East Kilbride Archery Club

Welcome

Archery is a very inclusive and social sport, attracting seniors, juniors, young and old and allows able and disabled archers to shoot and compete together.

East Kilbride Archery Club was resurrected in 2016, after lying dormant for many years.

East Kilbride is a town in South Lanarkshire and is the "home" of the club, despite our different shooting locations (See Venues).

The modern day coat of arms of East Kilbride includes a bird - the Oystercatcher, which is a symbol of St Bride. East Kilbride Archery Club include the Oystercatcher in our logo, to accentuate the link to East Kilbride.

We have also went so far as to name one of our club competitions after the Oystercatcher. See our Club Competitions / Oystercatcher page for more information.

Image showing a target with an arrow in it with people being creative

Club Aims and Objectives

These Aims and Objectives are what are important to us as a club:

Safeguarding and equality

The Club has procedures in place to safeguard children, young people, and vulnerable adults, using the Scottish PVG scheme.

We also ensuring that all members are treated fairly and equally, as we have a duty of care to all members.

Club Environment

Our club has a welcome, sociable and inclusive environment. This makes members, visitors and new archers feel welcome and part of the club, regardless of their archery level.

We can also create a membership structure that includes non-shooting members who can support the club, to further our inclusive environment.

Coaching and upskilling

The club can provide coaching and opportunities to participate in archery. This ranges from running beginner's courses to get new members into the sport, to assisting more experienced archer to enhance various aspects of their archery.

This leads on to creating a core of archers, by giving enhanced, specific training. This helps to give archers the confidence and skill to represent the club in competitions.

Running the club

Unlike many clubs, East Kilbride Archer club has to limit numbers on the committee, as we have so many members keen to help and add value to the club. We have a group of ordinary members who help with various aspects within the club and feel grateful to have so many members wanting to help to make the club even better.

Sport promotion

The club promotes archery in the local community and to a wide range of ages and abilities, by running soft archery events for younger children, as well as being involved in wider initiatives, such as helping to organise and run the new "Glasgow League", which brings clubs in Glasgow and surrounding areas together in a friendly competition.

Committee

The committee helps to administer the club and is made up of office bearers and permanent ordinary members.

Any member of the club is welcome to attend any of our committee meetings.

Please see our Facebook page or calendar for details of dates and times.

Image of people in a committee sitting at a table

Club Committee members

Chair : Cameron Ross

I first became interested in archery during a school residential trip. I was unable to take part in the archery activity due to having to spend the day in hospital with a broken foot. My twin brother regaled me with stories of how wonderful archery was so, on our return, we pestered our mum to find a club we could join. We joined Glasgow Archers in 2006. I then became interested in judging and gained my County Judge qualification 2 years ago. Since then I have travelled all over Scotland judging and also taking part in competitions myself. I still hold the Scottish Record for U18 Barebow (WA 18m). I am delighted to be Chairperson of East Kilbride Archery Club.

Secretary : Alison Ross

Faced with the prospect of standing around for 3 hours whilst my sons took part in a beginners' course, I decided to take part myself. I was very quickly hooked! I took part in quite a few competitions even becoming West of Scotland Ladies Champion by default (I was the only Lady Recurve shooting!). After shooting with Glasgow Archers for 10 years I decided to explore the possibility of setting up a club myself – and here we are! I am now representing East Kilbride Archery Club at various competitions. I enjoy competitions for the social aspect and how much you learn from watching other archers. I am delighted with the support I have received from everyone at the club and am pleased at how sociable everyone is. I hope the club will continue to go from strength to strength.

Treasurer : Andy Findlay

A long (long, long) time ago, in an archery club far, far away, OK Strathclyde University, I took up archery seriously after being introduced to the activity in the Scouts. Over a period that can be measured in decades rather than years I have now been a member of six different clubs. A few highlights that I can remember would include, being President of two clubs, holding a coaching qualification and, in a brief moment of brilliance, coming 2nd at the Scottish Indoor Championship, which meant I was selected to shoot for Scotland at the National Indoor Championships. One of the founding members of the resurrected East Kilbride Archery Club, I currently fill the role of treasurer/experienced archer/coach/equipment guru and, occasionally, I also manage to shoot a few arrows. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can ask Andy. And finally, I reckon that most of the club members have noticed that when I am in coaching mode, “I'm watching you. Always watching. Always.”

