All archery in the UK should be postponed for the forseeable future

We are advising that all archery in the UK is postponed for the foreseeable future, to reduce all non-essential contact with others. Our priority is the health and safety of our members, participants, volunteers and staff.

We would like to clarify our guidance to providers of grassroots archery following on from the announcement made last night in relation to COVID-19 which can be found here.

We understand that grassroots archery is delivered by a myriad of providers who all operate under their own governance procedures, to be clear the government advice is:

• Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel.
• You should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.

We are advising that all grassroots archery in the UK is postponed for the foreseeable future, to reduce all non-essential contact with others. Our priority is the health and safety of our members, participants, volunteers and staff. We will continue to work closely with grassroots providers during this time.

Please be mindful that a significant proportion of our members and volunteer workforce fall into the over 70 category who in particular should avoid all unnecessary social contact. The Prime Minister has hinted that measures may be increased further by the weekend:

• In a few days' time - by this coming weekend - it will be necessary to go further and to ensure that those with the most serious health conditions are largely shielded from social contact for around 12 weeks.

We appreciate that many of you are facing your own challenges following the new restrictions, which will inevitably have financial implications across our sport, as well as implications for your personal and family life. Please be assured that we are aware of this and while we don't have all the answers, we are compiling frequently asked questions and guidance for our clubs, counties, regions and volunteers, which we hope to be sending out in the coming days.

While we work on pulling together the guidance which will answer the many questions you may have, please use our statements to inform your members and stakeholders.

Please feel free to email us at membership@archerygb.org and we will do our best to answer your queries and add them to our FAQ's. Please be mindful that we are experiencing a large volume of enquiries so we may not be able to reply within the usual 72 hours.

This is an unprecedented time and we appreciate your patience while we work through the challenges ahead. We would like to keep an open dialogue during this period of uncertainty. We will endeavour to keep members updated by website, ezine and social media and webinars.

Finally, this is a stressful situation, which will undoubtedly have an impact on the mental well-being of some of our members, please click here for the most up to date guidance from the Mental Health Foundation for looking after your mental health during COVID-19.

Thanks for your continued support.

Neil Armitage,

CEO, Archery GB