News Archive
Website Downtime
Those of you who have tried to visit the site recently may have been met by a message saying that the account had been suspended, this was caused by an administrative error in the way that the club pays for the web account. This fault was entirely at our end but thanks to the excellent service provided by our webhost 'EUKHost' we are now back up and running with minimum downtime. Apologies to everybody who was unable to use the site during this time.
Beginner's Session 08th June Cancelled!
The beginner's session that was scheduled to go ahead tonight has unfortunately been cancelled due to bad weather, the course will continue as normal from next Tuesday where we will make arrangements to reschedule this session.
First Beginner's Course Of The Year Completed
The first beginner's course of the year has now finished so we can look forward to seeing some new faces at the club, we will be starting a course in June which is now full but we will be running more later in the Summer so sign up now to secure your place.
Excellent Day For End Of Season Fun Shoot
We had great weather and a fantastic turn out for the end of season fun shoot last week and it was great to see you all there with your friends and families. I have added some photos to the Gallery showing many of you shooting on the day so go and take a look and I will try to post a more thorough writeup at some point during this week. Many thanks to everyone who contributed food and prizes, it is a credit to the club and the members that we were able to have such a great day!
Archery Taster Sessions Success!
As part of the London 2012 Open Weekend we opened our club to members of the public yesterday to give them the chance to try out archery. We completed three coaching sessions which lasted just over an hour and allowed 25 people to get a great taste of what archery is all about. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the coaching and we received some great feedback, some people have also signed up for a beginners course with the club while others showed a strong interest in doing so and it would be great to see them all shooting again.
There were also around 20 people who came to the event to have a go at archery, they paid their pound and got to shoot 12 arrows. We were hoping for much more interest than this but due to the short time we had to promote the event we can't complain and the important thing is that everyone who did come and have a go seemed to really enjoy themselves.
A big thanks to everyone who turned up to try archery and also to all of the club members who came down and helped out on the day.
Let's see what great ideas we can come up with to make next year's event an even bigger success!
Club Opens Up For London 2012 Open Weekend
The Gentleman & Lady Archers of Darlington will be opening their doors for members of the public to have a go at archery as part of the London 2012 Open Weekend supported by BP - a series of events across the country enabling access to excellence in the arts, culture and sport and celebrating three years to go until the London 2012 Olympic Games.
There will be four 1 hour coaching sessions where members of the public can really get a taste for archery. The sessions will start at 10:00am, 11:30am, 13:00pm and 14:30pm and it is advisable to book in advance to avoid disappointment as places will be limited. Contact us to reserve your place on one of the coaching sessions, stating what time you would like to attend. Tickets can be paid for on the day of the event.
There will also be the opportunity to have a go at archery throughout the day by shooting 12 arrows at a short range for those who do not wish to attend one of the full hour sessions.
Members of the club will also be in attendance at various times during the day to answer any questions you may have or just have a friendly chat.
Participants will receive a ticket which will allow them half price entry into the Head Of Steam Darlington Railway Museum for use on the day.
The London 2012 Open Weekend created by London 2012 is supported by BP, the Premier Partner of the Cultural Olympiad. London 2012 Open Weekend will take place every year in July.
London 2012 Open Weekend enables everyone to share in the excitement of the Games, be inspired to get involved, unleash their creativity and try something new by accessing excellence at events across sport, art and culture taking place over the weekend.
Prices will be five pounds for the hour coaching sessions, or one pound per dozen arrows for the shorter have a go's. All participants will receive a ticket allowing half price entry into the Head Of Steam Museum which will be valid for use on the day.
First Beginner's Course Completed
The first beginner's course of the year was successfully completed on Tuesday and everyone seemed to have had a great time. We had a great last night which included a competition and also attempting to shoot an apple off a head, don't worry the head was made of foam. One archer managed to hit the apple twice but the poor foam head had already taken a number of hits by that point! We hope to see some people from the course shooting at the club and hope that even those that do not wish to join stay in touch, we would be pleased to hear from them in the future!
Successful Have A Go At Local School
We had a great time on Thursday at Teesside High School giving prospective students the chance to have a go at archery. The children did really well and seemed to enjoy themselves and the school were very happy with the service that we provided.
