ALL ABOUT US
The Bowmen of Minchinhampton Ltd. Is a small, friendly Archery club of longstanding, founded in 1975 by Stan Gilchrist. Over the years the Club’s members have achieved many awards at County, Regional and National level. One of our members Kieran Slater is in the Junior GB team and, at the age of 17, is ranked within the top 5 juniors in the country.
At present the Club is pleased to have many shooting members that have been part of the Gloucestershire County Team, past and present. These include Paul Baildon, Karen Blanch, Paul Godbold, Julie Long, Keith Parsons, Carole Phelps, Alan Robinson, Sandra Robinson, Corrine Slater, Sean Slater, and Nick Summers.
This web page will record a few of the notable events, both large and small, that have happened to the club.
BoM on Television
‘Escape to the Country’ Television Filming (Tuesday 19th June 2012)
When the Bowmen of Minchinhampton were approched by the BBC2 television programme ‘Escape to the Country’ club members were intrigued. The couple featured in the programme were in the area looking for their new country home and wanted to find a local archery club. They were already archers, but hadn’t shot in a while so were keen to refresh their skills.
Peter Munday, one of the club members was eager to explain the techniques and history behind the sport. He put the couple at their ease and guided them throughout the day. Keiran Slater, European Junior Champion 2011, put them through their paces and even in such a short time they gained confidence and remembered how much they loved the sport.
Club members shot throughout the afternoon and were on hand to answer any questions and help set up the targets, etc. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, so thank you to all those that showed up! Thanks also to Corrine Slater who was in charge of setting up their equipment, reviewing safety and shooting rules. She even had the TV crew having a go! The programme was broadcast on BBC1 on the 12th December 2012. Overall, it was a very successful day and a good time was had by all.
Report by Rebekah Barnfield.
The Ultimate “Robin Hood”
In archery a “Robin Hood” is the name given to those rare occasions when one arrow gets stuck into the end of another arrow – just like Robin Hood splitting the arrow in the legendary tale. In 2011 BoM archer Simon Rigden achieved what we think must be the ultimate “Robin Hood”. Simon’s arrow not only struck the end of someone else’s arrow but, his arrow being thinner, it went completely inside it! As you can see in the photograph, Simon’s arrow (the orange one) has buried its full length inside the other arrow (the blue one).
Simon tells the story: “We were shooting on Sunday morning and when I went to pull my arrows, I couldn’t find one, until a colleague said ‘It’s inside one of mine!’ He was using hollow aluminium and mine is a slim carbon. You could hear mine rattling inside his. You can just see my orange nock peeping out!”
Anything you can do . . . .
Not to be outdone, some time following Simon’s ultimate Robin Hood, chief coach Keith Parsons managed to Robin Hood himself!
Whilst tuning his arrows at a distance of 30 Metres, he unfortunately Robin Hooded his own previous arrow, which is all the more improbable given that the arrows were of the same diameter!