Lizzy, Jane and myself shooting barebow.

There is the huge excitement of shooting for one’s country, the delights of meeting up with old friends and the stresses imposed by air travel, strange food, new surroundings and strange beds.

I’ll try and give a balanced account in due course.....

So, here we are, nearly three months later and I look back on a tournament that, in shooting terms, did not go well for me, but provided a great opportunity nonetheless.

These tournaments are a gathering of a fair number of the world’s greatest target/field archers - White, Wills, Shales, Folkard from GB, Rohrberg, Ellison, Valladont, Kaminski, Broadwater, Sitar, Tursic, Cousins - the list goes on and on. Closest to my heart are the barebows: the incredible Lina Bjorklund; Erik Jonsson, Martin Ottosson, Bobby Larsson, Giuseppe Seimandi, Eleonora Strobbe, Pasi Ahjokivi and many more.

For the coach and the observant archer, this is a cornucopia: a treasure trove of references.

Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th August - English National Field Championships - Fort Purbrook - Portsmouth - Hampshire.

One of the strangest settings for field archery, Fort Purbrook is a mid 19th century fort perched on the hill overlooking Portsmouth. This unlikely venue is, surprisingly, quite unique and quite charming and it attracted a full house for the 2014 English Field Championships.

However, the weather does not always respect these occasions and after a pleasant day’s shooting on Saturday, Sunday morning provided torrential rain, thunder, lightning and strong winds.

To have any reasonable chance of shooting in safety, a number of the exposed shots on the ‘top’ of the Fort were removed from the course and the number of targets was reduced from twenty-four to sixteen. A delayed start in poor conditions gave way to reasonable weather in the afternoon, but all too late to salvage a full round.

A disappointing weekend.

Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th July - Overton Black Arrows’ Open Field Shoot - The Warren - Watership Down - Kingsclere - Hampshire.

Shooting on a ground used for a World Championship is always a pleasure and a challenge. The Warren rarely disappoints and this weekend gave a course of technical complexity lightened by a few flat, albeit dark, shots in the woods. Even a 15 metre shot can seem onerous when shooting down a 26 degree slope!

With the World Championships in a few weeks, Jane, Lizzy, Caroline, James and myself used the shoot as a warm-up. As international duty requires archers to have two fully functional bows, I took the opportunity to shoot my second bow for a weekend: however much tuning you do in practise is no substitute for actual competitive archery. I quickly found that I was correct, with the bow shooting well at long distances and poorly at short. No such problems for James, who shot a splendid 343 on the first day.

The second day saw the famous course bear its teeth, with lengthened shots increasing slopes and angles.

Many archers struggled.

Probable qualifying scores for next year’s European Championships, together with individual wins, were the rewards for James and Caroline, whilst Jane, myself and Louise picked up medals, albeit with considerably lower scores than the leaders.

Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th May - All British & Open Championships - Whyte’s Estate - Loughbrickland - Co. Down.

A ferry trip and 366 mile drive took us from our base in Wiltshire to the lush green countryside of Northern Ireland, where we were welcomed to the 47th Championships by our old friends at Ballyvally Archers.

Not only important as the premier shoot of the domestic calendar, this weekend also saw the selection of the GB & NI Team for the forthcoming World Archery Field Championships in Zagreb.

Amazingly, the weather remained dry for almost all the weekend and reasonable scores were posted in all divisions, despite the absence of a number of archers who were deterred from travelling by distance and cost.

When shooting had finished and prizes had been awarded, the announcement of the team for Zagreb saw myself, Jane, Lizzy, Caroline and James offered places: a just reward for the hard work put in by the archers and the coaching efforts of Jane and myself.

Sunday 18th May - Salisbury FITA - Downton - Wiltshire.

An unusually warm Spring day saw a Rees family outing to this friendly shoot. Once again, Jane shot a fine score of 1055 and claimed her purple English Cross at only her second attempt. We don’t shoot target tournaments very often, but with two out of two GMB scores for both of us this year, it seems we must know something.

Louise came to the shoot off the back of a twelve hour night-shift and very nearly picked up an MB score. This was her last week at that job and we feel that her archery will improve a great deal once she can have a better sleep pattern and more time to practise.

Meanwhile, Lizzy gave a fine lesson in what not to do in hot weather, managing to dehydrate herself quite comprehensively and shooting her lowest WA 1440 score ever. There is a lesson to be learnt: however good you are, you cannot shoot unless properly hydrated. Also: get a hat! This tournament didn’t stop until the early evening and many hours exposure to hot sun is a bad idea.

Saturday 17th May - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

Six archers - junior and senior - what a pleasure to work with people who are so keen to improve their shooting.

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th May - Raven Field Archers - Buriton -Hampshire.

This weekend saw one of the most challenging field shoots of the year, held in the glorious rolling woodland of Head Down in the Queen Elizabeth Park, near Buriton.