Successful Have A Go At Head Of Steam
Sunday's have a go session at the Vintage Vehicle Rally ran by The Head Of Steam Darlington Railway Museum was a great success. We allowed members of the public to try archery for free of charge and as always we were a very popular attraction. I am certain we have raised the profile of our club and our sport in the local area and everyone had a great time. Many thanks to all club members who volunteered to help out on the day as it would be impossible to run these events without your support.
New Beginners Course Application Form
We now have a new application form to complete online for anyone wanting to attend one of our beginners courses. After completing the form we store the details of anyone interested in attending a course and then confirm a place with them when one becomes available. This system is much more robust than the old system which worked via email and we can collect more information to help us to ensure that the course is suitable for everybody's needs. If you are interested in completing a beginners course sign up now and we will be in touch as soon as a place is available.
Forum Security
It is important to make you aware that the issues outlined below are not a concern to the forum's security. The bots that register only have the rights of normal users and are a nuisance more than a security concern.
The forum is as secure as usual so you can continue to use it as you normally would.
Problems With The Forum
Those of you who have registered on the forum will have noticed the box with the mixed up letters that you have to enter before you can continue, this is called a captcha.
The purpose of this is to stop programs from automatically registering on the forum as they can not distinguish the individual letters in the picture.
The forum software that we use for our forum is very popular and recently the captcha used by this software was cracked so that computers can now recognise the letters shown in the captcha box.
This has meant we have had a lot of fake registrations lately and I have had to delete over 100 users. I was carefull to not delete real members but if your account has been deleted I apologise. If this is the case you will have to register again.
A good way to avoid your account being deleted is to make sure that you post at least one message on the forum after registering.
Celebration Shoot Success!
The shoot held on Sunday was a complete success and a great time was had by all, the weather was great and the company was even better! Some photos of the day have been added to the gallery with more to follow and a write up of the event will be added to the site soon. Congratulations to everybody involved for making the 250th celebrations such a memorable occasion!
Archery Display At Head Of Steam
The club are pleased to announce that the archery display at "The Head Of Steam Darlington Railway Museum" has commenced and is looking great. There has been a lot of positive feedback regarding the display and we hope that you all get the chance to go and visit it. The display will be in the museum untill 2nd November, so you still have plenty of time to visit it. See the Head Of Steam Website for opening times and further information. Many thanks to all involved you know who you are!
Archery Exhibition Launched!
The Gentleman & Lady Archers of Darlington are proud to announce that the archery exhibition organised by them, at Crown Street Library in Darlington has commenced. The exhibition will be available to view until the end of the month at which time it will be transferred to the Head of Steam Darlington Railway Museum and additional items will be added. We hope you all have time to take a look at the exhibition but for those of you who can't we will add some photographs to the website shortly.
Archery in Darlington for 250 Years!
We are very pleased, and privileged, to be able to put on two exhibitions about the history of archery in Darlington. Our club is proud to be part of that history. 250 years is a long time; much has indeed changed in archery over this time but the traditional longbow is still in use today...though hopefully for different reasons!
If you can make a note of the following dates and venues in your diary, they are sure to be worth a visit:
Darlington Library - 1st August 2008 until the end of the month
Head of Steam Darlington Railway Museum - 16th September until the 2nd November
Also, please keep a look out in the local press for a special event and competition we hope to host on 21st September to further celebrate the excellent sport of archery.
All the very best
From the Gentleman and Lady Archers of Darlington
Beginners' Course - Special Bulletin
Over the last year we have received a lot of enquiries about our beginners' course. So many, in fact, that if everyone turns up, there will be too many to manage. To this end we have decided to create a waiting list and run another course later. Applications will be dealt with in chronological order; consequently, later applicants may have to be added to the waiting list for the second course.
Please use the "contact us" form on the sign-up/beginners section of the website (use the link from the home page on the words "sign up") if you need to ask for more information.
We hope this change will not be too much of an inconvenience.
Thank you
Restart of Indoor Club Nights
Club members' reminder: don't forget that the first shooting night of the year is this Thursday (10th). Hope to see you there. Happy New Year.
Merry Christmas!
A very "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" to all club members and visitors to our site....may all your arrows hit their mark.
