Worshipful Company of Fletchers Spring Competition at Noak Hill Archers 2023. On the 18th May 2023 we were pleased to be able to welcome back to Noak Hill Archers the Worshipful Company of Fletchers for their spring competition and fun day out.

Members from the Worshipful company of Fletchers came from near and far again to meet, socialise and enjoy some well mannered competition, even though the journey to Noak Hill Archers was a challenge in itself for some of the visitors with M25 Dartford crossing not playing nice and even an accident which thankfully did not result in any injuries but was traumatic for our visiting friends

Kathy, Dave Cout, Craig. Ken and the other field archers had been working hard on the field course all throughout the spring to set a challenging field course with a range of targets  that would test the resolve of the archers both beginner and experienced. A number of scene shots and predator and prey shots which tested the aim and set the bar high but was compensated by peg selection to try to match the archers ability and to make the scoring as competitive as possible. We started the day with a cup of tea a biscuit a welcome and thanks for all those attending and then some introductions for the day. It was a good chance for the members of the fletchers to catch up with their fellow fletchers.

We then started the get ready for the warm up session with the more experienced archers setting up their own bows and Noak Hill volunteers assisting the members without bows to be kitted out with the club bows and arrows and then split into groups and paired up with a couple of the Noak Hill Archer volunteers to help them through the warm up session. We had a good number of Noak Hill Archers to assist in the practice session and a quick catch up with GB archer Sarah Bettles as she returns from injury and was practicing at the club during the morning.  Sarah was only too happy to have a talk with the groups and have a photo taken with each group while the competitive spirit was still under control. 

With this level of support and coaching plus the many other experienced archers we were able to help them start to hit the targets and then hit the higher scores ready for when the points were counted. It is fair to say the standard even from the novice archers was very good and it was not long before all archers were hitting the mark and getting ready to score for the looming competition round. 

We were blessed with glorious weather on the day which help the warm up session go well and this led us into the lunch break which was prepared by Kathy and Glenys, with fantastic cakes provided by Mick Wollaston and Kathy’s Apple pies. As we ended the lunch break Denis was coordinating the preparations for the start of the afternoons competition and the competitive atmosphere started to increase (with the banter rising in equal amounts). 

We had 4 groups all starting from different points across the field course for the afternoon session and the challenging field course. It was clear from the discussions that were being had across the groups that they were enjoying the course layout and while challenging this was also really enjoyable and again added to the fierce competition and game faces for all archers as their competitive sides all took over. Competition was fierce but fun and there was many examples of the practice session paying off and even the novice archers were hitting the mark from the fiendishly challenging course set by Dennis and the field archery team

 We hope you all enjoyed the day we certainly did and we look forward to seeing you all again in September 2023. Well done to all the archers and well done to the winners on the day. Wishing you all a fantastic summer and we look forward to meeting with you all again September.

Attached is a link to the Noak Hill Archers web site with a link to further photos Here