The Per Ardua Archery Society

Brighton 29/05/04

Round = Junior Western

ROYAL AIR FORCE ARCHERY SOCIETY
WIN GOLD 

On or around the bank holiday in May each year, the Royal Air Force Archery Society (PAAS) is invited to take part in a competition against St Dunstan’s.  

Based on the sea front of Brighton, St Dunstan’s has been working its magic since 1915, when Arthur Pearson who was the President of the National Institute for the Blind established it.  St Dunstan’s is a charitable organisation that provides crucial assistance to ex-Service men and women with very significant loss of sight.  It plays a very important part in their rehabilitation, independence and optimism so they can make the most of the opportunities available to them. 

Starting at 10 am on the 29 May 2007, the field of archers was vast, with representatives from all three services and of course a team from St Dunstan’s.  The Royal Air Force Society posted a field of ten people, seven of which where full serving members of the RAF and three being Society members.  With the weather being clear skies and sunshine the shoot started well for all members of the Society. We were all aware, however, how difficult it would be to win the event as we had only won it on two occasions in the last 20 years, the last being in 2002.  It was evident by the first few ends that it was going to be a well-contested event, with all teams scoring highly.  When lunch was taken, there was not a lot between any of the teams and the RAF Society needed to up their game in the second half in order to win the competition. 

After we were all well fed and watered, the Society team came out fighting and started to score highly, and applying the pressure to the other teams. The St Dunstan’s team were still hot on our heals, and we were never sure until the end if we had done enough. By 4 pm the shoot was over, and it was now in the hands of the gods to see whether we had done enough to win. 

After taking a short break the results were in. The overall result was based on the best four archer scores from each team. In fourth place with an overall score of 2792 was the Army, in third place with 5636 was the Royal Navy. This was it, had the RAF Society done enough this year to beat St Dunstan’s? And it was in; in second place with 5858 was St Dunstan’s, which left the RAF Society to claim first place with a total score of 6018 points.  The four archers claiming gold for the Society were Chf Tech Steve ‘Gringo’ Wildman, Cpl Paul Herrett (both from 33 Sqn RAF Benson), SAC (T) Giles Fowler (RAF Brize Norton) and Chf Tech Pete O’Loughlin (RAF Wyton).  Congratulations to all four team members for an outstanding shoot. 

I would like to pass my thanks on to all personnel at St Dunstan’s for a wonderful day, and we await our chance of defending our trophy next year.