Killingworth Archers. Newcastle upon Tyne.

News Archives

News Archive - February 2010.

February 27th 2010 - PB's first: once again it's Maureen Ritson with 311 for the Portsmouth. Congratulations for the PB! Now a little 'catch-up' on committee business. Over the winter we had planned to make the effort to remove the 'hump'. I've a photo of 'before' and 'after' so you can relate to it. This was created some years ago but year on year it grew into an untidy and weed covered scar. Each year it got a little wider and more space was lost. The result now is that the hump has been removed and posts inserted to keep cars on the parking area. It's still to be seeded but the main work is complete and we hope that the field will look better for it?

February 26th 2010 - I've a few more PB's to report from Tuesday and I've tried to remove the spelling mistakes with names etc that I seem to regularly create! And the PB's are: for the 18mtr FITA, Mark Robertson with 538, Alan Bell with 511 and Ivan Stott with 458, then to the Portsmouth, Aaron Graham with 99, Maureen Ritson up to 247 now and Claire fowkes with 389. See most of you at the week-end?

February 22nd 2010 - I've received a few entry forms from Cumbria, one for a longbow workshop with Pip Bickerstaffe, one for a 'western' at Patterdale and the final for a Clout in August. The clout and the 'Western' will appear in the diary but the workshop is linked HERE.

February 20th 2010 - 'White Mary' is back and, in time, I will create a 'journal' page of the visit. Mary did say that the 'Christmas card' money has been spent on 'life vests' for those going on river visits, so you can believe that the money has been well spent. But now for today's PB's. Niamh Bews did it again but this time posted a 346 and Jerome Castro fresh of a beginner's course put in a 271. Roll on Tuesday.

February 18th 2010 - PB's from our Tuesday evening are as follows: Maureen Ritson (welcome) with 220, Eileen Hood 418 shooting barebow!, Niamh Bews with 266, Claire fowkes with 346, Ian Adamson with 386 and finally our own Vicky Rathbone with 162 on longbow. See you Saturday for George's Indoor round 2?

Now 'White Mary's' final clog before travelling home. ….. Another 5 min on a lap top! I am at Lasuth hospital looking round their beautiful new diagnostic building, and then I’m going to sit in with some paramedics (British) who are doing some training here in emergency and first response. To morrow I am going sight seeing to see the slave trade area ‘the point of no return’. I have a presentation to attend on Tuesday morning and Wednesday lunchtime, then the Rotary Club of Lagos West on Tuesday evening. I think this will be the last email from Nigeria but will be in touch once I am home? - God bless and love to you all. Mary xxxxx

February 14th 2010 - A quick news flash from 'White Mary' has popped onto the news desk! So here it is! Hi everyone! Just a quick note as I have had to borrow a lap top to send this. I am having a great time with my new host where I have been for the last week. Unfortunately she is not on line! I have spent some time with an othopaedic surgeon, and his out patient clinic was like stepping back in time. I have tales to tell when I get home. I have visited several health centres’ again, think back to the 50's to get an idea for what they are like. I have also been out with a GP for the elderly doing home visits, but I am visiting Lasuth hospital in Lagos tomorrow and then have a couple of free days before coming home. Love to you all and thanks for putting all your ‘Christmas Card Money’ into the funding of this visit! I will send a longer email soon, but for the present, 'bye for now', Mary.

February 11th 2010 - I have no details of PB's from Tuesday (9th) so cannot report them yet, however, I have loaded the current indoor handicaps into the 'records' area. Also I'm picking up all sorts of bits for the 'sale or wanted' section and I hope to have all these entered before Saturday. Talking of Saturday it will be the club 'longbow' champs for all those who wish to have a bash at it! It'ss all quiet on the 'White Mary' front so no updates although I hear from Len that Mary is currently working in the clinic! More as soon as I hear anything!

February 6th 2010 - Saturday was 'postal league' day and I'm please to report two more PB's. Keith Ritson with 525 and Niamh Bews with 191. Both Ex-Cell-Ent and well deserved. I'm thrilled for you! Also I have loaded the latest version of the Indoor Records for you to peruse. But now...... the unedited and totally unique......

Mary's Travellers Clog! - Hi everyone - It continues to be really hot here but a bit cooler than my first few days. It is 29c (84.2f) here at 7.30p.m. I have had a quiet few days as the polio push is over for this month but they do it all over again in March, April and May. On Wednesday I had a lazy day and sat around reading, writing up my dairy and sleeping. Because they don’t have a constant electric supply they use generators but they are expensive to run and fuel is also short, so air conditioning is only used at night to help let you sleep.
On Wednesday evening I was taken to a rotary meeting for fastac town. I have loads of photos and have had to keep a diary of who is in each photo as I have met so many people. The meeting was at a river side hotel and we watched the sun go down across the water.
Thursday I was taken to the Rotary Centre by BJ and Vicky to meet the Director General and also the Chairman for polioplus. They were both good meetings. We were given a lunch of chicken and rice; nice and spicy, and a bottle of red wine (Spanish). We then waited to meet Dr Shoga who I will shortly be spending some time with. He is an orthopaedic surgeon and his wife is a community nurse so I hope to spend some time with her too. I move to my next host on Sunday as BJ has to go away for the weekend.
Today I have done some sightseeing I have been to Victoria Island which is the big commercial centre and to the Bar Beach there which was lovely. We then went to the national museum but did not see a lot as the lights went out just as we got there. Lara, my wonderful host here has adopted me as her older sister and she is taking me to a wedding tomorrow as her cousin is getting married and she is happy for me to go along. Lara plans for me to wear full African dress including the head dress so I'll make sure I get plenty of photos, That’s all for now folks........ love Mary xxx
Note: I feel a journal page coming on after this! I believe that fastac town was once called ‘Little London’ but it’s supposed to have fallen into decline now….. just in case you were interested? I suppose Mary is feeling pretty trashed by now if only due to the heat and she is such a petite, fair skinned, maiden!

