The Per Ardua Archery Society recently held a Society Training Weekend at RAF Cranwell. This is my first year as a member of the Society but my fourth year of archery.
I had heard from a tutor on my Archery coaching course that the Royal Air Force had a Society for archers (my hubby currently employed by Her Majesty and myself having previously spent sometime in the Paas) which I could join. This was the first I had heard of Per Ardua, so after hunting down their website, I duly contacted Steve Darby-Smythe and became a member, paying the princely sum of £5 for a year.
In December, Martin Evans the website guru and all round good egg, sent me an email inviting me to their first ever Society Training Weekend. A Schedule of events soon followed which included lots of coaching, shooting and a talk by Elite Archer – Steve Hallard (lots of world and Olympic medals!!) – how could I resist? I signed up and looked forward to meeting some new people.
I hadn’t been to the Sheik Hamad Gym at Cranwell and was gob smacked on arrival to find some of the best indoor facilities I have ever seen, anywhere. A brand new gym with heating!! Absolutely fabulous! The Hall was miles long and acres wide (well about 60 yards by 50) with loads of room to shoot.
I got to meet most of the committee and found them to be a very affable bunch of people, Coaching by Steve Wildman, Andy Cramb (thanks Andy) and Martin Evans was outstanding and the talk by Steve Hallard was fantastic – Steve turned out to be a genuinely lovely person and took the time and trouble to explain in great detail how he achieved his success. We shot for most of day and then we were invited to the Pub in the evening where Dave Clemens turned out to be not only the thinnest man in NATO but also the man with the funniest stories – I laughed ‘til my sides ached.
Next day we followed on with the previous days coaching tips being applied and had some tournament pre routine advice from Martin, wrapping up about lunchtime. All in all a great weekend, where I made some new archery mates and can’t wait for the next one, hopefully sometime in April.
Mandy Cox (newbie)