About the Club
We are an active archery club of around 100 members who enjoy various aspects and styles of archery together every year, including target, clout, wand and field archery. Many of our club members compete at club, local and national level, at a variety of events, both large and small. We have even had club members attend international events, most recently at the World Series Indoor Competition in Rome in 2019. We offer a full calendar of events throughout the year including regular monthly shoots, participation in a National Postal league, fun shoots, beginners' courses, coaching, Club Championships, 3 open competitions, the largest of which, The Diana, attracts over 100 participants on a regular basis. We have a large Junior contingent, of around 20 juniors. New members are always welcome.
A little Club History
Harlequin Bowmen was originally founded in the late 1950s as the AERE Archery Club at the then-named Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Berkshire. The club has not moved geographically but its name, the name of the site owners and the name of the county it is in have all changed over the years.
Over the years the club has shot indoors in the rifle club where the backstop was a steel plate; the dance hall of the old social club, till someone shot the piano; the upstairs room of the social club and then an inflatable building (The Air Hall). We now shoot indoors at John Mason School in Abingdon during the winter.
Shooting Times
We have access to the middle playing-fields at Harwell throughout the year, all day on Sundays and most Saturdays, other than when rugby matches are taking place (usually Saturday afternoons), or other HLRA events are organised (typically 2-3 times during the year). Click on the 'location' tag above to see where we shoot.
During the summer we also have evening access to the HLRA playing fields on Tuesdays, from 4.00 pm – dusk and on Fridays from 2.00 pm – dusk.
During the Winter season we retain use of the field on Saturdays and Sundays, as above. In the week we have shooting every friday, from 6.00-8.30 pm and (more or less) every other Tuesday from 7.30-9.30 pm. All indoor shooting takes place at John Mason School in Abingdon.
By arrangement with HLRA we are often able to have further access to the field during main holiday times, notably over Christmas and Easter.
A calendar of shooting times is available on our members pages and is updated/circulated via email to all club members at times through the year.