Club Spotlight: Bannockburn Bowmen

By Caroline Buchanan

Bannockburn Bowmen is a small club in Central Scotland within the Eastern Area.

It was formed by Alistair Bowmen in 1984 and met at Bannockburn High School, hence the name Bannockburn Bowmen. Unfortunately, the venue closed in 1995, and after shooting in various venues the club settled in Lornshill Academy in Alloa for the indoor season and Strathallan Games Park in Bridge of Allan for the outdoor season. This makes the Club unique in the fact that it covers two Counties and, therefore, draws on a very wide area.

The aim of the Club is to promote and encourage the sport of archery and make it inclusive, welcoming members of all ages and abilities. Over the years we have had many members set Scottish and British records and hold Scottish Championships at Senior and Junior levels.  We also have members who just like to shoot and enjoy both shooting and the social aspect of the Club. We take part in the Scottish and British Postal leagues and members are always keen to try for 252 awards and the Scottish Archery Awards which help to mark their progress.

Bannockburn Bowmen has good links with the local community.  We shoot on the Strathallan Games field and have a good rapport with the Games Committee. We help out with car parking at the annual Highland Games in August and are always recognised as Bannockburn Bowmen.  We run Come and Try events for the Local Beavers and Scouts and have provided Soft archery for a local primary school. The Caravan Club regularly meet on the adjacent field and always show interest in our activities and have had their own taster sessions.

A group of Language students from Costa Rica visited us in 2019 to try archery as one of their activities.  This was a great success and has now become an annual summer event.

Surely this is the furthest a Scottish club extends a welcome to try archery.

We recently received a grant from the Bridge of Allan Round Table and Rotary Club and a group of their members came along to try archery.  We were also the first club in Scotland to take part in AGB’s The Big Weekend in 2012.

In 2010 , Bannockburn Bowmen were one of the Scottish Clubs who provided Come and Try sessions in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, as part of the Archery World Cup Finals. We also had members volunteering as part of the team responsible for delivering the main event. This, in turn, lead to one of our members volunteering at the 2012 London Olympics.

We run an annual Coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Support on the first weekend in October.  It involves shooting at cake and coffee themed fun targets and provides a fantastic tea tent.

Bannockburn Bowmen hold regular record status competitions, both indoor and outdoor, which attract a wide range of archers all over the country.  It also held the Scottish leg of the British Barebow Championships until 2019. It is one of the few clubs in Scotland to offer a Clout competition.

Archers taking part in our competitions are always keen to achieve scores to qualify for our Spider Badges.  They are an exclusive badge that can only be claimed when shooting at Bannockburn.  They reward different scores and recognise progress.

Another attraction is that our outdoor shoots always have a superb tea tent.

Bannockburn runs regular Beginner’s courses both indoor and outdoor. We also run Boost Archery for the benefit of existing members.  We have had a lot of interest from returning archers and are looking to sign up to AGB’s Range returners. We are also members of On Target.

All in all, for a small club, we are very active and do our utmost to support and encourage the sport of archery.

In 2024, this will be the 40th Anniversary of the Club and we hope to see it continue to progress and develop in the future.