Archery Legends
On a different path again is Archery Legends, a facility attached to the well-established retailer Merlin Archery, based in Loughborough in the Midlands. Open just six months, it was a longterm project of the founder Chris Jones, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
Archery Legends is not a club as such, it is a facility for leisure shooting that is very much tapping into well-known fantasy archetypes. Nevertheless, it is also set on introducing people to the sport, with two 18 metre ranges, plus a range dedicated to younger children age 7-11. They shoot purely traditional archery using a flat bow with no sights, essentially offering a continuous introduction to archery available whenever the range is open, and particularly catering for groups.
Bow spoke to Adriana, the manager of Archery Legends. “This is a long term project that Chris and Ben (Jones) wanted to do, to bring archery further into the mainstream. To join an archery club really can be quite a heavy commitment. Here we don’t have membership. We have various kinds of formulated gameplay suitable for a good evening out and group activities and we focus on children in particular. Needless to say we take safety extremely seriously as well. But the focus is on entertainment.” Possibly uniquely amongst archery ranges, Archery Legends offers food and drink as part of its various packages.
“Essentially, it’s adding a 100% customer service element on to trying out archery. It’s an environment to introduce people to archery in a fun way. We’ve had many customers taking a liking to it, and we get repeat business from both individuals and groups. And it has introduced people to the wider sport – some have gone on to join clubs.”
Archery Legends isn’t about free shooting with your own equipment. “We’ve made sure we have the highest quality equipment available, much better than your average havea-go. But if you have to use our equipment, it adds another element, making archery an equal playing field, which adds something to any competition we put on.”
“We have a loyalty card scheme, and a traditional shooting night on Monday night, where people can come and shoot individually. We’re very familiar with clubs and how they work, what we’re doing is filling a gap in the market, with people who want to shoot and have fun but don’t like the commitment. We want to add a little bit of magic here too, we’re based in a trading park outside the city centre, but you come in here and it’s a different little world.”
"We’ve made sure we have the highest quality equipment available, much better than your average have-a-go."