The Origination of the Bowmen of St Mary’s

The Bowmen of St Mary’s came about in January 2007, after a brief membership with another archery club, Scott Walker, Sharon Walker, Carole Wade and Guy Hair decided to start a new club.

Scott Walker made an initial enquiry to St Mary’s College and an agreement to work with the school, saw The Bowmen of St Mary’s archery club take its first step. Following the approval of the shooting area at the Academy by John Gilroy in his capacity as a judge, the Bowmen of St Mary’s now had an approved ground to use.

A grant application for funds to start an archery club was approved by Hull City Council. With funds now available, the club started to price up archery equipment, as luck would have it a job lot of archery equipment from a defunct boys club came up for sale on E-bay listing four bosses, stands, 6 Kap bows, arrows and 25’ of green indoor back netting perfect to get a club started with. A bid made in the dying minutes of the auction was almost all eaten up by the reserve, and the last seconds of the auction seemed to last hours until the bid was confirmed as the winning bid.

A Max and Paddy style trip through Chorley FM country in a hired van to pick up the archery equipment, which turned out to be only 6 months old, a return to the Academy and storing of the new equipment felt like the final part of the puzzle had been finished. With the ground, equipment and Scott Walker undertaking his Level 1 Coaching training it wasn’t long before the club started some have a go sessions and started the training of new club members.