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.
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!
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 16th February 2014
Team Managers Report
On Sunday , 16th 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.
