Welcome to Ditchling Archery Club.
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 Postal Leagues 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.
My introduction was when as a family we went to a holiday park that had archery session. My daughter won a chocolate bar by beating everyone. She wanted to shoot more so when we got back, we signed up to a beginner’s course at Ditchling in 2007, and I have been here ever since. I have since been a regular member of the Sussex team, a national champion and UK record holder.
Archery is a sport for all ages, and we welcome juniors from age 10. When at a club venue we require that juniors under 16 are always 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 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 shoot may types of bows. I shoot an Olympic recurve bow, but at Ditchling we have Compound, Barebow and longbow archers as well.
I really 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 readymade and assembled, the choice is yours. We can help you with any questions regarding maintenance of your equipment and tuning.
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, Nationally or even internationally. 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 bow 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. You don’t need to know every rule but need to follow the basic rules regarding safe shooting. If you join one of our beginners’ courses, we will teach you these. Our membership fee includes elements that fund archery at both national and regional level. Archery GB also is a member of World Archery which in turn allows you as an archer to shoot in any country that is affiliated to World Archery.
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.
Ben Green,
Chairman, Ditchling Archery Club.