Congratulations to James Milburn, who located the Christmas Elf on the CLUB STUFF > ROUNDS > St.Nicholas round SCORE SUBMIT page (hints were dropped that the page had Christmassy connotations - and the links were even re-formatted in bold red!) after the little critter had enjoyed six days, 11 hours and three minutes of freedom.
The URL of the Elf's hideout is http://islandarchers.org/score_84.php for anyone who wants to go and wave at him (and see that you weren't being wound up!). He will be removed, doubtless kicking and screaming, on the night of Thursday 8th January 2009, but he'll almost certainly find a way of escaping in, say, 11 months' time!
So the £15 Custom Built Archery gift voucher goes to James as soon as it can be arranged with CBA's head office, and Woolworths vouchers for everyone else.
CLUB NEWS
5 Jan 2009 January Venues
The Nicolson Institute has assured the Club that its Wednesday night indoor shoots will be in the Assembly Hall from 7th January 2009 through until 21st January.
However, since Prelim Exams on the 28th January would have relegated us to the comparatively short-ranged Matheson Hall once again, it has been decided that shooting on the Club night scheduled for that date should be CANCELLED to make way for a meeting to discuss important Club matters, the venue for which will be announced shortly.
CLUB NEWS
3 Jan 2009 Island Archers website gets Content Management System
Certain sections of Island Archers website have received a significant overhaul, and now sport a shiny new content management system (CMS) for news items, meaning that the non-technically minded amongst the Club can post and edit news to the website without having to learn the complexities of programming website code.
17 Dec 2008 Stuart cooks up Christmas Pudding Shoot steamer
Many congratulations to Club Secretary Stuart Oakley, who completely outperformed the competiton at last night's Christmas Pudding Shoot with an almost uncharacteristic show of consistency and nerve to take home the admiration of his peers (and The Pudding!).
In front of an audience of his fellow competitors and two visiting Canadian archers (whose names escape your humble narrator - many apologies!), the evening's head-to-head competition was shot with 12-arrow passes on triple-spot faces at full(!) Matheson Hall range, and started with a round-robin in which Stuart beat Linda Mackay by a considerable margin, whilst Toby Marshall narrowly edged a one-point victory against James Milburn. In the second round of the round-robin, Stuart also narrowly beat James, and Toby sailed to triumph over Linda.
16 Dec 2008 FITA to help develop archery in schools
Archery's World Governing Body FITA has signed an agreement with the International School Sport Federation (ISF) to develop archery in schools following year-long discussions between ISF and the FITA Youth Development Committee.
As part of the agreement, from the next World Schools' Championships, which will be held in Doha, Qatar, between 7th and 12th December 2009, two archery competitions will be added to the programme; one for young archers who are in school and one for teams of schools that use archery as an optional sport but are not regular members of the National Archery Associations. For the second group a set of standard archery equipment will be used so that there is no difference between the children.
REGIONAL NEWS
11 Dec 2008 New logo for Scottish Archery Association
The Scottish Archery Association (SAA) has concluded its search for a new logo following an exhaustive consultation with its membership. At its recent AGM, the SAA selected Logo Number 12 as the winning design, which was submitted by none other than Murray Elliott, the original designer of this website.
"I would like to thank all who put in the time and effort to submit the wonderful designs that gave us all an extensive choice for the new face of the Scottish Archery Association," commented SAA President Tina James.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1 Dec 2008 FITA launch 'World Archery' brand
At it's recent congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, archery's World Governing Body, the Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc (FITA) has voted to launch World Archery as a brand to 'unify all of the activities, events, and members of FITA under one brand name that will be centrally promoted by FITA and its Continental Associations', according to a FITA press release.
The new brand, the 'outcome of FITA's Archery World Plan to develop a clear understanding of the values and image of international archery', will be launched during the outdoor season along with the new logo, and fully presented at FITA's 2009 Congress in Ulsan, Korea, on 30th and 31st August 2009.
NATIONAL NEWS
23 Nov 2008 Another national ladies Portsmouth record tumbles
Congratulations to Under-16 Mari Jones from Bowmen of Warfield Archery Club, who is claiming a new National Portsmouth Record (which is subject to ratification) for the Junior Ladies Barebow, shooting 534, at the recent Berkshire Archery Association Indoor County Championships. She shot a massive 17 points above the existing record, which has stood since November 2003.
NATIONAL NEWS
16 Nov 2008 National ladies recurve Portsmouth record broken
The national ladies' recurve Portsmouth record has been broken at the recent Lancashire Indoor Championships.
The previous record, which has stood at 591 since November 1993, was broken by a score of 593 by Salford-born Charlotte Burgess (left) of the Bowmen of Bruntwood club, a member of the highly successful UK women's recurve team that won a bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships. For the uninitiated, the maximum score for a Portsmouth round, one of the most commonly-shot indoor archery rounds, is 600.
Having narrowly missed selection for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games at the age of 17, 21-year old Charlotte was eliminated in the second round of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games individual finals by team mate Naomi Folkard, although her efforts in the Team competition put the UK Ladies Team into the semi-final, but they were narrowly edged out of the Bronze medal by the French.
NATIONAL NEWS
6 Nov 2008 A sad farewell to Paralympian archer
Paralympic archer Lynne Burton (left) has died at the age of 34.
Lynne, an international archer since 2004, qualified to represent Team GB at this year's Paralympic Games in Beijing, but later had to withdraw. She died following an unexpected downturn in her medical condition, resulting in liver failure.
"This is devastating, and has stunned us all," said Team GB Paralympic coach Tim Hazell, "Lynne was a lovely, bubbly character who never let anything get her down, she was an inspiration, and I am proud to have worked with her as a coach.
"She was a fantastic ambassador for Archery GB, and it was such a massive disappointment after she qualified for Beijing to then have to withdraw. But even from hospital she still kept in touch and involved, and was a popular and highly respected member of the GB squad.
"It goes without saying that everyone at Archery GB has been knocked for six by this news, and our sincere condolences have been sent to her family."
Congratulations to James Milburn, who located the Christmas Elf on the 
Many congratulations to Club Secretary Stuart Oakley, who completely outperformed the competiton at last night's Christmas Pudding Shoot with an almost uncharacteristic show of consistency and nerve to take home the admiration of his peers (and The Pudding!).
The Scottish Archery Association (SAA) has concluded its search for a new logo following an exhaustive consultation with its membership. At its recent AGM, the SAA selected Logo Number 12 as the winning design, which was submitted by none other than Murray Elliott, the original designer of this website.
At it's recent congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, archery's World Governing Body, the 
The national ladies' recurve Portsmouth record has been broken at the recent Lancashire Indoor Championships.
Paralympic archer Lynne Burton (left) has died at the age of 34.