This was one of the last shoots in the World Championship selection cycle and saw Caroline and James both reminding the GB Selectors of their form prior to the selection of the World Championship Team in a couple of weeks.

James won the Gents’ Barebow by a convincing 21 points from Andrew, who was somewhat under the weather on the second day. Caroline came second to GB ace Bryony Pitman in the Ladies’ Recurve, but still produced a qualifying score on this testing ground.

With reasonable shooting from Lizzy, Jane and Louise, this was a satisfactory, if unspectacular, weekend in beautiful Hampshire.

Sunday 4th May - Bath FITA - Bath - Somerset.

Rhiannon, energised by her session with Jane (see below), shot a PB for the Ladies FITA. Jane and Andrew both shot GMB scores in their first target shoot of the season, whilst Louise missed MB by nine. All this on the small faces at 50 and 30m - not easy for barebows - as Adam will testify! Meanwhile, down at the recurve end of the line, good work by Caroline, who picked up a sound third place.

Saturday 26th April - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset. Working with Ian, Will, Rhiannon and a couple of youngsters - good fun and good work.

20th April 2014 - Dearne Valley, Yorkshire.

This weekend saw a marked contrast with the weather in Wales last weekend: it was distinctly cool! However, the welcome was as warm as ever and the course provided splendid entertainment.

James, Caroline, Jane and myself all collected further qualifying scores for the Field Team, with James making certain of a place for Zagreb with another excellent performance.

Louise and Lizzy were, however, quite out of sorts and shot weakly. It just shows that archery is very much a mental game: it doesn’t matter what you have won in the past, you cannot shoot well if your preparations are disrupted by work or study.

Louise came to Dearne off the back of a twelve hour night shift, whilst Lizzy has struggled to balance her first year studies at University with the correct amounts of purposeful practise. Add a few equipment issues and the result is low confidence and poor shooting.

Archers are masters of the excuse: sometimes the excuses are valid and sometimes they are a mask. Either way, the coach must listen to the archer and divine the true nature of the problem: we cannot solve what we do not understand.

13th April 2014 - Glyncornel, South Wales - This weekend provided glorious shooting weather at Glyncornel, where Pentref Bowmen staged their Chris Farr Memorial Shoot.

G.B. & N.I. Field Team qualifying scores for James Annall, Lizzy Rees and myself.

James was again outstanding, raising his PB to an impressive 647 and virtually securing a place at the World Archery Field Championships in August. Once again, James, well done: Jane has offered you the guidance and you have really put it into practice.

6th April 2014 - Bruton, Somerset - With the Field Archery season getting underway, there are shoots in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over the next three weekends.

This week’s shoot in England was staged by Mere Archers at their hilly venue at Bruton. In Gerald Farrell, they have one of the most experienced and knowledgable course designers in the world and his course did not disappoint. However, the weather took control on the second day, with a strong, blustery wind making shooting on the exposed parts of the course little more than a lottery.

Whilst the weather contrived to suppress the general score levels, Caroline Baldry and James Annall both won their divisions, whilst Jane managed a second place and a G.B. & N.I. Field Team qualifying score: just because Jane and I coach doesn’t mean we can’t shoot!

30th March 2014 - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset. Andrew and Jane worked with Ian, Jenny, Will and Gavin. Very gratifying to see the hard work put in by the archers since their last session.

8th March 2014 - Personal Coaching - Wincanton - Somerset.

Andrew and Jane enjoyed a very positive coaching session with Alex, Sophie and Richard. Excellent application and hard work from all.

2nd March 2014 - Glyncornel, South Wales - This weekend saw the first shoot of the field season at Glyncornel, the famous home of Pentref Bowmen.

Good weather on the first day turned to bad on the second, but James Annall (BB), Caroline Baldry (Rec) and Jane Rees (BB) all shot qualifying scores for the G.B. & N.I. Field Team.

James provided one of the outstanding performances of the weekend, shooting a massive personal best of 639 for a double mixed round. Well done, James!

We are pleased to report that, via Twitter, James acknowledged our (especially Jane’s) help in preparing for this season.

1st March 2014 - Telford, Shropshire - Saturday saw the BUCS Indoor Championships taking place in Telford - an event that has several hundred entries, including a massive 136 barebows.

Both the Championships in the Barebow division were won by archers we have coached: Lizzy Rees, shooting for the University of Bath and Huw Vaughan-Jackson, shooting for Edinburgh University.

We are proud to say that we originally taught Huw to shoot at our home club, Ballands Bowmen. Congratulations to him on a splendid effort and a new BUCS Record.

Lizzy is a very experienced tournament archer, having won both junior and senior British Indoor Championships. Keen to repay the University’s faith in her, (she has been awarded a sport scholarship), she recovered from an indifferent start to win with the highest score in either barebow division: congratulations to her.