Sport England: Active Together has provided £3,200 of match funding
Trackside Archery and Shooting Club
Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
Aim
To continue to support our ambition to teach shooting to all members of our community.
Who are we?
Before I explain who, we are, I would like to thank Crowdfunder, Sport England and the local businesses for their support during our 2020 campaign. The Sport England grant we received helped significantly to offset the losses through 2020/2021 and keep the club running.
Trackside Archery and Shooting Club was founded 11 years ago, we are based in rural Lincolnshire near the town of Caistor. We cater for people of all ages, abilities, with a wide range of shooting styles from beginner to expert. It does not matter if you want to shoot socially or take part in many of the club and county competitions.
Shooting in all its forms is a very inclusive sports and promotes all aspects of well-being, improving physical and mental health. We have people who shoot purely for enjoyment through to county champions. We have a great coaching structure with qualified level 1 and 2 Archery coaches.
Members of Trackside Archery and Shooting Club are a group of friendly, fun and enthusiastic people committed to supporting and developing a range of shooting skills from air pistol and rifle to traditional longbow archery through to modern compound bows, and now we have 2 instructors we can offer target crossbow shooting too.
The National Crossbow Federation held their National Championships over 2 days on the 11-12 September 2021, it was a Double TC900, Ged won with a Score of 1496, This was only Ged’s second competition with his Target Crossbow.
The club’s outdoor archery range is open Sunday, Monday & Tuesday (by Key Code for Members Only). The club is also open on Wednesday 9am - 10.00pm and Thursday, Friday & Saturday 9am - 5pm for both members and non-members.
On site we have 90m (100 Yard) outdoor and 18m (20 Yard) indoor target archery ranges, and 18m (20 Yard) and 10m (11 Yard) indoor air weapon ranges.
We provide a range of courses for children and adults. A basic ‘have a go session’ - a taster for the sport! Beginners’ courses which teach the fundamental skills of archery, our club Level 1 and 2 coaches offer regular sessions through the year and helpful advice / support whenever they are at the club, we plan to restart this during the 2021 winter season.
We regularly have air rifle improver days with support from County and Regional coaches.
Archers from Trackside compete at club, county, and national level. Our club competitions are immensely enjoyed by our members and by visiting archers too.
Tim, Karen, Steve and Aidan all representing Lincolnshire today at Thoresby in the Inter-Counties Annual Match (Sept 21)
Members who shoot air weapons compete at club and county level.
During 2020 and the early part of 2021 most of the competitions club members participate in had to be cancelled, As 31st October 2021 we will be hosting the winter series competition for the first time in 2 years!
Not everyone is interested in competing and many of our members see this as an opportunity to socialise with events like the summer BBQ, Christmas games night and our annual christmas dinner. Hopefully as things return to the 'new' normal we will be able to revisit these.
Did you know?
Shooting has been an ever-present discipline at the Olympic Games and was one of the original nine that featured in the Athens games in 1896. In 1900 Archery becomes an official Olympic event at the Paris Olympic Games. In 1988 Air pistol shooting introduced as an Olympic event.
Current Situation
Like so many other clubs and business across the UK over the last 18 months, and 3 lockdowns, we have suffered a significant financial penalty by the restrictions imposed on sports by the Covid-19 pandemic. Towards the end of April clubs could reopen if they were able to provide and maintain a safe environment to shoot, with a further reduction in restrictions during July 2021, the club reopened fully August 2021, however, we still operate within the government and sport governing body Covid 19 guidelines to protect our members.
With club members being unable to shoot for several months and latterly restricted numbers we have had a significant reduction in fees, from January to April the club income was reduced to zero, all efforts have been made to reduce the club operating costs, supported by property owner where we shoot. Despite the loss of income, we must cover our rental commitment and therefore It is imperative we keep our club secure and continue to provide such excellent shooting facilities to our members and wider community
There has been a significant impact on the number of people who can be at the club at any one time. We have had to cut the available capacity by ~50%, this means we are achieving half of the revenue we need to maintain our thriving club.
At the recent AGM we reviewed our membership numbers and only 60% will be re-joining. So the club will be actively looking at encouraging new members to join.
We want to make sure we can stay open with the facilities and equipment we need to continue attracting new members and teaching anyone who is interested about the sport we love.
Why support our Crowdfunder?
Crowdfunding will help us to raise money to keep the club moving forward and developing archery and shooting in the locality. All monies raised will ensure the club can continue at its present location and support all its current members as well as future members and to continue to provide accessible sports facility for our community. Every pound pledged to support the club will help to cover the following areas:
- Rental fees for our indoors and outdoors facilities.
- To purchase consumables e.g., new target bosses, target faces, cleaning supplies etc.
- Maintaining and replace existing equipment bows, air weapons.
- Continued support in training our coaching staff in the on-going Archery GB Coaching and National Smallbore Rifle Association courses.
- To support our ambition to teach shooting to all members of our community.
Community Involvement
From our beginning in 2010 Trackside Archery and shooting club have actively supported the community from school, scout, and cub groups to providing a facility and coaching for young people to complete the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Gold awards.
While most of the work is at the club, we also engage in offsite events promoting Archery as a sport and support several public events throughout the year with equipment and trained volunteers.
Our Club coaches ran regular beginners’ archery courses until lock down, now we are implementing measures to keep Covid safe and resumed running these courses in September 2021.
We also teach archery to Visually impaired, individuals with learning difficulties and those in wheelchairs. Except for visually impaired we provide the same support to those who shoot air weapons.
Well done to Holly who shot in September 2021 for Lincolnshire juniors in the Sydney Bond. The team may not have won but Holly came away with 1st place for the recurve girls, great result!
What do our members think of Trackside.
See the rewards if you're interested in the bows below!
This project successfully funded on 15th November 2021