We are no longer accepting any cash payments. All session payments are now to be made on-line using BACS transfer. You pay for 10 sessions and receive a card which will then be stamped on each attendance.

Indoor Sessions:

We run sessions indoors from October to April (normal archery indoor season) unless its particularly nice outside. We will also run sessions indoors at any other time if the weather is particularly poor! (heavy rain or strong wind).

Indoor Friday Evenings

On Friday evening sessions, you are welcome to enter the sports centre via the main front door. Then proceed, with care, into the main sports hall where you’ll find the archery. If you are late to a session please be careful when entering and if any archery is in progress, wait until you are asked to come-in.

On a Friday evening we will normally setup bows on tables at the back of the hall but the store room to the side of the hall can be used as an overflow or alternative if required.

Archers are expected to help setup kit from 18:00 with a view to start shooting at 18:30. We will setup 8 or 9 target bosses across the sports hall with the shooting line at 18 metres. There will be a safety net behind the bosses to catch stray arrows.

Depending on numbers, archers will arrange themselves equally on these bosses with a maximum of 4 archers per boss. Archers often end up shooting in the same position week on week.

We will normally be shooting a Portsmouth round which is 5 dozen arrows shot in 3 arrow ends at 18m into 60cm target faces.

Again, depending on numbers we will shoot in two details, with the first pair of archers shooting their 3 arrows and then the second pair shooting their 3 arrows, before everyone collects their arrows before the next end.

As Friday evening sessions are for own-kit only archers we would expect them to be more experienced and thus we do not have a dedicated field captain to control the shooting. Archers are expected to use their common sense and wait for everyone to finish shooting before collecting arrows etc. Often, one of the most experienced archers will effectively lead the session.

We will often shoot a few ends of arrows into blank bosses as a warm up before we pin the actual target faces up and shoot the sighting ends.

We will then shoot the full round without interruption although we will pause briefly if archers need to use the toilet or have a technical issue etc.

At the end of the round we will allow a little extra time (~15 mins) for archers to practice anything extra.

At the end of the session, archers are expected to help put away all the club kit; bosses, stands and netting, before they disassemble their own kit.

Indoor Saturday Sessions

On indoor Saturday sessions you should enter the sports hall via the rear entrance. This is because sessions may overlap and there is a high chance of entering the hall when archery is still in progress. This rear entrance is safe to enter at all times.

There will be a desk at the back of the hall where you can register and have your pre-payment card stamped. If you are a beginner, one of the team will help you with any club kit you need and help you find where you need to be etc.

Kit setup will sometimes be done in the storeroom as space in the main hall will be very limited with sessions crossing over and archers still shooting whilst others are setting up.

Saturday sessions are run with a dedicated field captain. That field captain will indicate when its safe to shoot and when to stop and collect arrows. Their instructions (spoken or by whistle) should be followed at all times.

The actual format of an individual Saturday session will vary but will normally consist of at least 3 dozen arrows shot in 3 or 6 arrow ends at either 122cm or 60cm target faces with no more than 4 archers sharing each target boss.

At the end of a session, archers will pack away any of their own kit in the store room and exit via the rear entrance.

At the end of the final session, archers will put their own kit away and then are asked kindly to help put away the archery equipment.

Outdoor Sessions (any time of the year)

Outdoor sessions are usually run from April to September inclusive (traditionally the archery outdoor season). We will only move indoors if the weather is predicted to be particularly bad.

Archers should come into the main field keeping to the stoned area on the left. This has sufficient distance from the shooting area to be safe from stray arrows.

There will normally be a desk on the field where you can register, have your prepayment card stamped and pickup club kit etc.

Because outdoors archers will want to shoot at varying distances, the field layout will change, so be mindful that where you shot in the previous session might not be the same this time! We will try and post the target list on the private Facebook group before the session but there are often last minute changes required.

To try and encourage more experienced archers to mix with novice archers and juniors, we normally put the longest target in the middle and stagger shorter targets to the side of it. Normal distances provided are 80 yards, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 16 yards. There may be double bosses at some of the more popular distances. Key distances will normally be marked out with cones. There may also be bosses at Metric distances in Metres and these will also be made clear using cones. When setting up your boss, make sure you know which distance is which!

A shooting line will be clearly marked with a rope and cones and there may be cones marking the edge of the range as well.

Their will be a permanent field captain controlling the shooting throughout the session, normally using a whistle to issue commands.

At the end of the final session, archers will put their own kit away and then are asked kindly to help put away the archery equipment if it’s the final session.