Ten young archers entered last summer’s AGB Summer Metrics, thanks to our Records Officer Phil Embury, after they all shot a Short Metric during July or August. Amongst the entries were Gold medals for Abi Embury (U12 Compound), Louisa Piper (U14 Recurve) and Eleanor Piper (U18 Recurve) and a Bronze medal for Jessica Hammond (U12 Recurve). Sam Davies also came a reputable 7th out of 21 for U12 Recurve and Alex Ruffle was 10th for U18 Recurve.

A special mention though must go to our fantastic up and coming WAC juniors who put in scores for the first time; a massive WELL DONE to Haider Raja (U14 Recurve), Jibril and Mikhail Moedeen (U10 Barebow) and Florence Dodd (U10 Recurve)!

Congratulations to all our friends at Chessington for putting on another great shoot!

Congratulations also to our WAC team of Eleanor Piper, Roy Watts and James Woodgate who ensured that Woking came away with the coveted King’s Cup. In addition Eleanor won Gold in the Ladies Recurve (her first competition as a “proper grown-up”) and all our juniors medalled; Louisa Piper Gold in the Ladies Cadet Recurve, James Woodgate Silver in the Men’s Cadet Recurve and Jessica Hammond Bronze in the Ladies Cadet Recurve. Andy Hopkins also put in a strong performance but just missed out on nudging James out of the way for a place in the team result!

If you haven’t popped down the A3 to take part in this shoot before then definitely consider doing so next year, it’s great fun.

There may still be frost on the ground but before you know it buds will be out, the sun too if we’re lucky, and the 2017 summer archery season will be upon us!

To make sure that you’re not caught out without any of the WAC kit that you need to look your best on the line we do though need to place orders in what might still seem like the depth of winter.

Fortunately the folks at Kudos have said that we can have until Thursday Feb 2nd to place orders and still have kit in time for shooting.

So get your tape measures out, let us know if you need any help ordering (or in spreading the cost) or want to check out sizes before buying (we can try and find someone with the same size to try) and place your orders as soon as you can!

It was a very traditional archery send-off that saw Sean McArdle leave Woking Archery Club for the last time at last Sunday’s Frostbite!

Sean is off to live in Cornwall where all of his WAC friends wish him the best of luck and hope that he will come back and visit soon.

Last night at the HG Wells Conference Centre in Woking Eleanor, following on from her Woking YSPOTY award last month, was awarded Surrey YSPOTY.

Three young athletes were nominated and all were equally deserving: Nathan McCleave is a British Swimming Champion and record holder and Louise Brownsey is a British Trampolining Champion who has also competed for GB. Louise also trains at Lilleshall so she and Eleanor switched contact details and hope to meet up in the near future.

Tania Nadarajah, 2016 Rio Paralympian, was also present and was interviewed on stage (as was Eleanor) so archery was firmly featured at the event!

Congratulations to both our Knockout Finalists who put on a great show down at WAC on 30th Oct.

The eventual winner was Ken but Kevin proved a very worthy opponent!

We are delighted to report that Eleanor was the winner of this award last night at the HG Wells Centre in Woking. As a result she receives an automatic nomination to the Surrey Young Sports Personality of the Year award which takes place in December.

In her opening address the Mayoress specifically mentioned Woking Archery Club and how much she had enjoyed her visit to the club to open the WAC Open this year! The event was well attended by local clubs and volunteers and the evening was a fantastic celebration of Woking sport and great publicity for the sport of archery.

Eleanor returned from the World Field Archery Championships with an 8^th place under her belt – not bad for only her third field archery shoot!

Thanks must go to those that helped her fast track her learning. First of these is our very own Surrey County President Dave Morris who helped her (and Louisa) in their first rudiments of the discipline down at WAC and also on a day’s training trip to Crawley. Next are our friends Joe and Colin Fairburn who first persuaded them to try Field Archery after Joe and Louisa shot target for two days together back at the Staffs in April. And last, but by no means least, are those field archers who have helped both girls with their introduction to Field Archery as target companions over two days at a time – you know who you are!

The Worlds started with a qualification round of 24 Unmarked Targets and in this Eleanor finished ranked 7^th out of thirteen U21 girls from nine countries. The following day (after lost sleep with a fever and heavy cold) she shot the next qualification round of 24 Marked Targets where she ended 4^th (perhaps shooting off colour is the way to go?!). This meant that Eleanor finished the Qualification Stage ranked 5^th overall.

Next day were the Elimination rounds where the slate was wiped clean. In the morning, the archers shot just 12 targets with only the Top 8 going through to the afternoon and in this (scoring with her fingers as by now she had completely lost her voice!) Nell came 6th. In the afternoon the slate was wiped clean once again and the remaining eight archers shot just eight targets to determine the last four that progressed into the semis. In this second elimination round Eleanor came equal 7^th on points but 8^th on 6s (the top score on a field face).

She was extremely happy with her performance and had an absolutely fantastic time. She met many new friends, had her photo taken with Brady Ellison, Jean Charles Valladont and Sjef Van Den Berg and did an archery shirt swap with her new ABF Urska Cavic from Slovenia. She wore her new Team Slovenia shirt today down at WAC!

Congratulations to Eleanor who has received a nomination for the Freedom Leisure Young Sports Personality of the Year 2016 award!

The Sport Woking Awards provide a fantastic opportunity to recognise and reward talented local sports performers, coaches, volunteers, teams and clubs for their outstanding achievements throughout the past 12 months.  Winners of a sports award will be put forward and could represent Woking in the prestigious Surrey County Sports Awards to be held in December.

The Sport Woking Awards 2016 will take place on Wednesday October 12^th .

Good luck to Eleanor who has been selected for the Great Britain Team for the 2016 World Field Archery Championship in Dublin, she flies out on Sunday.

The event, which comprises 300 athletes from 26 countries, starts with two days of qualification on Wednesday and Thursday and follows with individual eliminations on Friday. Finals take place on Sat and Sun and the whole event is being staged at beautiful Killruddery House, County Wicklow.