BERMUDA could have as many as 15 sports competing in next year's Island Games in Guernsey.

And one of those sports is archery.

David Hesketh, vice president of the National Archery Association of Bermuda, said the club hopes to send a team of four men and two women to compete in the 2003 Island Games. And it will be the first time Bermuda has competed in these games.

"The Island Games allows places like Bermuda to compete at the same level as everyone else. They are all small islands," said Hesketh adding that Bermuda was accepted as a member of the Island Games Association in July last year.

"The Archery Association in Bermuda is about 15-20 years old and we have 50 paid-up and active members," he said. They have been training at the Government quarry at Bailey's Bay for the past five years.

"Before that we trained at Saltus school field but although we had hired the field, people would still be walking their dogs behind the targets - things like that. Obviously we had to move because of safety reasons."

And although there is a junior porgramme - archers between the ages of 12 and 18 years old - safety is a very important aspect of the association. "You can have a 14-year-old who is very immature - always messing about - and we cannot have that in this sport. It would be too dangerous," said Hesketh.

Later this year the association will be having competitions for about nine months to pick the team for the Island Games.

"Men shoot at targets 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres away and women shoot at targets 30, 50, 60 and 70 metres away - just like the Olympics," he said.

A few years ago Bermuda tried to become a member of the International Island Games Association but went about it the wrong way when the Bermuda Olympic Association applied for membership.

"You have to have a (local) Island Games Association set up and then you apply," said Hesketh. Last year this time the Bermuda Island Games Association met with the Ministry of Youth and Sport to discuss joing the international association. The Ministry was supportive and then the executive committee was formed led by Jon Beard, known more in the local sports world as a top official with the Bermuda Football Association. The association received financial support from Government to bring in delegates from the international games association and tour Bermuda's current and future sporting facilities. Bermuda sent a delegate to the international association's annual general meeting last summer and were eventually accepted.

Many in the local archery association came into the sport through classes from the Community Education Programme - their summer programme starts this Monday. "The programme gives you an opportunity to see if you like archery. There are five sessions and you get a good flavour to see if you are going to be interested in the sport. Our membership is $95 a year and the cost of a good quality bow is $150. A competition bow can go for upwards of $2,000 but you would only buy something like that if you intend to get serious in the sport. Archery, is in fact, an ideal sport because you can become reasonable competent quickly and you can enjoy yourself. To get to another level is another thing though."

Hesketh has been involved in archery for six years. "Others have been involved only for a few years and we have some who are probably only in their first year. One member, Jeane Butterfield, was an US Junior Olympic team contestant although she never actually made it to the Olympics." If you are not signed up for the Community Education Programme, a budding archer can "come down to the quarry and try it for free on Sundays between 2-5 p.m".

"We will let them have ago. Then they can come back for instruction and learn a little bit about the sport - that costs $15.Then we start to encourage them to become members. We provide all the equipment."

And they can also bring in the equipment for you. "A lot of people who become really serious about it go away and get fitted out the same way you would get fitted out in any other sport - they look at you arm length and muscles etc."

The standard bow used by the club is a recurve bow which are so called because the limbs surve away from the bowstring. They can be made as one-piece bows or constructed with a separate handle together with two individual limbs. The handles are made of either wood or aluminium and limbs of wood, glass or carbon. The arrows used by Bermuda's archers and constructed from wood, aliminium or carbon although Hesketh said the carbon ones are better especially in Bermuda because of the high humidity on the island.

Members train at the Government quarry on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings starting at 4 p.m. and also on Sundays starting at 1 p.m.

The president of the club is Edmund Fox.