Any returning archers (or eager new ones) are able to buy this years membership via the RUSU website.

The membership this year is slightly different:

Returning archers can buy the one off £35 membership and be done for the year.

New  archers wishing to take part on our 4 week beginners course are able to pay £20 just for the course and then top up their membership at any point during this 4 week period at one of our sessions.

If you wish to find out more come find us at freshers fayre (6th Oct). Or if you fancy having a go, we’ll be on the rugby field on the day too from 11 into the afternoon.

Each year Reading University Bowmen takes part in the E-League which universities submit indoor season’s scores.  Each University team submits best Portsmouth scores in 5 rounds over the indoor season.  Then each university are awarded points in each round, information can be found on http://www.srcf.ucam.org/eleague/rules

Reading University senior A team finished 2nd with an average score of 2186.8 in the 4th division with 1 point short of Essex A team which took 1st.  The senior B team came in 3rd place on point system with the highest average score in its division with a total score of 1898.

The novice team consists of archers who have only under a years experience in shooting.  The novice team came in 4th place in the 3rd division with an average score of 957.8.

We are pleased to announce that the senior A and B team will be promoted up a division next year.  Well done to all the archers that participated, see you all again for the next indoor season.

A few months ago Archery GB laid out its ontarget program. This program is in place to help support archery clubs so that they are better able to support their archers.

This is a great opportunity for us as it gives us a chance for recognition, rewards and extra development and support.

Being accepted onto this program fulfils a large portion of the clubs mission statement.

As it stands we are one of 3 university clubs to be accepted and the only club in Berkshire on the program.

On Sunday, the 27th of February, Reading University Bowmen a SEAL match against Surrey and Sussex Universities archery clubs at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre.

Reading’s senior team came first with a combined score of 2119, Surrey followed in second place with a score of 2093. Reading has also won the novice match with a score of 1028, followed by Surrey, who only had one novice archer in their team, with a score of 167. Sussex did not attend to the match, which has resulted in their forfeit.

This match has granted Reading 3 points in the senior SEAL league, which keeps it in 3rd place with 8 points and only one point behind Southampton who still has one more match to go, and Essex, who had already played all of their matches.

The novice match has also given Reading 3 points in the novice league, adding up to a total of 7 points and securing 3rd place as well. Two points behind Southampton and three points behind Essex.

The SEAL tables can be found on http://www.uksaa.com/seal/2011_league.shtml

The final teams results are as follows:

Reading Senior:

Anthony Tang 546
Dan Cripps 526
Tom Castle 525
Ibrahim Al Mohanadi 522

Total team score: 2119

Surrey Senior:

Andy Chetwynd 541
Mathew Brown 541
Oli Davis 517
Helen Keyworth 494

Total team score: 2093

Reading Novice:

Alistair Whieldon 396
Neel Trivdi 335
Rebecca Emerton 297

Total team score: 1028

Surrey Novice:

Kenneth Ingles 167

Total team score: 167

The next SEAL match will be hosted by Imperial on the 13th of March against Imperial and Kent Universities.

On the 19th of February, a team from Reading University Bowmen has taken part in the British Universities Archery Team Championships (BUTC) hosted by Napier and Edinburgh Universities. The team consisted of Ibrahim Al Mohanadi, Tom Castle and Dan Cripps.

The competition consisted of two rounds, a qualification round where the teams shoots a “Bray I” round and the team’s scores are combined in order to get seeded. RUB has scored a total of 774 and got seeded 7th place out of 32.

In the knockouts round, the teams compete on hit/miss targets where the team with the highest hits out of 24 goes through to the next round. RUB went against Durham in the 1st round, the first three ends were a tie between the two teams where they both scored 2, 4 and 6 respectively, on the last round, a judges ruling meant that RUB was only able to score a single hit whereas Durham scored two. The final score was 7-8 to Durham.

Overall winners of the competition were Nottingham, with Birmingham a close second, Edinburgh 3rd, and fellow SEAL team Southampton placed fourth.

