Irish Archery School

Club News Club News

Congratulations to Ciaran Keane, junior member of the Irish Archery Club, who has been selected to represent Ireland in Wales at the Junior Euronations shoot at the end of July. We wish him the best of luck.

On the 23rd of August the club is holding its inaugural Irish Field Archery Federation Standard Big Game Round in Rahin Wood. Excitement is high and we are busy planning and organising for the 36 targets.

On the 9th and 10th of August, Larry Wise, American Compound Archer, coach and author is coming to the Irish Archery Club's Confey College venue to hold a two day masterclass. Further details can be found on the IAAA calendar.

The Irish Archery Club is a very active organisation with 12 days of competitions on the books for 2008 in addition to offering the use of the club's facilities to the IAAA for National training on 4 other days.

So far this year the club has hosted 2 European Championship Qualifier 70m events in the walled garden at Drewstown House and also 2 days of National Training at Confey College.

The club hosted the IAAA National Field Championships and All Ireland Field Championships on the 26th and 27th of April. The shoot was held in Rahin Wood and well attended by archers from all over Ireland.

In the first weeks of May the club hosted an afternoon Schools' shoot in Confey College for novice archers who have been undergoing training in their various schools under the IAAA Women In Sport program. This was an introduction to competitive archery for these students and hopefully encourage them to take their interest in this sport further.

On the 20th and 21st September Rahin Wood again becomes the venue for a combined FITA field and FITA Forest Field event in our last shoot of the year.... for now.... though you never know!....

All this in addition to weekly training sessions at our various club grounds.

20th January - European Championship Qualifier

The day was full of promise but unfortunately remained overcast throughout with a few drops of light rain. Thankfully there was little more than a slight breeze which dropped in the afternoon. Although temperatures were expected to be low it was suprisingly mild and the 21 archers who took part gained some respectable scores. Indeed, Keith Hanlon managed to shoot two qualifying scores and also achieve a perfect 60 points at 70m with a lovely group of arrows in the gold.

26th January - European Championship Qualifier

Back in the walled garden again but this time with less than ideal conditions. The rain stayed off but there were strong very variable crosswinds throughout the day which caused the archers some serious problems. At times the flags at the shooting line and butts were being blown from left to right while those half way down the field were blowing in the opposite direction. It was hardly suprising under these conditions that no qualifying scores were shot but the 18 archers who attended were happy to have an additional opportunity to qualify for the European Championships

5th/6th April

Confey College in Leixlip was the venue for two days of National Training at the beginning of April. The field was used at 40m on the saturday morning, to aclimatise the junior and college archers attending to the longer outdoor distances, before everyone moved into the hall for 18m training on the 8 butts that were set up. Sunday was senior squad training and took place in the hall all day. There were large numbers on the saturday but fewer were able to attend on the sunday.

26th/27th April

Rahin Wood was used for the first time for the National and All Ireland Field Championships. Both days boasted excellent shooting conditions with the forest looking particularly stunning in the warm Spring sunlight. The bluebells were in full flower and the beech leaves just breaking out to make it very picturesque. The signature shot was the steep 20m uphill 40cm face with many archers having difficulty hitting the gold. Unfortunately the rain, which had held off till then, decided to dampen the medal presentations.

14th May

Confey College in Leixlip was the venue for an afternoon of competitive shooting for archers trained under the IAAA/ Irish Sports Council Women in Sports programme. The weather was glorious as archers shot 30 arrows at 14m. Confey students were on hand to serve cool drinks as the temperatures soared. Some excellent results were achieved by all competitors and everyone went home happy.

7th/8th June

Confey College in Leixlip was again the venue for two days of National Training. Hans Blum and the other coaches made great use of the facilities, shooting outdoors for both days at distances up to 90m.