Not a true shoot report, as it wasn’t a formal shoot, but I thought it worth adding here. Last Saturday saw Black Arrow run an invite day at our wood for Long Eaton Field Archers (LEFA). It was with great delight to see so many turn up from Long Eaton Field Archers club to shoot at our wood for the day.

As I said it wasn’t a formal shoot, just one club opening its doors to invite another club round for a bit of fun and it worked really well. The goal was for people to have fun and for the 2 club memberships to mix shoot together and enjoy a laugh or two, with 15 members of LEFA enjoyed Black Arrows hospitality (free hot drinks, cuppa soups etc, big thanks to LEFA guys who brought the fantastic chilli) Archers could score if they wanted or just wonder round and shoot.

Sadly, there are no pictures of the day other that the one taken by Sharon first thing of the log pile steaming in the sun (yes we had good weather) I’m afraid I was too busy chatting, laughing and shooting. There were so many happy faces and a great laugh.

I really think this is something that more clubs should do. Rather than opening their doors for solely open shoots which are competitive events where each shot counts. I shot round the wood twice with Nick and Ady and was very interesting to see how they managed our up and down wood. LEFA have a lovely ground but its a flat ground in comparison to ours at Black Arrow. So seeing them having to shoot up, down or across the hillside was great.

The course was a mix of some 3Ds and paper targets. The picture above shows the angles across the hill side and was taken a few weeks ago before all the undergrowth shot up. The target boss is half way up the slope and you shoot for red peg, if you miss move to white, if you miss then blue.

Since there was no pressure nothing stopped you have a couple of extra arrows at any troubling target. Nick is a course layer from LEFA, so it was good to see and hear his thoughts on the Black Arrow ground. Nearly everyone went round the 20 taret course twice.

There was no shoot fee, simply asked for donation towards Cancer research UK a charity that has touched the hearts and lives of many in Black Arrow. We raised £78 for cancer research charity and this was matched with a very generous donation to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institiution)as a thanks for our contribution to the club over the past 4 years. A very thoughtful gift to a charity I’ve supported for several years.

“This was a great day!…….no medals and scoring only if you wanted to……just the challenge of shooting and the enjoyment of socialising with very pleasant folk.”

Kevin Bunting Black Arrow chairman.

Big thanks to all that were involved and helped from both clubs.

The only sad thing was this would mark our last Black Arrow club event. We are in the process of buying a house which will result in us moving away from the area and so leaving Black Arrowa club that has offered us so much support and friendship over the past 4 years.

Think we left on a high. Thanks for reading.