2008 News Archive

07-10-08: Many thanks to Colin Brown (and Nokia!) for the slow-motion video recordings taken during the final lesson of his Beginners' Course. These have been uploaded to our flickr albums: Colin a; Colin b; Colin c; Mike.

02-10-08: Sunday 5th October sees the NCAS 5-Counties Tournament with the Durham and Northumberland Archery Association taking on the best of the rest from the North. What makes this contest particularly special is that FIVE Cleadon Archers will be representing the DNAA.
With Viv Davies shooting Ladies' Recurve, Peter Walton in the Gents' recurve, Bill & Ann Lee shooting longbow and Zoe Coggins shooting both Junior & Senior Compound, it looks pretty impressive to have Cleadon dominating the squad and is a fine recognition of the hard work and practice put in by so many at Cleadon. News from the event will appear here as soon as it reaches me!

29-09-08: Indoor Shooting continues on Wednesday and Friday nights as normal; contrary to an error in the 'Clippings', archers *WILL* be allowed to shoot during the Beginners' Lessons although a limit of three arrows per archer, per end will be strictly enforced to minimise damage to the target wall.

Those on the rota to assist with the Beginners' Course are reminded that their first lesson will take place on Wednesday 15th October and not on 1st October as printed on some documents; I would also like to ask that experienced archers set a good example by offering support and assistance to our novice archers from the summer courses as they have performed extremely well thus far and should, with help and encouragement, reach a very high standard.

22-09-08: The DNAA Logical League will be getting under way soon, now that indoor shooting is with us. It is a system for individual archers, not teams. The aim is to get novice archers used to competition and for intermediate archers to improve in a competetive environment, though it is open to archers of all DNAA clubs. A detailed Information Sheet and Registration Form can be downloaded in pdf format.

29-09-08: The 50th Tyne-Tees Archery Tournament took place on Sunday 28th September at Framwellgate School, hosted by Durham City Archers. The day turned-out to be very successful for Cleadon Members, with tweleve medals coming our way. Viv Davies won the Ladies' Recurve, Zoe Coggins won the Junior Girls' Compound whilst Alex Coggins won Ladies' Longbow with Maureen Rylance second. Michael Rutherford won the Gents' Longbow with Ken Turner Second and Bill Lee third. Eric Coggins took third in the Gents' Compound. Ken Turner's medal was particularly special, as he had also competed in the very first Tyne-Tees Tournament, half a century ago!
The main event was followed by a short 'Novelty Round' in which four further medals came our way; Viv Davies took the Ladies' Recurve prize, Zoe Coggins took Junior Girl Compound, Bill Lee took Gents' Longbow and Alex Coggins took Ladies' Longbow.

18-09-08: *Rearranged Club Championships* The club championships weekend will take place as follows: Barebow Champs, Friday 19th from about 5:30pm; Recurve Champs, Saturday 20th at 10am; Compound Champs, Sunday 21st September from 10am.

09-09-08: Mike Foster donned the essential green wellies and ventured down to the range on Saturday. The view was somewhat spectacular but seemed more like a boating lake than an archery range. He's kindly supplied two photographs, one from the 70m line and another from the target hut.
Hopefully the weather will abate and the field will drain soon!
Meanwhile, another victim of the recent horrendous weather is the DNAA Field Championships at Netherwitton. A number of targets as well as bridges and other equipment were washed away by the same floods that so badly affected Morpeth, just a few miles downstream. The tournament will NOT take place this year and anyone who has entered and paid will recieve a full refund.

01-09-08: At this year's DNAA Longbow Championships / Morpeth Longbow Open, Cleadon archers once again featured heavily in the top positions. The County results were as follows. DNAA Ladies: Ann Lee 1st, Alexis Coggins 2nd, Maureen Rylance 3rd. DNAA Gents: Ken Turner 1st; Stan Rylance 3rd. DNAA Juniors: Jessica James 1st junior girl.
In the ‘Morpeth Open’ side of the shoot, Ann Lee took 2nd Lady Longbow and Alexis Coggins took 3rd, whilst Ken Turner was first Gent, Stan Rylance second Gent and Jessica first junior girl.
Photos from the day, taken by Maureen Rylance, have been uploaded to our Flickr service.

