Disabled and Junior Support for Hull Archery Club

Hull Archery Club is a non profit indoor archery club based in Hull, East Yorkshire, that currently shoots on Friday evenings at the Walton Street Leisure Centre, at the bottom of Goathland Close, Walton Street.

We shoot in a large indoor sports hall, with six distant targets which can be moved closer for training, disabled archers and archers who would struggle with limited body strength.

We were originally three separate clubs for different ages and abilities, but joined into one larger, better equipped club.

The club is a friendly family orientated club for anyone aged 10+ (under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian).  We have a lot of members who just use the club as a social evening, and as a chance to have a night out with friends, as we bring people together with common interests, who they might not have met otherwise.

Our History

The Archery club in its own right has been running for 30 years in one form or another, at various locations around the city. Originally the club operated exclusively as a dedicated club for disabled members.

In 2011 the club membership dwindled to a low rate where it wasn’t viable to keep the club open without drastic change, just 2 members. The club was rebranded as the Hull Archery Club, and opened its doors to adults of all abilities, disabled or otherwise. Within 3 months the club had risen to a rate where it needed to expand and was moved to the large hall in the Walton Street Leisure Center.

After two years in the large hall, the Hull Archery Club decided to register with the governing bodies for the sport of archery. These include Archery GB which is the main national body which covers the entire country. Then we are also affiliated to the Northern Counties Archery Society, and also the Yorkshire Archery Association, which both cover the local area.

All our coaches either hold a current Archery GB recognised coaching qualification or are in the process of training towards one. We have also mentored coaches from other clubs in their training to become qualified coaches.

How you can support us

With your help, we will be able to help people within the community who struggle with meaningful and productive pass times and our goal is to be able to give this to them without worrying of needing to afford memberships fees or expensive training plans.

You will also be helping us to get back to being able to train the future generations or archers and help get disabled members of our community in to the sport.

Your donations will ensure the club can continue shoot at its current venue and support all its current members by being able to provide them with all the equipment and training they could need. Every donation made to support the club will help us with the following:

• Your donations will be pivotal in acquiring equipment for disabled and junior members. From custom and specialised bows, arrows and targets, we also hope to replace and Improve our accessibility for disabled members. With enough support we will be able to welcome these members to the club free of charge.
• You will be helping us to replace our current equipment such as new target bosses, target faces, communal bows, arrows and arm guards and tabs for new starters. Your donations will also be helping us to better maintain our existing equipment which all of our members will be benefited from.
• Your donations will also allow us to purchase some extra safety equipment such as "back stop" netting and equipment to make sessions safer for Junior and Disabled users.
• Continued support for costs in training our current and new coaching staff in Archery GB Coaching courses. By having our trainers fully coached, we can better train our archers and members who want to go on to participate at tournament and competitor level.
• With social distancing measures in place we are unable to accommodate the same number of members each week as we did before in our venue. With many of our members unable to participate, we would like to open our venue once more in the week. To be able to do this we will need additional funding to rent out the venue until we build up our membership fees.

Our Goal

Pre-Covid, the club was working to build enough funds so we could replace some of our pre-existing equipment which is now either beyond repair or to be disposed of (around 75% of our equipment is currently unfit for purpose).

When the basic equipment was replaced ie basic communal bows, arrows, targets and a net, we hoped to turn our attention to acquiring equipment for Junior and Disabled members and to also allow these members to join the club free of charge.

At Hull Archery Club, we have always been focused on wanting to help those with disabilities and we worked closely with the Hull Deaf Centre to translate our training video which was filmed with one of our Junior members, as a learning tool for any of our new members and any of those which may be hearing impaired.

With your support, we can get back to being able to support people in all manner of ways such as this.

Current Conditions and Situation

Hull Archery Club operates as a non profit organisation, meaning any revenue gained is from membership fees and this revenue is only used for the benefit of the club and its members.

As is the case with the vast majority of clubs, organisations and businesses, we have been very badly hurt financially by the effects of the pandemic. Our club was forced to close during the first national lockdown and once we reopened, social distancing measures being put in place meant memberships and attendance are massively down.

Any hopes of being able to purchase new equipment for disabled and junior members were dashed as the funds we had saved from our membership fees had to be used to pay rent on our premises whilst we were closed and now with a second lockdown the club faces closure due to low cash flow and an inability to pay future rent.

Much of the equipment we have is passed the point it should be used. The majority of our arrows have been damaged beyond repair. Our back stop net is too small and has been punctured by arrows. Quivers for arrows have now had to be replaced by using drainpipes and queue barriers as makeshift quivers.

Our club is in danger but with your support you can help to keep our club open and help us get members of our community in to a sport they may not ever thought they could get access to.