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The 2012 Welsh Field Masters Tour kicks off on 27th May at Whitney Court, the home of
Zenith Archers, near Hay on Wye. This year's tour promises all of the excitement of previous years but with a brand new course featuring in Stage 3.
The Welsh Field Masters Tour is designed to test the overall skills of field archers on 5 different courses and with 5 different rounds. The courses chosen vary in difficulty, as do the rounds. The scores from each round go into a leaderboard and the highest overall scoring archer will win the title of Welsh Field Master.
The line up for 2012 is:
Stage 1: St David Shoot, Whitney Court, Hay on Wye
Date: 27th May
Round: Field
Course difficulty: 2/5
Stage 2: Owain
Glyndwr Shoot, Llanwrdda, Carmarthenshire
Date: 24th June
Round: Marked Animal
Course Difficulty: 4/5
Stage 3: Llewelyn
Fawr Shoot, Llantrisant
Date: 29th July
Round: Hunter
Course Difficulty: tbd
Stage 4: Caradog
Shoot, Broad Oak, Carmarthenshire
Date: 19th August
Round: Expert
Course Difficulty: 4/5
Stage 5: Hywel y Dda
Shoot, Fonmon, Vale of Glamorgan
Date: 23rd September
Round: Marked Forrester
Course Difficulty: 3/5 (South Course)
Each one of the 5 stages is a tournament in its own right and the tour is fully open to all archers who are members of an IFAA affiliated governing body.
For full details of the FMT, click here
Welsh Masters Pro Shoot Showcases Wales
The Doinker Welsh Masters pro tournament took place for the second time at Canada Lake, Creigau on 21st and 22nd April. The 2011 tournament was met with rave reviews from the archers and supporters alike and it is safe to say that this year was even better received, putting Wales of the world map once again.
The tournament was run by A2TV, who streamed footage of the shooting on the internet throughout the weekend, drawing thousands of viewers from across the world.
There was a wide variety of archers from countries all over the world and the quality of shooting was very high. Whilst the pro shooters were well able to cope with the difficulty of the course, it was the very windy conditions that caused the more problems for them. That said, a number of archers coped with the conditions extremely well, recording high scores. The Gents Unlimited division was won by former World Champion Dave Cousins of the USA who shot superbly well throughout, making his experience count in windy conditions.
Lucy Holderness (left) of England and Linda Laichbury of
New
Zealand tackle a 60 yard shot over the lake during round 2
Ivan Buden of Croatia won the Ladies Unlimited group, again coping very well in very difficult shooting conditions. The WFAA General Committee wishes to congratulate Tony Goodwin and his staff at A2TV for an outstanding event. We also congratulate Geraint Thomas, who coordinated the course preparations. Lastly, thankyou to our members who volunteered to help with scoring and marshalling.
Canada Lake, Wales' most difficult field archery course
For results and more info on the tournament and European Pro archery, click here
The Welsh National Coach Ray Howells returned from the United States on 15th November where he has spent the past two weeks being trained to Level 3 of the new IFAA International Coaching System.
We are happy to report that Ray was successful in both the level 1 to 3 coaching course and the Masters Course. We have received word that Ray has been authorised by the IFAA Coaching Director Lynne Fairhall to develop and certify coaches up to Level 3 in due course.
With his successful completion of the course, Ray will now become the WFAA Director of Coaching in line with IFAA protocols and assumes responsibility for all aspects of coaching within Wales henceforward.
trained with Ray at the Easton Centre in November
The rollout of the system will commence in early 2012 when Ray will begin the task of training all WFAA coaches to Level 1 and 2 standard. Prior to this, we will be running an introductory session to brief the coaches on what to expect from the new coaching qualifications.
The WFAA General Committee congratulates Ray on becoming Wales' first IFAA qualified coach. We wish Ray well with the rollout of the WFAA coaching system and ask our members to give him your full support.
A new archery website, Archeryfix.com has been launched by Australian international Peter Bourke. Peter's aim with the new site is to give something back to the sport and it promises to do just that with features, articles, tournament details and much more.
The new website promises to provide information on all aspects of archery from all over the world and will include details of major tournaments from all corners of the globe.
Welsh & Open Field Archery Championships 2012
The Welsh & Open Field Archery Championships took place at the famous Fonmon Course in the Vale of Glamorgan and was hosted by Llantwit Major Archers on 28th and 29th of April.
Day 1 featured the Field round on the more difficult north course. Apart from being cold, the windy conditions together with the difficulty of the shots affected the scoring for many of the archers present, including some of the more experienced. The ground was also very slippery underfoot, making it very difficult for archers to make solid shots.
Fallen trees after high winds overnight
The second day was called off after a course inspection early on Sunday morning found that several trees had fallen over night in the high winds. Whilst it would have been possible to clear the trees in a few hours, the continuing high winds raised a safety concern and the decision was taken to cancel the hunter round. As it turned out, this was a good decision as two trees fell onto the shooting peg positions on the practice butts less than an hour after they were closed.
In the Gents Unlimited division, Geraint Thomas returned after a year's absence. Despite scoring well below his usual level, Geraint still had sufficient points in the bag to hold off the reigning champion Colin Ketley and William Hart from Inverness Archers who was challenging for the Welsh Open Championship. Nigel Kent however bucked the trend to record a superb score in the Gents Bowhunter Unlimited division to retain his title.