29-08-08: With the nights quickly drawing-in, indoor shooting at our Boldon C.A. range will begin on Wednesday 17th September and Friday 19th September. Sunday shooting will continue outdoors until the Club's AGM on the 19th October.
Wednesday shooting will be open to all shooting members; the restrictions that were put in place at the end of the 2007-8 indoor season were purely an emergency measure and will (hopefully!) never have to be repeated. The committee wish to thank all members for their patience over that time.

25-08-08: At the Killingworth Double FITA Tournament, Zoe Coggins was 3rd Lady overall and 1st DNAA Lady Compound; Cleadon were the Club Compound champions with Steve James and Jessica James as well as Zoe. Further details will appear soon.

18-08-08: Zoe Coggins' national record for the 70m FITA round, set at Savile Bowmen's outdoor tournament, has been confirmed and entered into the record books. Zoe put in a score of 650, beating the previous record by 3 points. This was an amazing achievement, especially considering it was her first attempt at that distance. Well done and keep it up.

31-07-08: Thanks to Ann Lee for providing lots of photosets of past tournaments for our expanding gallery; these are being added to the Flickr photosets a few at-a-time, owing to the vast numbers of images! At the time of writing, 426 pictures have been added, with 106 more arriving soon. The sets include: Belsay 2005, Richmond Castle 2005, Newburn 2005, Backworth 2005, Richmond Castle 2004, Newburn 2004, Belsay 2004 and Lanercost 2004.

27-07-08: Cleadon's Junior stars, Jessica James and Zoe Coggins have been making headlines again.
Jessica represented England in the Junior Euronations competition against Northern Ireland, Eire, Scotland and Wales. Jessica and Philip Gower formed the Junior compound team and won their tournament on day one. Day two saw the contestants shooting individual FITA 900 rounds and was won by none other than Jessica! To qualify for such an event is an amazing achievement; to go on to win an international competition is... well, beyond words!
Meanwhile, at the FITA tournament and head-to-head at Dewsbury, Zoe Coggins broke the national record for the 70m FITA round, before coming second overall in the head-to-head. This still awaits official confirmation but will be the second national record to fall to Zoe in the past month.   Huge congratulations must go to both girls and more details will appear here as soon as they become available.

27-07-08: The Club Longbow Championships saw gloriously sunny, clear conditions. The Ladies' title was claimed by Ann Lee while Maureen Rylance came second and Alex Coggins third; The Gents' title went to Ken Turner with Stan Rylance second and Michael Rutherford was third. A photoset has been added to the ever-growing gallery!.

14-07-08: A warm and humid Monday evening saw an enthusiastic group of fourteen children from Belarus arrive for a taster session of archery. The children are visiting the UK from an area still suffering the after-effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
Some took to the sport like a duck takes to water, whilst others were a little more nervous; all, however, seemed to have a huge amount of fun in the process and we look forward to welcoming them again next year.
A gallery of 23 images has been uploaded to our Flickr service.

12-07-08: Cleadon Archers' 2008 Junior Open Tournament saw a lower turnout than previous years but there were some excellent displays from our younger generation. Jessica James, recently called up for the National teams for England and Great Britain, and Killingworth's Chris Todd both put in excellent rounds. A 59-image photoset has been added to the gallery page and the results will be posted here as soon as they become available.

07-07-08: At the National Junior Champs at Lilleshall this past weekend, Zoe Coggins finished in second place on day one's Metric 3 round, before shattering the National record for her age group in the 'Bristol 3' round, hitting an amazing 142 golds and 2 reds from her 144 shots. Zoe's shooting has been exceptional and the result is richly deserved, as is the kudos that goes with it.
Jessica James was on her usual exceptional form, winning the Metric 2 round on the first day and coming second to Zoe's record-breaking efforts on the second day.

06-07-08: The Third Annual Wand World Championships, organised by Archers of the Tees (website), was another tournament affected by the summer rains. In spite of the conditions, the rounds were completed with title of Wand World Champion going to two-time runner-up Tom Higgin. Cleadon's Mike Rutherford took one of the prizes in the 'Willow Wand' round, hitting the one-inch-wide target three times from forty yards. A photoset from the day has been added to the Gallery Page.

