After 10 fantastic years at Bryncoch Rugby Club, we’ve taken an exciting step forward and moved to a new venue at Neath Athletic Track.
While it’s always a big moment to leave somewhere that has been our home for so long, we’re delighted with our new surroundings. Our first session on Sunday was a great success, with a brilliant turnout and a really positive atmosphere throughout.
Neath Athletic Track offers us a fantastic space to continue developing as a club, and we’re confident it will serve us well for many years to come. We’re excited about this new chapter and look forward to welcoming both familiar and new faces as we settle into our new home.
We’re incredibly proud to share a recent feature from BBC Wales Today highlighting one of our longest-serving members, Roger Rees-Evans.
Roger has been part of Neath Archers for over 40 years, and during that time has not only achieved remarkable success on the shooting line, but has also helped shape the sport of archery for visually impaired athletes across the UK and beyond. Completely blind, Roger continues to shoot regularly at the club, supported by his son Graham acting as his spotter.
From multiple national titles to international success, and as a founding figure of the British Blind Sport Archery Section, Roger’s contribution to archery is truly exceptional. His work has helped create opportunities, develop competition pathways, and drive greater accessibility within the sport.
His achievements were recently recognised at the British Blind Sport Awards, where he received the 50th Anniversary Legacy Award – a fitting tribute to decades of dedication and impact.
We’re delighted to see Roger’s story shared more widely, and even prouder to have him as part of Neath Archers.
As we move Indoors for the Winter, here is some information for new archers, and a bit of a refresher for others.
The 2 main distances indoors are 18 meters and 20 yards (there is about 28cm/11″ difference).
The 2 main face sizes indoor 60cm and 40cm. 80cm and 122cm can be used for practice.
Archers shoot 3 arrows per end before collecting.
Compound archers may choose to shoot on a 3-spot face, shooting 1 arrow in each face. This is mandatory at most competitions.
All scoring indoor uses the 10-zone system.
There are 3 scoring rings in the gold. Compound archers will score only the inner most ring as 10, with all other archers will scoring the two inner most rings as 10.
The Vegas Round is unusual in that it is shot on a 40cm, 5-zone, 3-spot face, arranged in a triangle format, requiring 1 arrow per face.
**Worcester Round
The Worcester Round is unusual in that it is shot on a special black-and-white face, which is only used for this round. The target face is 40cm with a 1-5 zone scoring system. The round is shot at 20 yards. One end of 5 arrows is shot for sighters, then the round is 5 dozen (60) arrows shot over 12 ends of 5 arrows. There are 2 faces on the target, one above the other. After 30 arrows the archers swap over (so archers shooting on the top face now shoot on the bottom face and vice versa).
We ran our first outdoor club competition for the year, and it was amazing. The day was filled with archery, friends and sunshine, what more can you ask for?
The round of the day was the National (and its variations) (4 dozen at a longer distance, then 2 dozen at a shorter distance.
