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Grays archers are an old established club in Essex that was formed in 1952 and has been promoting archery in its local area ever since.  The club was originally a tennis club and its members wanted something to do in the winter months, the members tried archery and Grays Archery Club was formed.

In 1977 Bernard Day joined Grays Archers and became an active member for almost 13yrs.

As he became more experienced he took on the role of instructing the beginners and novices, he could often be seen around the club coaching and offering help to anyone who wanted it.

He liked to encourage both the young and more mature archer and tried to help them improve and to enjoy their archery.

When he died suddenly his Wife Doris donated the Bernard Day Memorial Trophy in his memory, the trophy is awarded for the most improved handicap of a novice at the club championships.  The trophy was presented by Doris for the first time in 1991 at the club championships.

Now move on to present day, a young novice archer called Samuel White aged 10 years and 8 months has been shooting since March 2014.  He has been improving every time he picks up a bow.  Samuel has now been awarded his third class classification badge and won his class at the club championships.

During the presentation the trophies were all awarded by the chairman of the club Malcolm Vaux. 

The Bernard Day memorial trophy was awarded to Samuel White.  When the trophy was presented there was the usual cheer and clapping from the crowd. Then there was a very loud cheer from Samuel's Gran (Sandra Pilgrim).  After a few tears and a few hugs and a few more tears and a few more hugs poor Samuel who was all squeezed out at this point and along with everyone else was very confused as to what all the fuss was about. 

Samuel's Gran explained to the crowd that the Bernard Day was her father and therefore was Samuel's Great Granddad.  She said he would have been very happy that his great grandson has taken up a sport that he had loved so much.  The legacy that Bernard has given has crossed the generations and the archery gene has been passed on.  One happy boy, mum and gran.

Steve Fortt (Grays Archers)

National Series Stage 3 & 4 - Another great weekend for Essex and Suffolk

Essex/Suffolk had a strong presence at the ArcheryGB National Series Stages 3&4, hosted on 12/13 July at Clophill, with county archers and judges taking position on - and supervising - the shooting line. The judging team included Richard Pilkington, Paul Clark and (making his national tournament debut) Paul Body - all helping to keep the nearly 200-odd competitors in order and the two-day shoot running smoothly.These stages of the National Series comprised a 70m/50m 720 ranking round followed by head-to-heads on both days. For those taking part in the National Series, vital points were up for grabs so most of the ArcheryGB senior team were in attendance, including Nicky Hunt (Deben Archers), West Essex’s own Simon Powell shooting in the Para squad uniform and Mayflower's ArcheryGB representative Michael Judd. Joining them were Stephen Morris, Anna and James King from Colchester shooting barebow and compound, Oakfield’s Jaspreet Sagoo, Braintree's Paul Ramos and myself.

Saturday’s qualification started under leaden skies but rising temperatures. After 72 arrows, Michael was seeded 10th, Simon 21st, Stephen 70th (with a new PB), Jaspreet 20th and I placed 28th. Despite some disappointment in the main round, the set system H2Hs provide an opportunity to regroup and improve standings - and so it transpired: although Jaspreet and Stephen were unfortunately dropped early, Simon and I were pitched against each other in the 1/8ths but I eventually emerged victorious and continued on (incredulously) into the quarter-, then semi-finals, then into the final against Essex team-mate Michael! After a 5-set battle, the match was tied and decided by a single arrow shoot-off. We both shot into the gold, hitting the 9 ring - Michael’s arrow an inch closer to the centre putting him on the top step of the podium for Stage 3 and making it an Essex one-two.

Nicky fought through to the semi-finals in the women’s recurve competition but was stopped in fourth place by fellow GB squad member Jeanetta Braun (the competition was eventually won by Amy Oliver).The shoot reconvened on Sunday ready to start over for Stage 4. All of the Essex contingent (joined today by Paul Ramos of Braintree and Deben’s Jack Nobbs, Ollie Voss and Stuart Ross) improved their qualification scores (except Stephen who was only 5 points off his previous day’s PB) just before the rain arrived during the break. After a few ends of practice, the H2Hs began in earnest. Stuart from Deben was dropped in the 1/32s while team mates Ollie and Jack, and I, made it as far as the 1/16ths. Jaspreet made it through to the 1/8ths and Nicky went all the way to the final, eventually losing out to Amy who made it a clean sweep for the weekend.Simon and Michael pressed on in Gents recurve, both eventually losing out in the 1/8ths after some very strong shooting.All in all a fantastic weekend - the competition was brilliantly organised by the Clophill crew and the atmosphere amongst the field team, judges, competitors and supporters made it a really enjoyable shoot, all the more memorable after such fine performances from the entire Essex/Suffolk contingent. Well done everyone!  

 Cheers Tim Davies

It is with regret I must report the passing of Claire Stanford on Saturday evening. (5th July 2014)

As many of you will be aware, Claire had been a true stalwart of the association for many years, serving the county in various capacities over many years.

In light of this, she had been Vice President and was awarded the Red Tassel for services to the County.

