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TVA Christmas Charity Funshoot
Well as with every year, the Trent Valley Archers have braved the cold hall (it was suggested that outside was warmer, though a gas heater helped). New to this years proceedings was a warm up session which I think everyone was somewhat surprised at. After the surprise warm up, "competitive" shooting began shortly afterwards with the usual don't pop the balloons and then pop the balloons rounds as well as aiming for targets so small that with a scope I'm sure compound archers still struggled!

Of course the festive cheating started off very early with persons who will rename nameless; actually no, you know who you are Dave and Quentin! Arrows were quickly being 'strategically confiscated' in the event of a further 'don't pop the balloons round' though as usual, accusations of cheating were thrown back and forth, including one team claiming the other had shot more arrows than they were allowed whilst their boss's held easily twice as many arrows as the other teams!

Every round a team eventually won a donated raffle prize ranging from small chocolates to the largest key-ring I have ever seen. During shooting a paid raffle was held in support of the Donna Louise Trust which raised £80 in ticket sales at £1 per ticket. Shortly after the Donna Louise Trust raffle, a shoot-off was held over the coveted 'DVD player' with every entrant paying £1 per arrow shot in order to stand a chance at winning the prize (raising a further £37 for a total of £117). Confusion, as usual, immediately followed concerning what the actual objective was, so guesswork came into play here. Unbeknownst to us all, there was a booby prize involved too for whoever was the furthest away, luckily for Kyle it was a rather tasty looking bag of Jaffa Cakes!

Two finalists were eventually selected who's arrows had to be measured precisely(ish) in order to determine a winner, most people thought this shot from Graham must have clinched it:



However Ben beat him with this shot:



Overall, not too many arrows suffered fatal damage (though I lost a recently applied fletching early on) and everyone seemed to enjoy the cold yet festive event. So with a bit of luck (or bad luck I suppose if you wanted new arrows) not much equipment was destroyed although plenty of balloons were. Graham suggested the funshoot was a brilliant way of softening up the bosses ready for the summer, though the foam boss suffered a lot of punishment.

Thanks to all who shot and donated towards the very deserving Donna Louise Trust whom we hope have a very good Christmas, hopefully more events can be held this coming year in order to support you further.

Thanks for all the prizes donated and hope everyone enjoys their Christmas, especially the chocolate that was won!

It was excellent to meet some of the old club members whom are returning to the hobby, what a brilliant way to return! To all, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Trent Valley Archers:



A gallery to the pictures is available here, if you have any more pictures then please e-mail them to admin@trentvalleyarchers.co.uk

- Liam Parrish (19/12/2009, 18:51)