Author:

We received the sad news from Brian Wright that Felicity had passed away on the 9^th March, 2016 whilst in the Critical Care Unit in Colchester General Hospital.
Felicity was a National Coach and was very well known in the county, region and nationally through the many years she and Brian were involved in the Coaching side of archery at all levels.

Felicity was Secretary of the Essex Guild of Archery Coaches during the period 1982-1986, Vice President of the Essex County Archery Association for the term 1990-1991 and the first Lady President of the county for the term 1991-1994.  In 1991 she was presented with the county’s prestigious “Red Tassel” award for her services to Essex.  Felicity was also a qualified Sports Physiotherapist.

Felicity and Brian first met at a Southern Counties Coaching Conference at Bournemouth.  Together they put in a great deal of time and effort into developing the Essex Guild of Archery Coaches by inviting qualified people to give talks on various subjects such as relaxation, visualisation, exercise, good diets and psychology of archery, to name but a few.  There was always time for a forum session when attending Essex coaches could discuss any problems or difficulties they might be experiencing in their own clubs and gain helpful advice from the more experienced coaches among them.  This was the main purpose of the Essex Guild and Felicity and Brian supported this one hundred percent.  Together they organised many Essex squad training sessions, meeting beforehand with the coaches assisting to discuss how the sessions would be staffed.

Felicity and Brian attended the Wicken Bonhunt coaching weekends, which were always well attended by Essex archers and sometimes archers from Hertfordshire.  Then there was the Essex Guild’s Annual Conference at Wicken Bonhunt which was just prior to the Southern Counties Conference. Both Felicity and Brian were very active in all those years, organising very successful meetings.

Felicity was a lovely lady with a friendly welcoming smile on her face and always listened with genuine interest to whoever was speaking to her.  She had a very caring nature and gave up her time most generously to anyone who needed her help.

Felicity will be sadly missed by all who knew her and our deepest sympathy goes to Brian and their family at this very difficult time.

Tom and Iris Major

21/03/2016

Archery GB have just released details of the archers selected to represent GB at the European Youth Cup in Budapest from 2 to 7 May.

Ollie Vobe from Deben Archers will be shooting in the Recurve Cadet Team and James Howell from Mayflower Archers will be shooting in the Compound Team.

Congratulations to both of them.

Mayflower Archers hosted the counties first World Record Status WA18 on Sunday 14th February.

Organiser Alex Purser decided it was high time the county hosted a World Record Status indoor event, and the planning began in earnest last autumn.

Key to the success of running head to head events is good organisation and a foolproof scoring programme. Alex managed both with great skill although his heart sunk when the only instructions he could find for the Italian designed software on You Tube were all delivered in Italian.

The shoot attracted a good numbers of archers from outside of the county and the day progressed with the seeding rounds, with a single detail session in the early morning and two double detail session to follow.

The head to head matches were entertaining to watch and ended in gold medal matches contested for the gents by Matt Webb and Michael Judd (Rec), both from Mayflower and Philip Glover and James Howell (Comp) also both from Mayflower. This was the first time that each of these archers had been paired off in a head to head shoot and despite the friendly banter, it was clear that no one was going to give in easily. The victors were Michael Judd by two sets and Philip Glover by just one point.

For the ladies, Anne Lilly of Braintree Bowmen won her match against Sharon Lawrence (Rec) of Pilgrim Archers and Bayley Sargeant (Comp) of Canterbury Archers won her match with Anna King of CADAC.

One new UK Record was claimed for the Ladies Compound 15 arrow match round by Bayley Sargeant and six World Archery Target Awards were applied for.

Thanks were given to the five judges in attendance a number of whom travelled a considerable distance to help make the shoot a success – Joanne Orbell, Robert Potts, Mike Pearce, Paul Clark and Steven Johnson. Thanks were also given to Clickers Archery who kindly sponsored the event.

Download Results

For more pictures see this album

The 14^th Ken Gray Memorial shoot was held at Mayflower Archers on Saturday 6^th February. This shoot was set up in remembrance of Ken who developed Mayflower’s successful Junior club. It was Ken who started this invitational shoot, designed for juniors in their first year or so of shooting to gain some experience of a competition, without the formality. An average score is calculated for each team in calculating the final results and following this, the bosses are filled with balloons for all to burst and sweets dished out to those who pop them.

This year’s shoot saw clubs from Rayleigh Town A C, Broxhill Archers, Epping Archers (Juniors), Braintree Bowmen and Mayflower. The final averaged scores were:

1	RTAC 1	334.80
2	BRAINTREE	321.25
3	RTAC 2	318.13
4	EPPING	309.40
5	BROXHILL	267.20
6	MAYFLOWER	256.60

Best Gold went to Jasmine Jose and Worst White to Matthew Welsford, both from RTAC. Congratulations to this year’s winning team from RTAC; Edward Eason, Jasmine Jose, Oliver Searl, Matthew Gosling and Allie Newman.

Our thanks go to Neal Howell for organising the event and to all the clubs for their support. Ken would be delighted that this shoot has endured for so long and for so many youngsters, continues to be their first experience of an archery tournament.

