About The Club 
Black Arrow FAC was set up in October 2005 by Wayne Furniss and myself, Cherrie Peabody.  We were (and still are) members of Duvelle Bowmen.  It was our aim to set up a small club that would be friendly and introduce people into archery.

We shoot field archery in woodland mid-way between Derby and Belper in Derbyshire we are just 5 miles north of the centre of Derby and accessible by public transport (There is a bus), we are all members of the National Field Archery Society.

A year on from these beginnings we have 12 adult and 5 junior members (6 of whom were new to archery), everyone gets on with each other and there is always a friendly welcome.

Most of our new archers have attended an NFAS open shoot and some have come home with medals.  One of our new archers had done so well she attended the national championships in September 06 and finished 13th out of 28 competitors, we are all really proud of her.

Writing this now, in December 2006, we have 3 more people wanting to come and learn with us and two people who have not shot for some years who would like to get back into archery.  We will be making arrangements with all these people early in the new year.

 Update May 2008, we are still going strong, have a new Chairman and Tresurer, 24 adult and 9 junior members. Some go out to 'Open shoots' at other clubs, some are just happy to shoot round our course and socialise.

 We have now got 20  targets to shoot, some uphill some downhill and some are quite a challenge.

If you would like to know more about the club, please use the 'Contact Us' link  and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

Field Archery 
Field archery was set up to represent hunting (hunting with a bow & arrow is illegal in England), the targets (which are pictures of animals) are set out in woodland in natural settings; for instance a rabbit would be placed just under a hedge or bush and a fox around the bottom of large trees where you would expect to see such sights in natural surroundings. Each archer takes their turn to shoot up to 3 arrows at each target, once a score is gained on a target you stop and wait for the rest of your group to shoot then take the scores and move on to the next.  If you miss with all 3 then you don't get a score.

The actual shooting takes place in groups of 4 or 5 archers who all follow a marked safe path through the wood (all moving around the wood a bit like golfers around a golf course). It is a very pleasant day out in beautiful natural surroundings, with good company & a laugh, plus sometimes the added bonus of winning a medal.