Air cadets’ new archery gear hits the target

Hundreds of arrows were shot at the two targets and luckily only two were damaged (but repairable).

Late in 2018, 739 Scarborough Squadron Air Cadets sent Officer Commanding Flt Lt Steven Lewis RAFAC and Sgt James Raw RAFAC on an Archery GB Instructors course so they could deliver the sport to the local cadets.

Following completion of the course £2,500 was spent on equipment so the cadets could have a go at archery.

This was aided by a generous donation from Central and East Yorkshire Wing ATC and support from the general public at a bag pack at Morrisons supermarket and online through BT MyDonate.

A spokesman said: “Everyone seemed to really enjoy it with lots of smiles and shaken hands at the end of the day to the 739 staff for arranging the day. We thank our friends for travelling far to join us in enjoying this fantastic activity and long may the collaboration continue.

“If this kind of thing interests you we have another intake on Friday, July 5.

“We train all cadets and staff under official Archery GB qualified instructors and use their rules for governance.

“Training to ‘have a go’ does not take very long at all and is a quick and fun introduction to the world of archery.”

Flt Lt Steven Lewis RAFAC has dreamed of bringing this activity to 739 Squadron for years and to have it finally become a reality really is the proverbial “icing on the cake”.

Flt Lt Lewis said “Recently community cadet force units are having to become more innovative in how they deliver training to their cadets.

“We have wanted to get our cadets involved in Archery for some time, but have found the costs for large groups to be prohibitive in the long term so we realised the only way to introduce this to our young people was to buy our own equipment.”

Visit www.scarboroughaircadets.org.uk to find out the full range of activities offered by the air cadets.