2025 Frostbite Tournament
Saturday 27th December saw members of High Elm Archers assemble for the clubs annual Frostbite tournament. This year’s shoot was a special “Snowman Shoot.” Archers shot three dozen arrows at a special target set at 60m. The scoring system included various score values for different parts of the snowman. A “wipe out” occurred if an archer hit the snowman’s nose, resetting the archer’s score to zero.
At the end of the shoot, two archers had inadvertently hit the nose and had their scores reset. There was a tie for first place between Mike shooting barebow and Graham shooting longbow. This resulted in a six arrow shoot off. Both archers in the shoot off missed two arrows. The final score tipped in favour of the barebow shooter.
Mike was delighted with his win, which he adds to his endeavors to take possession of the household trophy shelf.
Thanks to Phil who designed and built the snowman target.
Change of venue for outdoor shooting
Due to a busy 2025 summer season and a lack of availability at Altcar Training Camp from July onwards, High Elm Archers needed to find an alternative outdoor shooting venue. Fortunately, Formby High School was able to accommodate us.
Although the playing field is spacious enough to shoot at distances up to 100 yards, the club has made the decision to not shoot at distances greater than 70 metres for the time being.
Availability at Formby High has meant that shooting times have had to be altered, so current shooting sessions are Tuesday and Friday evenings from 6 pm to 9 pm and Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm.
First outdoor beginners course of 2025
The club’s first outdoor course of the year, taking place in May, turned out to be unusually small with just four trainee archers attending the three Saturday morning course sessions in May but despite the size of the group there was no lack of enthusiasm among the course attendees.
The course covered range safety before the trainees started shooting barebow (without sights) at 10 yards in week one. In week two the beginners shot freestyle (with sights), progressing to 20 yards in week three when they competed in a mini tournament (3 dozen arrows).
Following this, the sun made an appearance as the group enjoyed some clout shooting, aiming high to get as close as possible to a flag placed at 100 yards.
No HEA beginners course would be complete without the opportunity to shoot at balloons, after which the trainees received their course certificates.
A good time was clearly had by all as three of the four trainee archers subsequently chose to join the club.
Winter season prize presentation
As usual, the end of the 2024/25 winter shooting season at HEA was marked by a Portsmouth tournament (5 dozen arrows at 20 yards) held at the club’s indoor venue at Formby High School. Unusually, however, the presentation of the various prizes and medals, as well as certificates for club records and most improved archer, did not take place immediately following the tournament. Instead the winning archers received their awards at a later date in April. Well done to all the prize winners!
First beginners course of 2025
HEA’s first beginners course of the year followed the customary pattern of instruction, running over 4 Saturday morning sessions during January and February at Formby High School’s gym, culminating in a friendly tournament (3 dozen arrows at 20 yards) for chocolate prizes.
After the tournament and the ever popular burst-the-balloons free-for-all, the eleven trainee archers received their certificates from Chairman Mike.
Tournament marks end of winter season
The end of the 2023/24 winter shooting season at HEA was marked by a Portsmouth tournament (5 dozen arrows at 20 yards) held at the club’s indoor venue at Formby High School on 24th April 2024.
As usual, the event was both an open and a handicap tournament at the same time. In the open tournament, HEA members competed in three categories according to their bowstyle: Recurve, Barebow or Compound.
Pictured below receiving their open tournament trophies and 1st place medals from acting chairman Tony are Ralph in the Recurve category, Angela for Barebow and Alex for Compound. Ralph, Angela and Alex also received trophies for first place in their respective categories in the 2023/24 Portsmouth League.
The winner of the Portsmouth handicap tournament, and the recipient of the Chairman’s Shield, shooting barebow, was Joseph, (pictured left).
Also receiving a trophy (pictured above right) was Nigel, shooting recurve, who took first place in the winter season’s Bray Handicap League (2½ dozen arrows at 20 yards, aiming at smaller 40cm targets).
Trophies and certificates for Most Improved Archer of the 2023/24 indoor season went to Janice for the Seniors, with a handicap improvement of 17 and Mathew for the Juniors, improving by 7.
Very well done to all our trophy and medal winners!
First beginners course of 2024
Twelve trainee archers took part in and successfully completed HEA’s first beginners course of the year, running over 4 Saturday morning sessions during January and February at Formby High School’s gym.
Starting in week one shooting barebow (without sights) at a distance of 10 yards, the trainees progressed in the second session to shooting freestyle (with sights).
In week 3 the course attendees had an introduction to scoring and rounds as they shot and scored 1½ dozen arrows at 20 yards.
During the fourth and final session the beginners took part in a handicap tournament, shooting 3 dozen arrows at 20 yards in the bow style of their choice – barebow or freestyle using sights. On this occasion, all 12 of the trainees opted to shoot with sights.
Following the presentation of chocolate prizes to the tournament winners, all the beginners enjoyed the opportunity to shoot at balloons before finally receiving their course certificates.