05-07-08: The 2008 Jimmy Melvin Memorial Shoot was something of a washout with persistent rain leading to an early end to the proceedings. Alex Coggins was first Lady and Ann Lee came second, with Ann Todd taking the prize for most hits. Alan Fleming was first Gent and Bill Lee came second, whilst Mike Rutherford took the prize for most hits.
In spite of the awful weather, the atmosphere was as friendly as ever but we will be hoping and praying for better conditions next year! A results page is available here (pdf, 24KB).

30-06-08: This year's Belsay Castle Longbow Shoot, on the weekend of the 28th-29th June, saw the Cleadon longbow 'branch' (or 'splinter' group!) sweep the board both days.
Stan Rylance and Ann Lee won the Gents' and Ladies' titles respectively on both days; Maureen Rylance was second lady on Saturday and third on Sunday; Alex Coggins third on Saturday and second on Sunday!
On the Saturday, Bill Lee took second Gent and Ken Turner third whilst, on the Sunday, Denis Burns took second and Bill Lee was third.
Needless to say, the event was as enjoyable as ever; this is perhaps reflected in the fact that only two photographs were taken by Cleadon Archers on the weekend! A results sheet, courtesy of Sue Jenkins, is available here (pdf, 19KB).

23-06-08: The gallery page has been updated with three new photosets; many thanks to Eric Coggins for those. See the links on the right or go to the Gallery Page. You may need to press "f5" to get the updated version.

22-06-08: Congratulations to Jessica James who has qualified to represent England in the Junior Euronations Championships to be held on 25th-27th July.
She also came third in the national qualifiers and, in October, will represent Great Britain at the World Championships in Turkey. I'm sure you'll agree this is a magnificent achievement; her form has been terrific and she fully deserves her place amongst the very best.

22-06-08: The Pentangle Shoot in Penrith saw Cleadon Archers Peter Walton, Viv Davies and Zoe Coggins representing the Durham and Northumberland Area. Peter and the Gents' Recurve team managed to win their category ahead of the otherwise all-conquering Eastern Scotland team, with the Ladies Compound team second and the Ladies Recurve third in their respective groups. Full results are available here (pdf, 22kB). Very well done indeed!

16-06-08: The programme and entry form for Kirknewton Archers' Metric Clout Tournament have been revised. The shoot is to be held on Sunday 27th July. The updated forms, in pdf format, can be accessed through the calendar page. Many thanks to Neil Endicott for sending those through.

12-06-08: From the Records: The Field Captain's Shoot was won by Richard Wright.
Club Records were broken by Ann Lee Stan Rylance, Jessica James, Zoe Coggins and Richard Wright.
The following archers achieved Bowman Status: Ann Lee, Stan Rylance, Mike Foster, Peter Walton and Richard Wright.

01-06-08: At the NCAS/YAA FITA Stars, held at Wetherby, saw Zoe Coggins win the U16 Ladies' Compound Section. Paul Cutting gained a 1200 star and Peter Walton gained a 1000 star. The YAA Website has a full Results Page.
A gallery of Eric Coggins' photos can be found here.

31-05-08: Whilst on a bit of a roll, it seemed a good idea to finish 'the job' properly, so the gallery has had another makeover, with each tournament getting its own little section and pretty picture, as well as anchor links that will take you from the gallery page straight to the approapriate section. You may need to hit 'refresh' or press "f5" to get the updated version of the page. I hope you find it useful!

30-05-08: Today sees the biggest reorganisation of the website since it 'went live' nearly two years ago. I'll not pretend it's been easy to maintain, but hopefully the changes you see will make the site a little easier both to access and to maintain. This should especially apply to the Gallery Page, which now appears as a table with galleries in chronological order. The information pages on the shoots are still there, just click on the appropriate links. I'll (tentatively!) welcome comments on the changes, but please keep them constructive. If there are problems I've missed, please contact "webmaster" with the details and I'll put them right as soon as possible.

25-05-08: At the Walker Open, Stan Rylance won the Gents' Longbow and Ann Lee was Second Lady Longbow.

18-05-08: The Backworth Open saw Stan Rylance, Ann Lee and Vivien Davies winning the Gents' and Ladies' Longbow and Ladies Recurve respectively, all with Bowman Scores. The Gents' recurve archers took the team award.