On Sunday the 10th April Llantwit Major Archery club hosted an introdution to Fonmon day at our field course at Fonmon castle. A good number of people turned up to learn about Fonmon course, how to shoot the course, how to shooot a field archery round in competition or for fun (or both), and enjoy some archery in good weather and good company!

The instruction was lead by Colin with assistance from Yoke, Mark and Peter. Given the experience of the instruction team everyone learnt something - even the Instructiors!

This is the first of a series of days put together to introduce our club members to Fonmon and Field Archery, to learn how a field archery course works, to learn how to move around the course safely, how a tournament shoot works and how to shoot the course. In some cases it was a top up day to extend our knowledge and share field craft between us all.

Shooting indoors or indeed in the court will give you some archery experience but it is not Field Archery, to experience field archery you have to shoot a course. We are lucky enough to have one of the best courses in the UK as our club course.

The day allowed us to describe how a tournament goes and what to think about before, during and after the tournament as well as how to shoot it. We then covered moving around the course safely and shooting different targets. The field skills required to shoot a couse like Fonmon are not something you can learn from a book - you really do have to experience shooting uphill, downhill and on a slope to understand what you need to do to give yourself the best chance of scoring well. We chose a number of targets as we walked the course to demonstrate the way to shoot on angles, uphill, downhill, what a slope does to you and why you dont simply line up and shoot - then hope for the best !

The next day in the series will focus further on these skills and include a short shoot with scores being recorded and then the targets shot again after instruction to see what the scores do. If you have not shot the course or want to improve your field skills please join us even if you could not manage to attend the first day, each day will be 'free standing' as far as we can make it.

The January Frostbite shoot went ahead as advertised on the 30th Jan - we called it a frostbite and it was! Those that braved the cold had a great shoot,

The stalwart few who braved the sub-zero dawn soon warmed up in the brilliant sunshine in the court. It was particularly nice to see Lydia and Theo, shooting outdoors for the first time and shooting very well.

The competition took the form of a darts match between team 1: Dave Peter Verity Kath and Theo and Team 2: Yoke Mark Colin and Lydia. Competition was fierce and fun, but after some impressive shooting and lots of laughter Team 2 won by a narrow margin, two games to one.

The shoot was followed by the now traditional barbeque supplemented by baked potatoes and cake. As the sunshine stayed with us shooting continued just for the fun of it until the party was broken up by the cold and the necessity of going home to domestic chores.

We look forward to seeing more of you at the next shoot when hopefully the weather will be a little warmer.

A few Photos of those that attended