It is with great sadness that I pass on the news that Chris Smith passed away on Sunday, 24th May. He had been unwell for several months recently.

The service for Chris will be held at Pitsea Crematorium on Thursday, 11th June at 1.20 pm. All are welcome to attend the service. However, the family would like to have a private reception afterwards just for family and a few close friends.

Tom and I have known Janet and Chris, and the whole "Smith" family, for over 40 years, since they were first at Hutton Bowmen. When Hutton Bowmen disbanded they joined us at Pilgrim and we have enjoyed many good times in their company. Chris had a good sense of humour and was always ready with a laugh or a smile when the occasion amused him.

Many years ago, when the County held their Championships at Crowlands Rugby Club (Romford), Chris and Janet ran the ECAA FITA Championships there. They also ran a number of coaching activities at Wicken Bonhunt on behalf of the Essex Guild of Archery Coaches.

Chris was a Senior Coach and was always happy to help archers with their shooting technique. He was awarded the County’s “Baldwin” Trophy for services to the County at their AGM on 5 February, 2006. In that same year, on 19th March, he was awarded the County’s prestigious “Red Tassel” and he also held the office of ECAA’s Vice President for the term 2009/2011.

Chris will be very much missed, not only by the members of Pilgrim Archers, but archers from many Essex clubs.

We send our most sincere condolences to Janet and the family.

Iris Major

Graham presented with Silver Plaquette

Graham Sibley was honoured with a Plaquette for 'Services to Archery' at AGB Annual General Meeting.

For obvious reasons he was unable to attend in person and was subsequently presented with the award in his hospital bed by ECAA Life Vice President - Marlene Hutchins!

Graham was delighted to receive the award and thanks everyone who put forward his name.

He also wishes to thank all who have asked after him and sent wishes for his speedy recovery to full health.

It was a busy weekend of Judge assessments this weekend 9/10 May.

At the City of Cambridge WA720 on Saturday  Paul Body was successful at his Regional Judges Assessment.

On the following day Steven Johnson passed his County assessment at Kestrels.

Both grades changes are effective immediately and congratulations to Paul and Steven for all the hard work to get to these levele.

If anyone else is interested in eating cake and drinking tea (and a bit of judging) then contact the judges through the Judges Page and we will provide more information.

ECAA Summer League

1955 - 2015

Congratulations 60 years and still going strong

League Secretaries:

1955 – 1956	H McSweeney
1956 – 1961	P Falcon-Uff
1961 – 1964	EW Butler
1964 – 1967	Mrs A Bradley
1967 – 1971	K Francombe
1971 – 1977	B Ray
1977 – 1983	Mrs B Huxtable
1983 – to date	Mrs M Hutchins

The first official rules of the League were formulated by a Committee of ten plus a Chairman on 2^nd November 1958 and approved by the Executive of the ECAA on 12^th December 1958.

Over the past sixty years, league clubs have decided how they would like the league to be run and, with ratification from County, changes made comprise the Rules we have today. The present day rules have to be an improvement on the original idea as I cannot see clubs shooting a minimum of ten matches!

Obviously there were not very many open tournaments in those days, in fact, it seems there were just five (Wicken Bonhunt was just for Coaches).   The 1955 Fixture List which, at first glance, seems very complicated, lists the Open Tournaments.   The 1958 Fixture List doesn’t appear to be much easier to understand but now there were seven Open Tournaments listed and two Inter County matches.  

On the 1955 Fixture List the first league season comprised one Division of nine clubs, Pilgrim, East Ham, Marconi, Southend, Latton, Woodman, Braintree, Ardleigh, Grays.  

After this first year Latton and Braintree withdrew and in 1956 Plessey joined but East Ham retired.

By 1958 there was still one Division but now there were ten clubs with the inclusion of Colchester, Ilford, and Woodford.

1956 saw Southend the top team with an average score of 2871, 2^nd Pilgrim 2588, 3^rd Grays 2582, 4^th Marconi 2409, 5^th Ardleigh 2327, 6^th Woodman 1996, 7^th Plessey 1498, 8^th East Ham 1454.   Early in the following season, the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th teams of the previous year shot on the Grays ground (in Grays) for a trophy donated by Grays and named The Grays Oak.   This match continued annually for many years.

There is not any actual information as to when the suggestion of a Short Western round, made at the formation of the League, was changed to an Albion, however, original League Rules state, "The round to be shot shall be decided by the Executive Committee" and League Rules for 1961 state, "The round to be shot shall be an Albion" so it could have been either of those years.   The number of Divisions has increased and waned over the years with the highest ever being six in 1992,  but that was for just one season.  

Below there are copies of the previously mentioned 1955 and 1958 Fixture Lists.   I hope you will find them interesting.

Marlene Hutchins

For the love of Archery!

February 14^th eight eager Longbow Archers headed of on a cold early morning to Cambridge to take part in the annual Intercounty match, this year held at the home of Ramsey Raverns .

The Hosts were very Hospitable providing bacon rolls and tea and coffee on arrival to warm us all through.

The round was a double Portsmouth and by the end of the first round which took one and half hours, Essex was a staggering 224 points ahead of Cambridge.  After a tea break and doughnuts the second round began. Essex were looking good and Kathryn Sartain was well on her way to breaking the double county record and after just under three hours (how amazing was that!)  we were finished.  The match ended with Essex winning by over five hundred points and Kathryn Sartain breaking the county record by 104 points, well done Kathryn!

Congratulations to the whole team for an excellent result, I personally had a great day with a fantastic bunch of archers, I am still curious to know how Bob got everyone into his car, thanks for making it enjoyable, bring on next year!

Essex Results:-

Kathryn Sartain   946	Tony Maher   944	Bob Riley     871	Terry Riddock       796
Kevin Button       789	Max Room     778	Tom Major  708	Eddie Tompkin      695

Rayleigh Town archer and Level 1 coach Simon Harding has been selected to shoot for Great Britain in the European Horseback Archery Grand Prix competition taking place in Grunwald, Poland in April 2015. Simon (together with his horse Thistle) has recently enjoyed great success in competition, contributing to Team GB's silver medal in stage 3 of the 2014 European Grand Prix in September, and placing 3rd overall in the BHAA Championships in Oct. For more information see http://www.horsebackarchery.info/ Congratulations to Simon on his selection, and the very best of luck out in Poland.