Christmas Shoot and Party (this is not an instruction)
For all club members: please log-in to the forum for details of our end-of-season indoor party shoot on Thursday 20th December (sorry to anyone who saw this date posted earlier as the 23rd...my mistake). You should be able to find it under the heading "Club News". All contributions encouraged and welcomed.
Many Thanks
Hope you can all make it. Last year was good fun, I hope we can make it a club tradition. What do you think?
ToolBox Talk: Arrow Maintenance
Our next ToolBox Talk will be on the subject of Arrow Maintenance . Monday, 12 Nov 2007
Meeting place confirmed as the Scout Centre Widdowfield Street. Please arrive for a 7.00pm start. Car park will be open from 6.30pm.
We hope to be able to cover the following areas related to this topic:
arrow assembly: fletching, piles, nocks etc.
arrow cutting
arrow straightening
arrow checking
If there is anything you would like to have included on this list please contact me (bladerunner) as soon as you can.
Hope to see you all there
Indoor Venue _ Christmas closing
Members please note that the school will be closed for the following dates:
Thurs 27th Dec and Thurs 3rd Jan 2008
And there is something else... it seems that we should arrive a little later on Thursdays from now on, about 6.55pm at Branksome school instead of 6.45pm. The lady who brings the key cannot get there any earlier.
Best regards
Website Toolbox Talk!
The website toolbox talk will go ahead on Monday night at the Scout Centre on Widdowfield Street. Members who wish to park in the railway museum car park should arrive before 7pm, as we will be locking the car park then. The talk will commence shortly afterwards, apologies that the time was not listed previously, it was an oversight on my part.
Indoor Season etc
To all club members: don't forget that our indoor season starts on Thursday 4th October. We can arrive at 6.45pm but need to leave by 9.00pm.
Good shooting!
Dates For ToolBox Talks!
The dates for future toolbox talks have been added to the calender, as was discussed at the club meeting on 7th September. The first will be an introduction to the website, provided by myself and Eiann, and will benefit everybody regardless of experience. The details of the other toolbox dates are still to be confirmed, so please keep these dates free in your diary, and watch this space for updates!
Thanks
Allen
Club Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the club meeting are now available in PDF format in the documents section of the website, and a copy will be made available on the notice board in the container. Many thanks to everyone who attended, and especially to Lauri for taking the minutes, and making them available so quickly. If anyone would like to make additions or amendments to the minutes, please contact a club official.
Important Update:
Apologies for the inconvenience, but it was noted that the minutes should only be available to club members, so the link has been moved to the members area of the forum. To view them online you need to register in the forum, and wait for an administrator to add you as a club member, which will allow you access to the club members section of the forum. If you are already registered you will find the minutes in the "Glad Members Section", in the "Club Minutes" forum.
Club Meeting Minutes (You will need to login to view them)
Club Meeting
The meeting mentioned below, has been confirmed, and will take place on Friday, 7th September, at 18:30. The meeting will be held at the scout centre on Widdowfield Street, but we may use the parking facilities at the museum. If you have anything that you would like to raise at the meeting please post a comment to the original message below.
Thanks
Allen
End Of Season Shoot
As you will be aware the details of the "End Of Season Shoot" have been entered into the Calendar, and the details have now been finalised. Don has come up with what I think will be a really fun shoot, that everyone can get involved in.
Sighters will be at 11.00am, so please be there early enough to help set out the field. The range layout can be viewed here, and is also available to download from the "Documents" section of this site. You will need adobe PDF viewer to view this file, and if you don't already have it (most of you will), it can also be downloaded from the "Documents" section.
There will be 7 targets set out, 3 at 20 yards, 2 at 25 yards, and 2 at 30 yards. Archers will be split into groups and given a starting target, an end of 4 arrows will be shot at this taget, and then all archers will move to the target on their right. When all archers have shot at each target, we will have a break, and something to eat, and then start again.
Only one award per archer will be allowed, and the awards will be as follows:
Best Blue on 60cm face
Best Red on 80cm Face
Best Gold on 122cm face, shot with a training bow
Highest score on dart face
and there will be 2 sealed score prizes.
The awards will be presented at the end of the day, following which we will draw the raffle. It would be great if members could bring some food, and we can have a buffet, and possibly get a barbecue going if the weather is fine, and also donations for raffle prizes would be very welcome. All proceds from the raffle will go to the club.
