The club starts Beginners Courses
By 1974, the club was receiving a many applications from people who wanted to attend a beginners’ course. The club decided to limit the courses to a maximum of twelve people for the coming year, and the small strip of land next to the pond was designated as the beginners’ area. This meant that the main shooting line could be kept open for competent archers. During the year, eight beginners completed the course and were accepted as members of the club.
In order to increase the outdoor shooting season, and allow archers to shoot all year round, the club introduced field archery during the winter of 1974/75. A group of members created a twenty-eight shoot field course in the wooded area at the end of the shooting ground. During 1976, the British field archery team visited the club and were very complementary about the course. As well as field archery, ‘roving marks‘ were also held in the winter for a number of years. However, by mid-1977, the safety of the field course was becoming hard to control. Bradford Council had opened St Ives for leisure pursuits and the public had begun to intrude on the course. Because of this, the club decided that other field shooting facilities would need to be found.