In the Recurve division, Mathew Symmonds recorded a solid score to win the Welsh & Open title for the seventh consecutive year. Meanwhile up and coming archer Nathan Trew, of Llantwit Major Archers shot a personal best score to take the silver medal. In the Compound Freestyle Limited group Pauline Linton of Drum Field Archers successfully defended her Welsh Open Championship title.
There was hot competition too in the longbow and historical bow divisions where Graham Anderson of Margam Archers recorded a strong score to take the Gents title. Sandra Russell, also of Margam Archers also shot very well to win the Ladies Historical bow division.
A special mention and congratulations is also offered to Wales' longest reigning national champion, Mike Lawson. Mike is one of the longest serving members of the WFAA having been a member for more than 40 years. His success at this year's tournament means Mike has continuously been the Welsh Bowhunter Recurve Champion for 25 years. Well done Mike on a fantastic achievement!
The WFAA General Committee would like to thank everyone who took part. We would also like to thank Llantwit Major Archers for putting on an excellent tournament with special thanks to Pete Hatherley.
Welsh and Open Indoor Championships 2012
Sponsored by Wales Archery Specialist
The Welsh & Open Indoor Championships 2012 was held at
Pentref Bowmen's Clubhouse at Ton Pentre, Rhondda on Sunday 15th January. This year was a particularly memorable occasion because we had the largest attendance ever. This included not only archers from within Wales but a good number who travelled from England and Scotland to compete for the
Welsh Open titles.
The WFAA General Committee wishes to thank our sponsors, Wales Archery Specialist and our Lord Paramount, Steve Kendrick, Vice President of the IFAA. We would also like to thank Pentref Bowmen for providing the venue and everyone who attended for making it an outstanding tournament.
Details of the newly established IFAA International Coaching System can be found by following the Coaching Structure link on the left hand navigation bar.
The first stage of our roll out of the system will be a course to train coaches to Level 1 and 2. This will involve 4 weekends of training and assessment which we are aiming to hold beginning in April.
The cost of the course is expected to be around £100 per applicant and this will be confirmed shortly. We will also be inviting applicants for the course in the next few weeks.
Additional information on the coaching courses was provided by Ray Howells on 15th January.
To visit the new site, click here
European Bowhunter Championship 2012
The European Bowhunter Championships will take place near Milan, Italy from 23rd - 29th June and Wales will be represented by a small but dedicated team:
Gary Hart (AMBHC)(c)
Garfield Thomas (AMLB)
Lyn Dickason (AFLB)
Congratulations to all of the team members for achieving their places and special congratulations to Gary Hart who reprises the captaincy of the team.
Classification Cards
The IFAA had advised that archers will henceforward be required to produce their classification cards at all international tournaments, including bowhunter and indoor championships. This requirement is now being enforced because your classification card is your record of achieved scores and it demonstrates competency. We will therefore be asking archers to produce their classification cards at all regional and national level tournaments and at classification/club shoots. Please remember that if you cannot produce your classification card, you will not be permitted to shoot.
Anyone who has misplaced their classification card must contact the Membership Secretary and request a replacement.
Sandra Takes Silver at European Indoor Champs
Congratulations to Sandra Russell and Graham Anderson on their impressive performances at the IFAA European Indoor Championships. Both archers set new Welsh records in the AFHB and AMHB divisions and Sandra picked up the silver medal aswell.
The European Indoor Championships took place at Parnu, Estonia from 21st to 24th March 2012. The standards at the tournament were very high this year but the Welsh contingent managed to hold their own against strong opposition. The finishing positions were:
Sandra Russell, Silver
Medalist, AFHB
Graham Anderson, 8th place, AMHB
Interested in starting archery?
Upcoming Tournaments:
FMT 1: St David Shoot
Whitney Court, Hay
on Wye
May 27th
Mullenborn,
Germany
June 16th - 17th
Recent Results:
Welsh & Open Championships
Fonmon, Vale of Glamorgan
April 28th - 29th
The Fonmon Challenge
Fonmon,
Vale of Glamorgan
March 25th
The Dinefwr Winter Shoot
Llanwrdda, Carmarthenshire
February 26th
The Red Kite Winter Shoot
Broad Oak, Carmarthenshire
January 29th
Welsh & Open Indoor Champs
Pentref Bowmen
January 16th
FMT 5:
Hywel y Dda Shoot
LMA, Fonmon
November 6th
FMT
4: Caradog Shoot
Red Kite Archers
October 2nd
FMT 3: Llewelyn
Fawr Shoot
Dinefwr Archers
September 4th
Yardmaster Shoot
Fonmon
July 24th
FMT 2: Owain
Glyndwr Shoot
Woodland Park
June 12th
Welsh Open 3D Championships
Tal y Coed
June 5th
The Fonmon Challenge
LMA, Fonmon
May 29th
FMT 1: St David
Shoot
Zenith Archers
May 15th
Fonmon Spring Shoot
LMA, Fonmon
March 13th
Welsh
& Open Indoor Champs
Pentref
January 16th
Features and Info:
Professional Field
Archery in
Europe
Last Update 07.05.2012