Claire was heavily involved with the Coaching Guild serving as Treasurer for a number of years up until the Guild’s recent AGM in December. 

Alex Purser

County Chairman

An obituary for Claire has also been written by Iris Major which is available here.

The National Team Event 2014

15 Essex Archers over 5 disciplines and 1 new team Manger headed to Lillishall National sports centre, Shropshire to take part in the 2 day National team event 2014.

With the threat of heavy rain looming Saturday started with a heavy down pour but soon cleared to stay dry but overcast for the rest of the day, spirits were high as the qualification round got underway and by lunch time Essex were sitting in a very good position.

Rec men – 6th
Rec Women – 2nd
Long bow men – 5th
Comp Men – 3rd
Comp Women – 2nd

The afternoon consisted of the team H2H event and with some excellent shooting by all, the Men’s recurve and compound teams finished 1st, ladies recurve 2nd, ladies compound 4th and men’s long bow 5th.

After a good night’s sleep and a few drinks to calm the nerves (medicinal of course) the team were fighting fit ready for the WA1440 round, the weather was much brighter on Sunday but the famous Lillishall breeze had once again shown its ugly head causing some tricky shooting conditions but this was no problem for the Essex archers who dealt with it in their usual manner.

After some strong positive shooting by all and of course the traditional sweetie runs throughout the weekend, what a result!

Overall position
Recurve men – 1st overall – Michael Judd, Ian Harris, Tim Davies (debut for county)
Recurve ladies – 2nd – Nicky Hunt, Jaspreet Sagoo, Susi Atkinson
Compound men – 1st – Phil Glover, James Sinclair, James Howell
Compound Women – 2nd – Helen Harris, Daisy Clarke, Sophie Brown
Long Bow Men – 5th Tony Maher, Mick Wollaston, Max Room

My thanks go to the whole team for shooting so amazingly and for making my job so easy and for Tim Davies who stepped in at the last minute as Simon Powell was called away on GB duty.

A magnificent weekend was had by all, bring on 2015!

Lesley Howell
Essex Team Manager

More Honours for Graham Sibley

Graham Sibley, our retiring County Secretary, has been awarded more honours by both Archery GB and SCAS which were presented at the County meeting on 7th May.

Graham has been awarded the Hartwell Trophy by Archery GB. This is a National Award given to the Archer of the Year and here he is receiving the award from Mick Pearce, the County President.

Graham was also presented with an Honorary Life Vice President of Southern Counties Archery Society by County Chairman Alex Purser.

Essex v Cambridgeshire Longbow Double Portsmouth 16^th February 2014

Team Managers Report

On Sunday , 16^th February 2014, ten longbow archers from each county assembled at  Shenfield School, Brentwood for the annual double Portsmouth match. In a contrast to previous years the weather was nearly perfect so the Cambridgeshire  team made good progress to Brentwood and arrived before most of the Essex team.

The first round started at 11am, and proceeded at a very fast pace for the first dozen scoring arrows, but then slowed down slightly, so the first Portsmouth was finished by 1240h. A short break was then taken and at that point      Essex were ahead by about 220 points.

The second round was still completed within one hour and thirty five minutes, with some spectacularly accurate ends from both counties being achieved. A buffet was then served while the scores were collated – every score would be included in the final reckoning. When the counting was complete it showed that Essex had triumphed again and had increased their winning lead to 474 points.

Mr Stuart Sartain presented the trophy to Billy Scoltock-Pape, who produced the highest Essex score on the day. Stuart was also part of the team that sorted out the catering on the day – thanks for your help.

My thanks go to the Essex Longbow Team for a fine performance, to the Cambridgeshire team for making us work for our victory, to Mr. Alan Harding for judging the event and to Vince Loss of Burntwood Archers who helped to set up the range for the match.

The final scores were Essex combined 8268, Cambridgeshire combined 7794.

The Essex teams scores were; (hits/10's/total)

Kathryn Sartain   1^st round (60/3/414) 2^nd round (60/7/425) double (120/11/839)

Billy Scoltock-Pape       1^st (60/3/431) , 2^nd (60/4/448), double (120/7/879)

Tony Maher                             1^st (60/6/458), 2^nd (60/5/414), double (120/11/872)

Kevin Button                 1^st ( 60/7/431), 2^nd (60/1/432), double (120/8/ 863)

Terry Riddick                 1^st ( 60/8/419), 2^nd (60/6/443), double (120/14/862)

Bob Riley                       1^st ( 59/6/440), 2^nd (60/2/420), double (119/8/860)

Max Room                     1^st ( 60/5/441), 2^nd (60/8/417), double (120/13/858)

Eric Mallett                    1^st ( 60/4/413), 2^nd ( 60/3/410), double (120/7/823)

Mick Wollaston              1^st ( 58/6/363), 2^nd ( 58/2/345), double (116/8/708)

Eddie Tompkins            1^st ( 59/2/356), 2^nd (58/6/348) , double (117/6/704)

The highest score on the day was 973, James Bridges (Cambs).

Peter Walker