Child Welfare and Protection Officer : Duncan McEwan

Child welfare and protection officer information

I started archery when I was 13 after seeing some folk with odd looking equipment in the local leisure centre. In a twist of fate, this was in Carluke and as I found out, at the same time as ‘the other Duncan’ - McNeil. Since then I have had a number of stops and starts for various reasons due to other commitments, but I always came back to it. I shot regularly when I lived in Singapore for a few years, but I needed a new ‘home’ when I came back (after another ‘Duncan gap’ of more than 2 years) and had a couple of coaching sessions with MRM, who said that there was this nice new club - East Kilbride Archery and I should pop along. I am not a competitive archer and decided to go down the route of coaching, to help others and introduce more to archery. I am currently an Archery GB Level 2 certified coach and also hold a Sports Educator qualification (gained in 2021). As part of my coaching qualification, I am also PVG (protection for Venerable Groups) certified and am currently the club CWPO (Child Welfare & Protection Officer). If anyone has any issues that they need to discuss, please feel free to grab me for a confidential chat. I also have recently (ish) moved over to compound from recurve, due to niggling injuries (not age related.. honest!) and look forward to more being able to assist people with compound form and technical advice in time, in the same way as I do for recurve. That’s a fair bit away though and is one of my personal future goals.

Equipment Officer : Colin Dakers

I started my archery journey many years ago whilst working in the States. Needless to say, it was very compound oriented and I loved it. After a break of seven years, I decided that I would be nice to take it up again, which led to a beginners course using one of those recurve bow contraptions! Upon joining East Kilbride, I lulled the, at that time, all recurve club into a false sense of security by shooting recurve for a few months, before moving back to compound and slowly persuading a few others to move to the modern side of the sport! Although I love shooting, my real passion is the equipment side of archery and specifically arrow building. So if you don’t know the difference between static and dynamic spines, can’t tell your GPI’s from your FOC’s or would like a new set of arrows built by your helpful and friendly equipment officer, please feel free to come and talk to me. You’ll find me occasionally prowling the ranks of the club recurve shooters and trying to persuade them to come join the clubs happy little gang of compounders.

Ordinary Member : Alison Findlay

Alison is one of the founding members of the club and along with Andy and Lauren, form "Team Findlay".

Ordinary Member : Martin Spiers

Like many others, I first tried archery as an activity whilst on holiday and after that brief taste quite a long time ago (OK, a couple of decades) my wife spotted a beginners' course at a local club and signed me up. I was immediately hooked and whilst very new to the sport (I started in October 2017) I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. I love the challenge of trying to improve my shooting every week and, combined with the relaxation and mindfulness required to try to make every shot the best one you can, it's the perfect combination to help unwind after a long week at work.

Ordinary Member : Emily Tilbury

Emily has been doing Archery for a few years now. As well as using her artistic talent to design many club fun-day shoots, she is currently ranked 12th in Scotland for ladies recurve (indoor).

Ordinary Member : Lauren Findlay

Lauren is a critical member of both the committee and the club as a whole. Lauren is the "club baker" and we rely on her baking excellence for club fun shoots and the end of beginner's courses. Yes - if you want to do a beginner's course with us, we will feed you with cake at the end of it !

Ordinary Member : Duncan McNeil

I took up field archery in my 20s. By the time I was in my early 30s my eyesight was such that I had to give it up. In late 2016 I had eye surgery that allowed me to see well enough to get back into archery. So basically, I’ve been shooting arrows for 40 years with a 30 year break! East Kilbride Archery Club were kind enough to give me my second chance. To me, archery is a fascinating combination of getting to know all about the kit, improving my shooting technique and most importantly, finding the quiet mind. I shoot recurve and recently have also taken up compound. My ultimate aim is to learn how to shoot the perfect arrow …….. and then just do it every time.