How The Club Runs

How The Club Runs

Rivernook Bowmen is a friendly and relaxed archery club. We aim to provide a framework for pursuing archery in which you can be as as social or as solitary as you like, and your approach to the sport can be as relaxed or intense as you wish. We encourage all members to make a commitment to the club; details of how the club is organized and managed appear below.

Shooting

Our outdoor range is open for shooting year-round during hours of daylight. As a club member, with you own equipment, you can come down and shoot whenever you want. Note that Under-18s must always be accompanied by a responsible adult.

On a Sunday morning you will almost always find the club flag flying and other club members shooting. In the summer, Wednesday evenings and Friday afternoon/evenings are also popular times for shooting. Our club committee members are often down at the range at these times and will be happy to give informal help and advice if you want it. We have a WhatsApp chat group that you can use to see when others are heading to the range, or let people know you are heading down, if you want to be sociable.

Note that Chessington Bowmen also use the range, and you may find their members shooting here too during the week. Chessington’s main weekly meeting is on Saturday morning, so we try to avoid shooting then.

Once a month, we hold a “Monthly Shoot” on a Sunday morning. We get together and shoot a scored round, under the whistle, like a sort of informal mini-tournament. The monthly shoot is open to all club members from beginners shooting at 20 yard and 10 yard targets to expert bowmen shooting at 80 or 100 yards.  If you don’t want to shoot a formal round, you’re still welcome to come along and do as much or as little shooting as you want, talk to people, get advice, etc. Bacon butties are usually available at the end of the monthly shoot.

We also hold other group archery events through the year. These include an inter-club “Frostbite” competition through the winter months, a Fun Shoot at Midsummer and our Club Championships in September, all of which are open to all members.

Club Equipment

When you first start out, having completed a beginners’ course, you will probably want to spend some time shooting using club equipment before you take the plunge and buy your own. We are happy for beginners to use club bows, arrows and accessories for a few weeks or months after initially joining the club. We don’t have a huge inventory of equipment, so we may not be able to give you exclusive use of a bow, and we can’t let you take equipment home. But if you come down to the range when a keyholder is present we’ll try to ensure you always have access to the equipment you need to practice and develop your shooting. You can use the group WhatsApp to ask if a keyholder is planning to be at the range if you wish to come down and use club equipment.

Tracking Progress

There are scoresheets on the website that you can download and print to record your scores when you shoot a round. There is a box in the shelter into which you can deposit completed score sheets for the attention of the club Records Officer.

Under the “252” scheme, you shoot and score rounds of 36 arrows at a single distance, and earn badges for achieving a specified target score at each distance. This is a great way to monitor your progress and know when you are ready to try a longer distance. 252 rounds can be shot alone and self-scored.

If you submit score sheets from longer rounds (Warwick, National, etc.) shot with and witnessed by another archer, these will count towards establishing a handicap and an archery classification. The club will issue you with a badge for each classification level you achieve. The Records Officer will also notify you if your result has set or beaten a club record.

For more details see the Tracking Your Progress page of the website.

Competitions and Tournaments

The club doesn’t currently host any tournaments, but it takes part in postal tournaments including the Surrey winter “Frostbite” league.

Our members regularly participate in tournaments held by other clubs, and the annual calendar of events includes several tournaments at nearby locations that are suitable for archers of all standards, including those just starting out on their archery journey.

As a beginner, the idea of an all-day archery tournament might sound intimidating, but they are actually great fun! They are not nearly as competitive as you might think, especially when shooting at the shorter distances, where everyone is very sociable and encouraging to each other. The club committee will try to keep members informed of any opportunities to compete in local tournaments.

How the Club is Run

As with most other clubs Rivernook Bowmen is run by a committee made up of club members who have volunteered for the various roles. The committee is elected each year at the AGM which is normally held as close as possible to the end of March.

Committee Roles

  • President
  • Vice President
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • Records Officer
  • Safeguarding Officer

Club Roles

  • Equipment officer
  • Web master
  • Team Captain
  • Rangemaster

Other Important Jobs

  • Grassmower in Chief
  • Arrow fletcher
  • Mole hill kickers
  • Lawnmower wizard
  • Landscape gardener
  • Chef

All Members

  • Come and shoot, enjoy the facilities, be considerate to your fellow archers.
  • Kick the molehills.
  • Join in working parties to maintain the targets and range.