February 4th 2010 - Quite a lot to report this week. Firstly the 'January' news has been shuffled into the 'archive' area so to catch up please visit the January archive. Also I have another 'flash' from our intrepid internationally acclaimed nurse - 'White Mary' and finally I have the details of our committee meeeting held on Monday. First I'll cover the committee meeting.

The next beginner's course starts on 3rd March and lasts until 7th April. Six Wednesday's in all. On 6th March we are helping the county host a Coaches Assessment. Setting up the Wooden Spoon at 9am but going to Churchill for our normal club day at 10am. We'll manage with a couple of people so no volunteers required! - For outdoors you will be asked if you wish to have a round rota introduced for the summer months. This should result in more rounds being shot on club nights and less wasted time working out what we are going to do. - Next.... The final indoor Tuesday will be a 'team' darts night. a cheerie end to the indoor season? - Now to the outdoor venue. Many may know of the 'hump'. The rough area to the edge of the road! During each year this becomes wider so we have decided that it should be addressed before the summer arrives. As a result we have consulted to have the hump cleaned out and rotavated and an alternative method of 'keeping cars off the soggy range' provided. - The final bit on the meeting is that for the purposes of the 'George McGowan Trophy' the winner will be decided on the BEST two scores from the possible three, so if you miss one shoot....... you're still in the running!

Now PB's from Tuesday 2nd: I have Ian Graham with a 447. Claire fowkes with a 345, Mark Robertson with a 555, Ivan Stott with a 525 and last, but by no means least (as he scored a 10-9-8 on the wrong target and was good company to shoot with) Aaron Graham with a PB of 81. Well done to one and all.

From the December Postal leagues we had a mixed bag! frostbite.... lost both matches. Compound lost V Guildford A.C. and recurve lost V Pendle and Samlesbury 'B'. The Portsmouth round wasn't much better. We lost all three against Trent Valley, Mole Valley and Ten Ring. I could blame the weather but I won't! On the DNAA league, however, we won against St Giles but lost against Cleadon. Then January came along! Better news here! On the Frostbite we won both, against Stourbridge C of A and Ashford Archers 'B'. Postal Portsmouth we won against Grimsby, and Blue Arrows 'B' but lost to Clophill 'A'. In DNAA we lost to Priory, Won against St Giles and lost to Cleadon...... but 'heh' it's only a game I suppose darn it!!!!!

But now....... Mary's Travellers Clog! - Since I last emailed I have been very busy. On Saturday I visited some of the start points where the vaccinating teams gather to co-ordinate their day. There was a real buzz of excitement with many teams all ready to be off and it was only 7.30a.m. They showed me round the Health centre, which included a small maternity ward, a dry room where all the carry boxes, tabards etc that the teams used were stored. Then I was proudly shown the wet room or cold storage where the vaccine is kept in fridges and where the thousands of ice blocks used when transporting the vaccine are stored. This room has electricity supplied occasionally by the national supply but more often by one of the three generators they have, or the solar panels. The supply of electricity is one of the huge problems here.
I spent a short while with one of the teams and I then had the rest of the day off to acclimatise and boy did I need it to just do nothing and get used to the heat and humidity.
My host Lara is wonderful and looking after me well, I am being accompanied by Dr BJ, Vicky and Ayaba either all or one or two of them.
On Sunday I was up very early again and off out to vaccinate not in the schools or homes but in the Sunday schools and then off to help do the river villages. We met up with a group and went to the river jetty where we got into 4 boats and went off to visit 10 villages only assessable by boat. We travelled through mangrove trees and out onto the Lagos lagoon. My boat visited 3 villages where we vaccinated the children including a 3-day-old baby and gave out mosquito nets to the mothers with new babies and the expectant mothers. It was an amazing experience and again for many of these children the first sight of a white woman so close, some of them cried when they saw me (no rude comments please) others were so intrigued they come up to check I was real. Once the work was over we when to a beach on the coast across a sand bar from the lagoon and had a picnic/party. It was a lovely day but very exhausting I slept very well that night.
Yesterday and today have been spent monitoring how effective the teams have been and mopping up missed children. Yesterday I went to a meeting in Amowo as their honoured guest this time. I will finish now, as I am ready to go to bed another early start tomorrow.
Note Just the thought of a ‘small’ white woman with a needle seven feet long would make me cry. Anyway, PICNIC! When you’re trying to save the world we have no time for PICNICS..........! Ah, but seriously, I remember when Nigeria was ‘pink’ on my map at school, known for Palm Oil not fuel oil….. And the Niger Delta was taught in geography........ One week gone, two to go Nursey!