More photos from the event are available at:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/ecaaarchery/albums/72157662116425004

 
Ken Gray (1928 - 2002)

This years AGM held at the Marconni Sports and Social Club on the 21st February 2016 was a chance to look back over the year, elect new officers (see Officers page) and to hand out the ECAA Awards.

These awards are presented to individuals who have been nominated by their clubs to who meet the criteria and are recognition of good shooting, helping promote archery in and out of the County and overcomming adversity.

Victor Ludorum

In particular the Victor Ludorum Trophy is for an archer who has finished highest in their category at all the County shoots. If you are not entered for the County Championships then you cannot be considered for the award.

This years winner was Alix Lawrence seen here receiving her award from Mick Pearce.

Other winners this year were:-

Baldwin Trophy - Clubs nominate a person who they consider has done most to enhance the sport during the past year.
Winner - Dave Shrimpton

Thelma Davison Cup - Junior Recurve archer who has the most improved handicap over the past year.
Winner - Sophie Pollard 

Joe Dormer Trophy - Junior Compound archer who has the most improved handicap over the past year. 
Winner - Alex Rowberry (taken by John Wilson)

The Bill Tucker Award - an individual whom the Officers of the County wish to receive public acknowledgement of supportive services rendered on behalf of the County.
Winner - Paul Clark 

The Bill Giggs Trophy - Senior Archer who has shot consistently well in at least six Record Status Tournaments and whose general standing reflects credit on the County and the Archer. 
Winner - Michael Judd (presented at the ECAA Indoor Championships)

Thelma Davison Shield - an archer who has overcome an adversity of any nature to continue in the sport. 
Winner - Christine Higgins (presented at the ECAA Indoor Championships)

When the information for next year's AGM come out there is a call for nominations for these awards so it is worth considering who should receive them and getting nominations in.

Congratulations to all the Award winners and see you at next year's AGM.

Dave Shrimpton receiving the Baldwin Trophy

Sophie Pollard receiving the Thelma Davison Cup

John Wilson collecting the Joe Dormer Trophy for Alex Rowberry

Paul Clark receiving the Bill Tucker Award

Albert Harris (Bert) became known as “Handy Harris” which then changed to Andy Harris.  He earned the title “Handy Harris” because he was a Carpenter and Joiner by trade, trained in the Government Training Scheme after being demobbed from the armed forces.

Bert, as we knew him, lost a leg in the Second World War.   He left his squad on the front battle line and walked over to join a friend to have a chat.   His squad went over a hill and whilst trying to catch them up, was hit by a mortar.  He said that if only he had not stopped for that chat he would still have had his leg.   Instead, he was left with a metal replacement which never held him back from doing anything he wanted and did not stop him from doing more than his fair share of work in clubs, county and other organisations to which he belonged.   He also had a very nice Baritone voice and belonged to a group who went around entertaining pensioners.

His first archery club was Regentone Archers whose venue was at the Armitage Centre which is no longer there but was near the Old house in Brentwood.  The ground was just long enough to shoot 80 yards    Bert and his wife, Belle, were the main social side of the club’s “tea and cakes”.   That was 54 years ago!

Because Bert (Andy), some of the club wanted to be more competitive they joined The Pilgrim Archers at Little Dytchleys, near Pilgrim’s Hatch.  This ground belonged to the London University and the County held their Championships there for a number of years.

Due to some problems with children, it was decided to start a new archery club near the Fortune of War on the A.127.  This ground was owned by the mother of one of Bert work friends.  The club was called “Fortune Archers”.  With the help of the members of the club, hours were spent cleaning up an old chicken shed which was then lined with oak ply panelling.   Once that work was finished the club bought an Allen grass cutter and Bert used to almost run behind it as he cut the whole field (around 2.5 acres).

After a while it became obvious that Bert could not get the competition he required at which time it was decided among the members of Fortune Archers to disband the club.  Bert then joined Grays Archers and became one of their Albion League Teams.  He also shot for the Essex County Archery Association and was involved in the Essex Guild of Archery Coaches where he held the position of Secretary.  He was awarded the County’s prestigious “Red Tassel” for the continuous and varied duties he carried out.

The “Andy Harris” League was his idea because so many clubs could not find or even afford halls in which they could shoot Portsmouth rounds.  Many clubs used either Church or Community halls because of the cost so, in the main, clubs were shooting a maximum distance of 15 yards.  Bert was a firm believer that competition kept the club archers interested in archery and avoided losing many a member who might otherwise turn up, shoot with no outcome and become bored.   Bert ran the “Andy Harris” League for many years from 1965 until his death in 1991.

One story that Bert (Andy) told was of the time when he was shooting at Harlow Bowmen’s ground.  At mid-day, when the lunch break came, Andy walked to the car.  Belle, his wife, was there with the sandwiches and tea.  “That’s it” said Andy “We are going home after I have had lunch”.  Belle looked at him and said, “Why?   Aren’t they paying you enough?”  Andy replied, “You know they don’t pay me”.   Belle’s response was, “Well, why are you doing it?”   From those few words of Belle’s he realised that he had been losing the real reason he started archery which was for a pastime which gave him pleasure.   He did not go home but finished the round, enjoying the rest of the day.  A wise wife was Belle!

Marlene Hutchins

Information received from Iris and Tom Major

January 2016