Welcome to chilly days and darker evenings, Wolfstar folks.

Hello and welcome to the Autumn-Winter newsletter! As the nights are drawing in and the temperatures drop and the cold ones retreat indoors, as do sensible archers! We have been busy here at Wolfstar, a lot has been happening in the background and we have news to share with you.

2023 AGM

After a productive and successful AGM there have been some changes that you should be aware of. The committee has been working away in the background over the last year, amongst other things to get a new, up to date and suitable constitution for a sports club in the 21st century, this was voted on and passed at the agm, including accompanying policies and procedures, covering amongst other things, child protection, disciplinary procedures, conduct and compliance.

The documents and the minutes of the meeting are now published on our website for you to find here- www.wolfstararchers.co.uk 

Committee Updates 

There have been some changes to the official roles and we can now celebrate a fully staffed committee 

President/SFAA Rep - Tom Cooper

Vice President/Course Captain - Chris Dalrymple

Treasurer - Helen Beedie

Secretary/CPO officer/Compliance officer - Dave Marsh

Media Manager- Jaydee Dalrymple

Ordinary member - Graeme Greenhan

Ordinary member - Ross Scougal

We would again like to reiterate here that the committee is dedicated to seeing Wolfstar Archers grow, thrive and be an active part of the field archery scene here in the UK. We are open to all new and experienced archers — whether you want to compete or just have a pleasant walk through the woods and shoot your bow — we as the committee are doing our best to make it happen for you. Don’t forget folks, that we welcome all feedback and suggestions to help the club grow and will consider all input as a committee

Send us mail at wolfstararchers@gmail.com

https://www.wolfstararchers.co.uk/wolfstar-trail

Course matters

The course is looking beautiful at this time of year and we would once again like to show our gratitude to all of you who have helped to maintain it to a good standard, so from everyone who uses our course and enjoys it, thank you very much, your efforts are highly appreciated.

As some of you may know, we have once again experienced targeted vandalism by unknown parties, it was suggested to the committee that we install trail cameras to help identify the culprit. We made contact with East Lothian rangers to inquire about the legality of such a move and opened up what could be described as a hornets nest, they requested a meeting with club representatives and a date was set. When our Course Captain and Secretary turned up they were greeted by both Police Scotland and the Countryside Rangers. They were questioned about our safety procedures, insurances, skill level of our archers and many other things and we are very happy to be able to tell you all that Police Scotland are happy for our continued use of Pencraig Woods after satisfying any issues and concerns they had.

When the Police left we had a very productive meeting with the rangers and covered topics of use, maintenance, new signage, a steel strong box for our kit, removing trip hazards, a lost and found deposit for “Arrows of Shame” and drawing up a document for our continued use of pencraig, they have even offered their help to remove rubbish from behind the practice butts, all in all a very productive meeting and we look forward to working in harmony with East Lothian Countryside Rangers.

So after all that, we have also confirmed that we are allowed to place trail cameras in Pencraig woods, but not with the intention to catch individuals vandalizing , but to record and monitor the local wildlife in the woods.

We also have a new map with the “Wolfstar Trail” marked for two routes, one easy and one more challenging which we will hopefully be able to promote with the help of the rangers. This can be downloaded from our Facebook page of if you want a copy emailed to you get in touch with us at wolfstararchers@gmail.com 

Coaching and beginners

We have now started our new beginners course consisting of 6 sessions, taking place on a Monday evening at Newbattle CLC and is progressing nicely, with another course starting in the new year which is well on its way to being fully attended again.

We also have the greatest pleasure to announce that our president, Tom Cooper, has qualified for his IFAA/SFAA level one coach and we welcome him onto the coaching team here at Wolfstar, well done Tom.

Wolfstar members discount @ red frog archery

We have some exciting news for all Wolfstar members and beginners, our secretary has been working closely with Graham over at Red Frog Archery to be able to offer full recurve archery packages at a price which won't break the bank, and should easily cover all possible styles of recurve archery you should choose to do, with a 5% one time discount code for subscribing to their newsletter, alongside an additional 5% discount for Wolfstar members, the code is Wolf245 and is valid for any number of purchases over the next 12 months, get yourself over to www.redfrogstore.co.uk to get yourself sorted for your archery needs, even if you just fancy another bow to add to your collection.

Upcoming competitions

As we welcome the winter months and the indoor season, we also have the Scottish indoor championships to look forward to which will be held on Sunday the 25th February at Napier University, it will be shot at 20 yards and we encourage all archers from Wolfstar who are available to attend, regardless of skill level, come along and meet the Scottish Field archery community.

The SFAA have also introduced some classifications for new archers who would like to compete in outdoor competitions, without the skill level of more experienced archers. These are in summary

Novice class- First year archers can shoot only the black/cub pegs at a maximum distance of 30 yards per round.

Year 2 novice- Second year novice archers will shoot the equivalent of a junior round with a maximum distance shot being 50 yards

Paired competitions- An experienced archer will shoot with a novice archer as a team and will shoot against any other paired archers at each competition.

More in depth explanation of this will be available through the SFAA in due course..