Welcome to Ditchling Archery Club 2024!
We are a small, friendly archery club in mid-Sussex with a current membership of around 40. Our archers include compound, recurve, barebow and longbow, and most weeks you will find all of these out on the field. Many of our members have represented Sussex in County matches and have had success as individuals representing the club in their own right. We have one County Coach and two assistant coaches, plus a number of long-standing experienced archers to help with development of newcomers to the club and run the beginners’ courses.
We shoot all year round in pleasant surroundings at Ditchling Recreation Ground, taking part in the Selby Postal a League during the Summer months. During the Indoor season from October to March the club was in four different leagues for recurve, barebow and longbow. Members also take part in open shoots run by archery clubs in Sussex and its neighbouring counties. There are also many archers among our numbers who shoot just shoot for pleasure.
Anyone, providing they have completed a recognised beginners’ course and adhere to the GNAS motto of Union, Trueheart and Courtesie, is welcome to shoot with us.
Our website provides information about where we shoot, membership fees, our coaching team and our shooting calendar, together with regular updates on the club’s activities and its progress in various competitions throughout the year. You will find relevant contact information on the site’s pages or you can visit our contact page, where you will find contact details for various members of the club.
A message from our Chairman.
Welcome to our website – and maybe, soon, welcome to our club.
So, why archery? I started with a Beginners’ Course in 1989 as I fancied doing something different and saw an article written by one of the club members in the Mid Sussex Times announcing an upcoming course. So I booked myself in for that, and yes, I was hooked from the off.
Archery is a sport for all ages and we welcome Juniors from age 8. When at a club venue we require that Juniors under 15 are at all times accompanied by their parent or guardian.
One of the great attributes of the sport is you can get into it as deeply (or not) as you want, and still have fun and yet you can constantly challenge yourself to improve. The club has members who shoot longbow just for fun (trust me, there’s no other way.) which can be likened to shooting twigs with a stick. Or you could try a recurve bow which can be shot in Barebow style, rules of which allows very little in the way of shooting aids and so is a very intuitive style of shooting. Recurve bows can also be in the Olympic competition style with a sight to help your aim and stabilisation (the rods that attach to top, sides, and front of the bow) to help hold it steady. Then, the most technical is a compound bow which has wheels (or cams) at both the top and bottom of the bow together with a sight that can have a magnifying lens to aid your aim, and again, stabilisation.
We have several members who shoot more than one bow type – I shoot an olympic recurve bow and longbow.
I enjoy the technical side of archery, and there certainly can be a lot to absorb and do. I make my bowstrings and arrows, but most members buy their equipment ready made and assembled, the choice is yours.
As with any sport, you can take it to a level that suits you; either doing it just for fun, or challenging yourself by entering one or more of the many competitions run by archery clubs locally or across the country. Over the years we have had members develop their skill enough to compete at county, and even national, level.
There are of course rules to shooting any particular style and these are set by the National Governing Body for archery in Great Britain, Archery GB. Our club is proud to be affiliated to Archery GB, and we operate under their rules and guidelines. Our membership fee includes elements that fund archery at both national and regional level.
Thank you for finding our website, I hope you have a look around and perhaps have your interest sparked to get in contact with us and explore archery with us further, whether you are new to the sport, a returning or current archer.
Peter Humphreys,
Chairman, Ditchling Archery Club.