Club News

03/02/2008 - Website redevelopment New!

As many will have noticed, the Island Archers website has been sadly neglected for nearly a year, due to real-life events hampering the efforts of its webmaster; the most notable being the birth of his daughter in July of 2007, and also some technical issues with broken networks and computers.

However, since things have now settled down, the website is to be given a thorough overhaul and redesign, and a content management system will be added in order that non-technically-minded members of the club can add articles and items to the website without the intervention of the webmaster.
Please bear with us whilst the changes, which are not inconsiderable, are implimented. During the changeover to the new system, the website may, on occasion, go offline, or work incorrectly, and we hope that anyone trying to access the site is not overly inconvenienced.

01/03/2007 - Sports Festival archery come-and-try

Would all members please note that since uptake for the Lewis & Harris Sports Festival come-and-try event on 7^th March is greater than expected, it is unlikely that they will be able to turn up and shoot as they would do at a normal club session, as it's probable that space on the shooting line will be tight.

However, the club would be most grateful if as many members as possible would volunteer as 'helpers', even if they feel they have limited experience and have no coaching qualifications, since their assistance in organising the come-and-try participants before and after they shoot will be invaluable in aiding the club coaches concentrate on coaching and safety at the shooting line.

09/02/2007 - Lewis & Harris Sports Festival - Archery

Island Archers is, once again, hosting the archery events for Lewis & Harris Sports Council's Sports Festival, with three events spread over three weeks in March. Events will be held in the Nicolson Institute Assembly Hall to the following schedule.

Date	Event	Time	Notes
7^th March	Come-and-try	18:30 - 20:30	All welcome. Entry £1.50 per person.
14^th March	Individual Competition	18:00 - 21:00	U16 18:00 - 19:30 Seniors 19:30 - 21:00 approx. Entry £2.50 per person.
21^st March	Team Competition	18:00 - 21:00	Teams of four. Mixed age/gender permitted. Entry £5 per team.

Official entries may be made at Sportsworld, Frances Street, Stornoway, or at the Lewis Sports Centre, Springfield Road, Stornoway. Entries for Island Archers members may be made via the Club's , or .

07/02/2007 - GNAS launches consultation

Archery's national governing body in the UK, the Grand National Archery Society (GNAS), has launched a consultation exercise to garner opinion as to how to best take archery forward in the United Kingdom, following criticism of its running of the sport in recent years.

GNAS's consultation takes the form of an online survey that, whilst aimed primarily at its members, is also open to others interested in the sport, and questions range from whether it should issue a 'welcome pack' to new members, to how better communicate with its members, to how it should raise the profile of archery in the British public's consciousness.

Those who take part can register their opinions anonymously, although those who complete the survey and leave their contact details before 2^nd April 2007 will be entered into a draw for a place on one of GNAS's highly sought-after Archery Performance weekend courses at GNAS headquarters in the Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire.

Since the consultation will undoubtedly influence future GNAS policy, I would strongly urge all Island Archers members, who are GNAS members by default, to make their views known via the link on GNAS's home page, or by clicking here.

04/01/2007 - Challenge Ladder winners!

Congratulations! Congratulations to the 2006 Club Challenge Ladder winner, Frances Mackenzie, who held on in at the top of the table by sheer persistence, whilst others were 'self-handicapped' by not taking part! Since Frances is also a 'novice' according to the 2006 rules, she would also, in theory, have picked up a prize for being the highest-placed novice as well, but that really wouldn't be fair now, would it?

So instead, your magnanimous Tournament Organiser has decided that the highest-placed novice prize shall be awarded to the next-highest-placed novice (which should, in theory, have gone to Robin Parsons, but who, having got a better job 'down south', is no longer with us!), who turns out to be Frances' hubby, Neil Mackenzie!

The most improved award goes to Linda Mackay, who tenaciously fought her way up from the foot of the table, to finish in second place. Her near-victory was assured by being one of the more prolific competitors, having taken part in seven matches; a lesson for us all!

You'll all be delighted to know that the rules for the 2007 Challenge Ladder have been vastly simplified, won't limit who you can challenge quite so much, and being a points-scoring league where you still get a point if you lose, puts the emphasis back on turning up and shooting and not being restricted by others not being present.

Anyway, as of Wednesday 10^th January, the clock will be ticking on the 2007 ladder. I'll leave the 2006 rankings up temporarily, so that people can see where they've come, but as soon as match results start trickling in, I'll have to take 'em down to leave space for the new rankings table.

13/12/2006 - SAA Postal League

Having shot extremely well during our session on 29^th November, with Jules, Toby, and I think Mark, all shooting Portsmouth round personal bests (Jules' score is also a club record at 563, with 60 hits, and 29 golds), the four-person team scored 2003 points, which was enough to put us at an all-time highest ranking within SAA Postal League Division 2, and Linda was singled out as the highest-scoring lady in the Division (with a score of 369, 59 hits, and 1 gold)...

08/12/2006 - Island Archers Winter Series

Mainly as an incentive for members to come along to sessions during the dark winter months, and ensure that the Island Archers team is able to shoot a valid score to submit to the SAA Postal League each month, Island Archers is introducing a Winter Series, which will run (this year) from this Wednesday (13^th December) until the end of March, and will consist of a number of Portsmouth rounds, with the best Portsmouth score shot by each competitor each month going towards an overall points total. For those interested, the rules (as will be the results, when they happen!) are here.

At the end of the competition, the top three plus the highest placed novice (ie with less than six months experience at the start of the competition), shall be eligible for (as yet unspecified, but probably a trophy and some medals for the runners up) prizes.

Don't worry if you think your archery talents are too modest to warrant inclusion - you're probably better than you think, and just a bit of fun; you only have to shoot as best as you can...

07/10/2006 - Club Records

As many of the keen-eyed amongst you will have observed, the left-hand menu of the 'Club Matters' section now sports a new 'records' button, which takes you through to a section in which your hard-working records officer will do his best to keep the club's all-time highest scores, and highest scores for the current outdoor and indoor season, shot by members for each round listed. (OK, so it's not quite the Guinness Book of Records!)

Members are very welcome to submit their scores to the club records officer for inclusion, subject to the usual conditions:-

Scores must be for a completed recognised GNAS or FITA round.
Score sheets must be signed by both the scoring archer and a witness to verify score validity.
The Outdoor Season runs from 1st January through to 31st December, whilst the Indoor Season runs from 1st July through to 30th June, every year. Members wishing for their scores to be included in the current season's records should submit their scores before the end of the current season.