Village fetes - setting up a ?hav

Corax67

Well-known member
I?ve been approached by our local village fete committee to see if our club would be up for running an archery ?have-a-go? at their fantastic annual May fair.

The club is well up for it, 8 or 9 of us are available and willing, of those one is a level 1 coach and at least one has completed the AGB Instructors Course. We?ve plenty of low powered kit in club stores - nothing above 12-14lb going out the door shooting at floor standing bosses set at 5yds and 10yds for kids and adults.

The thing I am battling with is getting any sense out of AGB towers as to whether we would be covered away from our regular site by their insurance and if not what we need to do to be covered.

My gut tells me we?d need to set up as per rules of shooting, I.e. 50yd overshoot and 25yd either side exclusion zone with appropriate barriers, signage, shooting line. This would be a pain but can be accommodated if absolutely necessary, although on the upside it would put us next to the beer tent :0


Has anyone else done this?

Does the AGB insurance provide cover? If not does anyone have links for independent insurers & ideas of premiums?

Any suggestions about making the experience maximum fun for the participants - balloons kind of go without saying :)


Many thanks all,


Karl
 

Timid Toad

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Lots of heras fencing and safety netting, waiting line, shooting line, targets, and many haybales behind. Making sure we didn't get folk wanting to watch from where *they* considered safe was an issue.

We used to do demonstrations every couple of hours - gave the helpers a break and let us show off the big toys. Plus we got to open the coconuts for the kids won at the other stall ;)
 

Corax67

Well-known member
Coconut opening service - genius idea ! ! !


Straw bales are plentiful from the farm down the road from the site that provides all the car parking and I know he has a trailer of heras fencing too. Club has rolls of perforated orange ‘safety fencing’ and stakes to go around it for the hard of seeing.

I wonder if a bale wall 8’ high with arrow netting could reduce the overshoot requirement at all given the targets are on the floor ? Probably not.

Demo’s sound like a good idea, we’d already planned to have a few rigs set up on stands to show visitors what the big boys kit looks like and what other options are available to people taking up the sport - a few longbows, flatbows, recurves with all the hedgehog bits attached, a very pretty Spigarelli Revolution barebow in Italian colours and a compound or two. A Genesis will go along with a pair of very low power longbows crafted by one of our members for the super keen to get a feel of.

We have the capacity to demo longbow/flatbow, arrow & string making too so that hopefully everyone goes away wanting to shoot traditional and be their very own Robin Hood - or Friar Tuck depending on waistline ;)





Karl
 

ben tarrow

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I wonder if a bale wall 8’ high with arrow netting could reduce the overshoot requirement at all given the targets are on the floor ? Probably not.
The code of practise says "at least 50 yards overshoot"
Personally Id be worried about a bale wall preventing you seeing the people who decide that the otherside of the bale wall is a great place for a picnic until some arrow catches the top of the target and jumps the bale wall. I like to be able to see the entire safety zone
 

Timid Toad

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No, and you'll still need an eagle eyed assistant moving people on out of the overshoot area unless you have heras fencing for the whole lot. It's amazing how your overshoot area will have an irresistible siren call for all and sundry to come occupy. I'd put money on you ending up with more folk inside it than the rest of the fete if you don't actively police it!
 

Corax67

Well-known member
We would be on the outfield of the cricket oval facing in toward the wicket - this ground is sacrosanct, fully perimeter fenced with existing notices warning of pain of death for anyone setting foot on it. In the last 10 years I’ve attended the fete I’ve never seen a single soul set foot on it, even the kids stay well away!

Provisionally I am thinking the shooting line is the natural fence line, four targets out to 10yds on the floor, 8’ bale wall 5yds beyond that. Heras fencing either side of range with orange facing attached. Safety line to be 5yds behind shooting line. One to one instructor/shooter, max 4 shooters on the line at one time. All equipment in a segregated safe area (3 sided gazebo) manned by minimum 2 club members at all times.

Having a site meeting tomorrow evening for a more detailed planning session.




Karl
 

chuffalump

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Does the village not have insurance for the event? If that's the case then would you need AGB cover?
 

Corax67

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They do have insurance we’re just not 100% sure that archery would be covered whereas the AGB insurance is archery specific and appears to travel with the club. Better safe than sorry.




Karl
 

little-else

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we are lucky, a copuple of our members built a take down castle with knock down figures in the windows etc so it can be sent out to fetes etc and people can spend all day twanging away with blunts so a hard stop behind the castle is fine.
now my thinking on the overshoot is not about distance but angles. a 50 yard overshoot is plenty if your targets are at 10y on the ground so what you need to do is calculate the angle of elevation for a particular arrow speed to see where it drops if someone elevates say twice the height of the target and them lets go. My rough sums give a 40yds overshoot for an average junior bow that is loosed at an elevation of 10deg over the top of the target assuming parallel to shooter and yours arent, they are pointing down. Your cricket square would serve well as a beaten zone so I dont see the need for bales, roping the area off would make more sense and save the bales for keeping people behind the shooting line with their cameras.
what you cant easily factor in is stupidity so is there a natural obstruction on nay part of the field that lends itself to being behind the beaten zone
 

ben tarrow

Well-known member
we are lucky, a copuple of our members built a take down castle with knock down figures in the windows etc so it can be sent out to fetes etc and people can spend all day twanging away with blunts so a hard stop behind the castle is fine.
Have you considered that this does not meet the AGB code of practise for have-a-go sessions so you're not insured to do this? Sounds fun though
 

chuffalump

Well-known member
Why is it that these 'code of practice' documents always raise questions?

Members can't use their own bows. Even with the 50 yard overshoot? OK, so, probably because it isn't the minimum 110 yards but this means no fancy demos of different bow types and no exciting exploding target finales.

Backstop netting must be used unless there is a safe overshoot???? So do you need the overshoot or not? What counts as extra-safe? 50 yards plus net, 70 yards doesn't need a net? I like a bit of wiggle room but so do insurance companies.
 

chuffalump

Well-known member
Actually, the document link posted is out of date. A search on AGB for 'code of practice' brings up the latest version. Which may have more flexibility...I haven't finished it yet.

https://www.archerygb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Proc-06-02-Code-of-Practice-for-Archery-Events-3.pdf
 

Corax67

Well-known member
Now that document provides a bit more wiggle room, especially the reduced overshoot of 20yds in conjunction with netting.

Looks like we are good to go.



Karl
 
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