We are Peter Grand and Sue Matthews (husband and wife) and we took up archery in October 2004 after attending a summer school at Missenden Abbey in Buckinghamshire. Following our introduction to the sport and Sue being a fan of Robin of Sherwood, the 1980’s TV series, we decided to take up the longbow.
The early months were a real trial but we were extremely fortunate enough to meet Stan Seymour (Aim4Sport) who passed on some of his boundless knowledge, helped us with our initial technique, took us to various shoots and generally introduced us to the world of longbow archery.
Our first club was Little Abbey Bowmen were we completed our GNAS beginners course and shot with other longbow archers including Geoff Baxter, a seasoned longbow archer. It soon became apparent that there was a need for a longbow only club in our area and a group of six formed the Longbow Archers of St Sebastian (LASS) in September 2005. From humble beginnings the club now has 28 members including a thriving junior group. It was in those early days that we were introduced to Field Archery and subsequently joined Whitemark Bowmen and the EFAA. With LASS now affiliated to the BLBS we retained our GNAS membership and in 2007 joined Beacon Archers as our GNAS based club. In early 2007 we also joined White Lion Bowmen to be able to participate in living history archery events through the Medieval Siege Society (MSS). In January 2008 we joined Westcott Archers as our NFAS club.
We are now fortunate to be able to shoot at almost every event in the country although time does not us allow to participate as much as we would like.
In 2006 I took my GNAS Archery Leaders Course and have had the privilege of working with many groups at the introductory level. I have also turned my passion into a growing business, Archery4All, where we offer ‘Have A Go’ sessions at all manner of events. Sue has gone on to start her own traditional archery retail business Silver Arrow Archery. Through her company Sue is sponsoring the EFAA England Squad in 2008. She is also opening an Archery Academy.
I hope you enjoy the site and please feel free to contact us at any time
Sue on one of her favourite field shoots
Peter on an indoor shoot