Peter Turner, our club secretary and founder member, attended a reception evening in London last night to receive the prestigious Torch Trophy, awarded for making an outstanding contribution as a volenteer in their chosen sport. Peter was nominated for the the award by Archery GB and was accompanied at the award reception by Trish Lovell (Archery GB President), Derrick Lovell MBE, David Backers (our club Chairman) and his wife Ann. The award was presented by HRH Princess Alexandra.

More information about the Torch Trophy Trust is available from http://www.torchtrophytrust.org/

Photos of the evening can be viewed from our Photos page, or from the official photographer's web site at http://www.clients.aristophotos.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=10049

Congratulations Peter !

Genni, Richard, Peter & Steve all travelled to Northern Ireland on the weekend of 28th-29th May 2011 to compete in the All British Field Archery Championships.

Genni finished 3rd in the Ladies Longbow class.

Peter finished 3rd in the Veteran Gents Recurve class.

Richard finished 16th in the Gents Recurve class

Steve finished 1st in the Gents Longbow class and was also a member of then winning England team in the home nations competition. He also broke the Hampshire and Southern Counties record for shooting Longbow on a "FITA 24 Marked" course.

Debbie Lodge has won a British Longbow Society medal at her first ever competition, the Southern Counties Archery Meeting Longbow Day. She won 2nd for the afternoon National round and finished 10th overall out of approx 40 ladies.

Steve Burke also won 2nd for the morning round at the same event and finished 4th overall out of approx 100 gentlemen.

At an award dinner held at the Apollo Hotel this evening, Genni Elliott was presented with a 3rd place award for Basingstoke Sportswoman Of The Year !

Well done Genni !

Steve Burke had received his Grand Master Bowman medal, achieved in the 2010 season, shooting Longbow in GNAS Field tournaments.

Shooting at the SCAS Field Championships on 7/8th August 2010, Overton Black Arrows member Genni Elliot broke two Southern Counties ladies longbow records. This was only Genni's second Field competition with a longbow and the Marked and Two Day records that she broke has stood for 12 years !... She also broke the Hampshire County records in the process. Well done Genni !

Archers from Overton Black Arrows shot in the British Field Championships at the Glyncornel Archery Centre, Llwynypia, Rhondda on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.

Steve Burke finished 2nd to win the silver medal in Gents Longbow with a score of 347.

Richard Tungate-Thorn finished in 15th place in Gents Recurve with a score of 495

Peter Turner (our club coach) was one of the National Field Judges for the event.

The new trolley has broken a wheel but we have ordered a replacement (wheel, that is).

It appears to be caused by trying to steer the trolley when it's not moving.

Please note that in order to steer the trolley without damage when fully loaded, it MUST be moving first !

Many thanks to all club members who attended the AGM last Wednesdsay. Almost 100% attendance at an AGM is quite amazing !

As of 11th November 2009 we will be moving in to the Sports Hall on Wednesdays from 7pm to 10pm.

This will give us much more room behind the shooting line, enable us to shoot up to 25m and we should have room for up to 12 targets !

The Hampshire Field Championships are now finished for another year. The results can be found on the results link above.

Many thanks to all the club members who assisted... David G, Richard, David B, Genni, Daniel, Natasha, Charlotte and especially Barbara, Charlie and Anna for doing such a fantastic job with the catering.

Thanks also to Phil from Eclipse Archery for sponsoring the target faces for the event and for turning up with the mobile shop on Sunday.

The response from the archers has been very positive, with everyone seemingly having enjoyed the event.

Only 9 weeks until we do it all again... at our annual Watership Down Field Archery Tournament !

We have now completed the construction of a 12 target Field course at Kingsclere (The Warren on Watership Down).

Members may now use this facility. Please see the members section of the website for more details of times and procedures.

There's a great article about our annual Watership Down Field Tournament 2008 on the HAA website.

Photos of the weekend are available here.

Results are available here.

Many thanks indeed to this club members who helped out, both setting up beforehand and during the weekend.

Well done to the following archers on passing their FITA beginners awards.

Charlotte C - Red Feather, Gold Feather and White Arrow
Natasha - Red Feather
Oliver - Red Feather
Iain - White Arrow
Mark - White Arrow
Tim - White Arrow

As amazing as it sounds, it would seem that nobody in the UK archery world has got to grips with online tournament entry. Clubs still entirely rely on paper forms, cheques and the postal system. Well that's about to change, as we have just released our online entry system for our 2008 Watership Down tournament, where by archers can enter and pay online (via PayPal). We believe this to be a UK first, and certainly a first for a UK field archery tournament.

See here for details.

This winter, we intend to join a "Postal Portsmouth" league.

This will entail shooting a Portsmouth round (5 dozen arrows at 20 yards - indoors) once a month during the winter months. The scores will then be posted to the league organisers, who will publish the scores/positions at the end of the Winter season. Adult recurves only.

Please see the events page for more info..

There is a good article about the Watership Down shoot, entitled "Extreme Archery" on the Hampshire Archery Association website.

The results are available on the GNAS Field website.

We are now additionally shooting on Friday Evenings. Unfortunately we cannot accomodate beginners classes on Fridays, but beginners are welcome on Wednesdays as per usual.

We've received a mail from Chiltern Archery informing us that they are opening a new shop in our area... Well that's an understatement, as it's just down the road in North Waltham !

The shop is due to open on Saturday 16th December 2006.

A copy of the mail, including details and directions can be found by clicking here (PDF document).

You're looking at it now !

This is the first time the club has had its own internet presence.

The site content is fairly basic at the moment, but we'll add to it on a regular basis so that it will hopefully become a useful resource to members and beginners alike.