A group of young Suffolk archers from the Deben Archery Club are aiming high!

Jack Nobbs, 17, Ollie Smith, 15, Ollie Vobe, 14, Jason Cooper, 13 and 11-year-old Roman Quinton, have already won a plethora of awards and trophies in the past 12 months, making them rising stars in their sport – and all after only taking up the sport a few years ago.

Stuart Ross is their coach and also the boy’s Scout Leader at Grundisburgh, and has been delighted by the boys’ progress.

“Two years ago, the boys and myself joined Deben Archery Club having done some archery with the Scout Group at Grundisburgh and attended a National Scout Archery competition,” Stuart said.

“We all like archery and decided to do it more regularly.

“After a few months, we attended our first competition and things have taken off from there.”

All the youngsters are doing well and have won numerous titles between them, including national ones – their dedication continuing to impress Stuart.

“As their coach, I’m amazed by their dedication to the sport,” he said. “To have national champions, regional champions, county champions, UK record holders and boys working towards International and Team GB events having only been doing the sport two years is unbelievable and I feel lucky to be working with such a talented group.”

Two of the archers, Jack Nobbs and Ollie Vobe, have been offered places with Archery GB to join their Academy and already travel once a month to Lilleshall National Sports Centre,in Shrophsire for training weekends.

The goal is selection to represent Team GB at World Cups and other Championships.

“It requires a lot of hard work every week working on building up your strength and lots of practice – 1,000 arrows a week!” added Stuart.

All the boys learned their skills at 1st Grundisburgh Scout Group and still train at the premises today.

The Group meets in a small wooden hut on the Grundisburgh Playing field but are in need of help either financial or professional support to achieve their goal of a new building for future years of Scouting in the area – and to continue the hard work with the archery.

The boys are also looking for local offers of sponsorship from businesses or individuals to help with travelling.