HANDS – FACE – SPACE – FRESH AIR
The season is well underway but we are still only practicing at clubs. The tournament season is to start soon, with Greasley Castle Archers 2xWA720 UKRS and Wilford Bowmen WA1440 WRS in the next couple of weeks. The Nottinghamshire county and club tournament calendar has been severely hit this year with many clubs cancelling their tournaments due to many reasons. We all hope to see those tournaments back on the calendar next year.
The county committee are determined to put the county organised shoots on this year, covid-19 permitting. A meeting is arranged for 6th May to work out the best way to achieve this. As soon as arrangements have been made Mike (county secretary) will circulate information to all clubs. Important, so do please note.
Although the calendar may look quite different this year with dates being changed. The plan is to run the 3 League shoots (which includes the Oregon Challenge), golden arrow and county outdoor championships, also the county indoor championships if allowed indoors. With reduced capacity it will be important to enter early.
With regards to the county championships, I will be looking to make sure that Nottinghamshire county members get preferential places before opening to everyone, they are our county champs after all. With many clubs cancelling tournaments, freeing up weekends, could allow a few pop-up shoots to be organised. There is a lot of extra paperwork these days when organising a shoot. We are doing our best.
I would like to take this opportunity to explain the executive committees thinking regarding not having a senior team entered in the Senior inter county tournament (Thorsby). When the decision was made it had been almost a year since any tournaments had been held, the way covid-19, was and still is progressing through Europe, India and South America, it was unlikely that any tournaments of a good standard were going to be held. With the possibility of many archers not being ready and match fit, also what appeared to be reluctance from the other EMAS teams, the decision was not to enter team matches this year. Instead, it was decided to invest in training at all levels and come out fighting strong next season. I know not all archers are happy with this decision, but a choose had to be made. The senior county team manager announced the criteria for county team squad selection this year, this is to form a squad for winter training and any county team matches arising in the New Year. Even this may have to be changed due to tournaments being reduced in size and full before county team hopefuls can enter.
The offer regarding AGB affiliations for returning members that did not re-join in October2020 causing club member secretaries confusion has been withdrawn to simplify it.
Now some good news,
Liz Eyres (Beeston Rylands) has designed a summer online challenge to replace the winter frostbite challenge. The Warwick summer online challenge will be launch on the Nottinghamshire County website and Face book page very shortly. The idea is to enable archers that are still not sure about entering full blown tournaments or are hesitant to leave the confines and safety of their club, it is open to all county member archers, also differing standards of archer. Thanks for the hard work Liz.
Bernie Dicks
County Chairman