Try something new: archery
Arrows at the ready! We meet Julie Matthews who has discovered wonderful friends and great help for her disability through archery
It’s a moment of pure concentration as Julie Matthews pulls back the string of her bow, lining it up with her cheekbone. There’s a pause as she weighs up the bullseye on the board in front of her. Then, ping! Off the arrow goes and as it hits the target there is a flurry of laughs, jokes and a great sense of fun from the group of friends Julie has come to love at the Howarth Archers Club in Nottinghamshire. Julie and her husband Stephen first got into archery a year ago after meeting the team from the club at a local community gala. “I’d always been interested in archery but as I have rheumatoid arthritis all the way through my bones I didn’t think my shoulders and elbow would be able to cope with it and I have osteoarthritis in my spine and hips. But they let me have a go at this local gala and I loved it.” Julie and Stephen decided to sign up for a 12-hour beginner’s course. She says: “Before the first session I was petrified as I’d never done anything like this before and didn’t know one end of the bow from the other. But the instructors were brilliant and helped me work out how to adapt the sport around my disability.” Soon Julie and Stephen were hooked and they began working their way through the different badge qualifications that will hopefully one day see them gain master bowman certificates – the highest achievement in archery. “With archery, you’re never competing against other people, you’re just trying to improve your own score and get better,” Julie says. But while it’s an individual sport, she has found it to be a wonderful social activity. “We’ve made some great new friends through the club. And as we shoot indoors on a smaller
‘The instructors were brilliant and helped me work out how to adapt the sport around my disability’
range once the weather turns colder, we see them all year round.” It has become a great activity for Julie and Stephen to do together. “It’s a really nice thing for us to do as a couple as we can see each other’s progress and support each other.” Now that Julie has got to grips with the basics, she says she has realised there are three main requirements to be a good archer with the Haworth Archers Club. “You need to have good concentration, a great sense of humour – and you need to like cake as people are always bringing in cheesecakes and sweet things to share with the club,” she laughs. As well as fun and laughter, Julie says taking up archery has helped her physically, too. “I went to see my consultant recently and he says I now have full rotation in my shoulder which I didn’t have before and that is all down to the archery. It’s not curing my condition, but it is easing my symptoms, which is great news. “I’m so glad I gave archery a go. It’s relaxing and ever such good fun at the same time.”