2025

As we said one year ago, 2024 was shaping up to be an interesting year. The club was financially secure and with our charity status firmly established we could, in theory, make use of its benefits. The Olympics were in Paris so there was going to be live archery. And there was going to be a return to Craigholme, our spiritual home, now that the pitch had been renovated and allowed to settle. Funny how it didn't work out like we hoped.

On the plus side, the Olympic archery couldn't have been better. The Koreans swept the board (making our editor happy and, we suspect, a few quid as well) but did it in a way that had everyone on the edge of their seat/breathing optional .. repeatedly. This was especially true in the men's gold medal match that after 16 arrows came down to 4.9mm! Best Archery Ever!

Unfortunately, the yang to the above ying was we lost the use of Norwood during the winter cutting practice time significantly. Hutchesons raised the price to such a level we could no longer afford all the year round shootie. Then they decided we would not be returning to Craigholme as the field was to be kept for rugby only meaning the less than ideal Norwood would remain our summer home. Finally, they started charging us weekly rent for having our containers on their fields. This meant we had to reduce club equipment as it was prohibitively expensive to have three containers which we'd struggle to finance over the long term. Pretty good demonstration of the economic theory "Law of Demand" in an archery setting. Charity status didn't add up to much either.

Looking to more positive news, the club website increased its traffic by 10% over the past year. In 2024, over 16,000 people looked at almost 34,000 pages of content which is none too shabby for a club website. Some archery governing bodies would love those numbers. We are a reference for wiki pages, we've been quoted in American newspaper articles and we've had our content ripped off by a Chinese hosted website. We even had the only comprehensive coverage on Team USA getting kicked from a World Cup stage. Our editor's love of gossip and his contacts paying dividends there. On top of that, club pictures viewable on Google maps passed 350,000 total views in October! Our web presence and editor doing their bit to keep our club on the map .. literally! ;o)

Finally GA has been out in competition land. With the newly established Glasgow Team League well underway, 11 club members have so far thrown their hats into the ring. Representing GA in the three shoots held to date, they have been giving a good account of themselves with a win and two second places. Well done guys!

So as the sands of 2024 run out, no doubt the upcoming 2025 will be even more challenging - it never seems to get easier. Till those issues hit, hope everyone is having a good time and enjoying their shootie. We know we are!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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The Archery Doctor is available when the club reopens for discussions on how to spend your Xmas money OR how you put those bow components you ordered together.