Club Members Please Note:
We will be holding a club meeting on the 7th of September which we hope all club members will be able to attend. If you have any points, issues, suggestions you wish to raise at the meeting please let us know (Don, Eiann, Allen, Sue).
We hope to discuss the website, club colours and team wear, Equipment, general club stuff, etc...Anything at all.
Please do try to attend, or send your suggestions/points with someone you know will attend if you cannot make it.
Keep a look out at the "Calendar" events on the website for details on where and when, or check this news bulletin for updates....and The best way to put any ideas forward for the meeting (whether you can attend or not) is to post a reply to this news article on the website.
If you haven't yet registered with the forum please give it a try. Allen or I will try to help if you have any difficulties or are a bit unsure about how things work.
Many thanks to everyone
Eiann
New Forum for Members
I have added a new forum to the members' section, entitled: "Buy Sell Trade Swap"...or something like that!...I hope it proves to be useful. And thanks to Ken for the idea.
All the best
Toolbox Follow-up
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the toolbox talks. We hope you all got something useful from them.
I have put some links below so that you can do some follow-up reading on the subject of bow tuning. Don and I used the Easton Tuning GUIDE (You should find this under "links" and "Documents" on the website)as a basis for our talks and demonstrations. As with most of these things, you should treat them as guides, and extract from them the information that suits you best.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/joetapley/walkbk.htm
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/joetapley/tuning.htm ... The pages of this website are downloadable so that you can view them offline at your leisure. From the links above, just go to his homepage and select downloads...you should find the relevant link there.
http://www.tenzone.u-net.com/Equipment/ ... 2_fine.pdf This is downloadable in pdf format.
Both sites contain very interesting and useful information. If you type "walk back tuning" into a Google search you will find these sites and many others, most of which are well worth a look.
Thanks again to you all
From
Don and me
New Competitions Page
A "Competitions" page has been added to the site, as you can see on the left hand side. This includes competition dates, and information about the different types of rounds. I am also working on some information about the GNAS handicap, and classification system. If anyone has anything they would like to add please let me know, and I will do my best to get it done!
A Big Thanks
I want to say "Thank You" to Allen for all of his hard work on the club website. He may not thank me for this public announcement (and being an administrator, he might just cut this post!), but the website would not be half of what it is without his input and skills. So I think he deserves the praise. Thanks Allen.
best regards
Eiann
Attention all club members:
Please note the "Toolbox Talk" dates on the right hand side of the website. These talks are for all members, and we hope you will get something useful from them!
Please note: they are not lessons to encourage fiddling with your bow!!
We will basically be following the Easton Tuning Guide. Please note that you need adobe PDF viewer installed to view this file, and the link may take a short amount of time to open, as it needs to download the document. You can get Adobe PDF viewer here if you do not already have it installed.
All the best
Don and Eiann
Thomas The Tank Engine Weekend
At the weekened the club was represented at the 'Thomas The Tank Engine' event at Darlington Railway Museum, where we provided members of the public with the chance to try out archery. We hope we have inspired more people's interest in our sport, and also provided them with some more information about our club via this website.
The weekend was a complete success and many people commented that the archery Have'a'Go was one of the most enjoyable activities at the event!
It was a long and tiring weekend, and we would like to thank everyone involved, for offering your time, and effort to help raise the profile of the club in the local area, and for helping to encourage an interest in this fantastic sport!
Welcome To Our Website
Welcome to the new home of the Gentlemen & Lady Archers of Darlington! The website went live on Friday, and although there is still some work to do, we hope that all of our members are proud of our new site!
We would encourage all club members to browse the site, and register on the forum. If you have any feedback, good or bad, we would really love to hear from you, so that we can make the site as usefull as possible for you the members, and also the visiting public, who are interested in our great club. Remember this is your club, and this is your website!
We are in the process of creating a tutorial, particularly for the forum, and that should be available soon, but if anyone has any problems, or would like a bit of advice or tuition, I am more than happy to help, so let me know.
Good Luck With Your Shooting!
G&L Archers' 250th anniversary
We celebrate our 250th year in 2008! Go to the "about us" page for the history of the club and more information!
