Welcome back to the Worshipful Company of Fletchers..... (at last) Oct 2021

A little normality returned to our club this month. After a Covid enforced absence, our dear friends from the London livery company – the Worshipful Company of Fletchers returned for one of their regular, bi-annual visits to shoot and socialise at our ground.

This long-awaited event was greeted by both parties with fantastic enthusiasm and it was good to see that the 'regulars' did not seem too rusty either. There was a mixture of abilities but nonetheless competition was both healthy and fun interspersed with lots of good-natured banter. There were some familiar faces led by their organiser, Lesley Agutter who holds the position of Past Master within the Fletcher’s organisation. And we were pleased to welcome their current Master, Professor Anne Curry.

The day began with our trusted format of practice in the morning with a short period of target archery. The beginners received coaching from our members and were shooting at around 18 metres on a 120cm face. The more experienced archers shot at approximately 30 metres on a 60cm face.

With the weather still being kind to us, after lunch everyone got into five groups of matching abilities to begin, at various points around the 17 target field course. This included single animal targets, predator/prey and scene shots including from the tower. Although we endeavoured to equalise the scores by allowing the beginners to shoot from the blue pegs and the experienced archers from the red, white and blue pegs, experience told in the end with the top three positions going to the more skilled archers. But that did not detract from the enjoyment had by all – archers and our helpers alike.

As Lesley said: “Everyone was so pleased to be back and so grateful to you all for allowing us to continue coming. It’s definitely the high spot of the year for the Fletchers.”

For us, it was truly a pleasure to see all of our friends from the Fletchers returning and on what is the 14th anniversary of their visits.