As many of you may know this weekend (19th) see the return of the British University Team Championship up in Edinburgh.

Once again Reading University Bowmen will be send a team of 3 archers, Dan Cripps, Ibrahim Al Mohanadi and Tom Castle; these three archers will try to beat lasts years astounding 4th place position.

If any of you wish to keep track of how our team is doing then there is a live stream that will be running come Saturday.

Show your support and send in messages for your fellow archers!

On Saturday, the 12 of February, Reading University Bowmen went to the University of Southampton for a SEAL match against Southampton University and Brunel University archery clubs.

The match was scheduled to start on 10 am, but due to difficulties with hall bookings at the University of Southampton there was a 7 hours delay, which made the match start at 5 pm.

Reading’s senior team came second with a combined score of 2063, whereas Southampton came first with a 162 points difference. The novice match had a similar result with Reading coming second to Southampton with a combined score of 1409 and a difference of 21 points from first. Brunel did not attend to the match, which has resulted in their forfeit.

Both matches granted Reading 2 points in the South Eastern Archery League, which moves the senior team to 3rd place with 5 points, and the novice team to 3rd with 4 points.

The SEAL tables can be found on http://www.uksaa.com/seal/2011_league.shtml

The final teams results are as follows:

Southampton Senior:

Sam Bird 566
Brad Keogh 557
Chris Skipper 555
Richard Whiter 547

Total team score: 2225

Reading Senior:

Ibrahim Al Mohanadi 538
Tom Castle 519
Anthony Tang 504
Ruth Harris 502

Total team score: 2063

Southampton Novice:

James Towle 498
Lee Turner 478
Emily Taverner 454

Total team score: 1430

Reading Novice:

James Randall
Ethan Davies 474
Alistair Whieldon 434

Total team score: 1409

The next SEAL match will be hosted by Reading on the 27th of February against Surrey and Sussex Universities. We will not accept losing a valuable 3 points for this match by not coming first place.

On Sunday, the 30^th of January, Reading University Bowmen went to the University of Essex for a SEAL match against Essex University and UCL archery clubs.

The senior team, with a combined score of 2153, and leading by almost 50 points, has won first place in the match, granting the club three points in the South-eastern universities archery league.

The novice team came second to Essex with a combined score of 1136, granting the club two points in the novice league.

The University of Essex archery club was one of the notable opponents to RUB, gaining first in the senior league against them was one of the challenges we as a club needed to go through in this league.

The South Eastern Universities Archery League table can be found on http://www.uksaa.com/seal/2011_league.shtml

Southampton hosts the next SEAL match on the 12^th of February, which will be against Southampton and Brunel. This is expected to be another challenging match since Southampton is another notable opponent to go against.

Reading University Bowmen are proud to announce that they have been selected for sponsorship by top professional services company, KPMG in association with RUSU.

As part of an one year sponsorship agreement, Reading University Bowmen will sport KPMG’s logo on their shirts in return for an investment of £500; this will enable the club to invest in a much needed Danage Foam Boss as well as a new long-length safety net. The safety net will also have a KPMG logo on it as part of the agreement.

The Foam Boss will enable our senior archers to shoot at a reliable target as used in all high-level competitions such as BUTC without the prevalent risk to equipment they currently face. The safety net will have a much more widespread benefit; as this net will cover the public side of our targets, it will enable us to fully utilise our indoor shooting line and as such maximise the number of archers able to shoot simultaneously. This also means it will be safe for novices to shoot on any target as any missed arrows will be collected safely by the net. By having the ability to have more people shooting in parallel it is hoped that we will be able to allow  all our members the opportunity to train to a competitive standard which will help to continue the clubs level of success for the foreseeable future.

Just a reminder that Saturday sessions are now at Loddon Valley Sports Center 12-3. (Click for map)

We also have a Tuesday session 12-2 at Loddon Valley too.

Crocodile trains shall be run from SportsPark both tomorrow and Saturday for people who are still unsure how to get there. They will leave at 11:15.

Wednesday morning sessions are still held at SportsPark.