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Field Archery in Kent, 12th November.

Following on from the SCAS test event last weekend the next Field day in Kent is on the 12 November 23.

If you want to try a different form of archery come and give it a go, you will need some sight marks from 10m to 60m and you shoot your normal equipment so no special kit required.

You will be paired with an experienced field archer who will giude you through the day.

Hope to see you on the 12th November

Southern Counties trial 3 way inter-county field match

On Sunday 15th October a team of 8 field archers from Kent attended a trial inter county field match. The match was hosted by Overton Black Arrows at their spectacular field venue on the side of the South Downs in Kingsclere, Hampshire.

Photo Steve Allam

Teams were to consist of mixed gender by bowstyle, Compound, Recurve, Barebow and English Longbow. Shooting for Kent, archers were chosen from those that had submitted field scores to the county, where:-

Compound :- Chris Horan and Bob Beaney, due to the latest of confirmation no ladies where available

Recurve : Oliver Sandor-Brown, no other recurves that had submitted scores were available

Barebow: Geoff Barker and Tom Williams

English Longbow: Colin Hind, Michael White and Lindsey Coates

The day started bright, cold and dry as teams from Kent, Hampshire and Sussex shot an initial 12 marked target ranking round.

Lindsey Coates shooting down hill – Photo Steve Allam

After the ranking round archers were ranked in 1st, 2nd,3rd and 4th by bow style and county. Archers then shoot a 4 target head to head match against the similarly ranked archers and bow style from the other counties. After 2 targets the lowest scoring archer dropped out, if we had a tie then a single arrow shot off would have been required. After 3 targets the next lowest scoring archer dropped out leaving us with 2 archers to shoot the final target. points where awarded to each county depending on their placing after the head 2 head matches.

Because of the mixed number of archers available from each county, some matches included more than 1 archer from a county. The results for Kent where:

Longbow Match 1 – Michael White 1st

Longbow Match 2 – Lindsey Coates 1st, Colin Hind 2nd

Compound Match 1 – Chris Horan 2nd and Bob Beaney 3rd

Recurve Match 1 – Oliver Sandor-Brown 4th

Kent places 2nd behind Hampshire

Thank you to all those attended.

Keep an eye on this website for have ago field archery sessions next year as well as information about the Kent Field Archery days that are held at Gore Wood, near Sittingbourne during the outdoor season. Kent are actively trying to arrange inter county team field matches. To be in with a chance to compete in these submit your scores via Golden Record. If you don’t have a Golden Records account contact the Kent Records officer at records@archerykent.org.uk.

Kent, Sussex and Hampshire teams – Photo from Steve Allam
Photo – Steve Allam
Photo – Steve Allam
Photo – Steve Allam

Cécile Midrouillet talks about her experience shooting for GB at the European 3D field championship

I just had the honour of representing GB at the European Archery 3D Championships in Italy.

For my first selection, my objectives were simple: gain experience and learn on a bigger stage, understand where I benchmarked and most importantly, enjoy it. I’ll start with the easy one – I LOVED every minute of it (except perhaps for the 5 am email informing me my flight home had been cancelled, but that’s a story for another time!).

A big part of that is thanks to proper prep, the top notch event organisation and a great Team Manager, which combined meant I could focus on shooting and nothing else.

Before the trip, I spent many hours with the kind help of fellow Kent archer Chris Horan, selecting and tuning my equipment and getting a spare bow set up. It’s key going out knowing your kit is as good as it can be and that you have a plan B should anything not go according to plan. As it turns out I didn’t need any of my spare kit, but knowing it was there and working well, gave me the peace of mind to focus on my shooting. And really that’s all it’s about, doing what you’ve done all year and replicating it on the big day.

And we’re off

I travelled to the event with my teammate Ian. We were met at the airport by one of the many volunteers and escorted to our waiting bus. Transport was sleek, organised by the local organisation committee with the help of the local police force.

Upon arrival we were met by Team Manager Mal Williams, and we then joined our teammates for dinner. Mal gave us a debrief on the schedule, what to expect and where to be and when. On an international trip, you will spend the majority of your time with your team. There are other teams in the same hotel, but you will eat, travel and practice predominantly with the same group of people all week. Your team becomes like a second family.

Official practice and equipment inspection

Day 1 was orientation for Ian, Jed and myself who travelled specifically for the 3Ds. The rest of the team (Mal, Vic, Tom, James and Ollie) also shot the WA field the previous week and already had their accreditations and knew what to expect. Our gazebo for the week was set up between France and Germany, we said our hellos and chatted about kit – and exchanged pin badges. Pin badges are a big thing in 3D. Everyone brings some to swap with their groups and give to the volunteers. It’s not uncommon to see volunteers and archers racing around to try and catch badges from (think Pokemon Go!).

After a quick photo, we picked up our accreditations and set up for official practice. The shoot is nearly 2,000 above sea levels so we expected some small impact to our marks as there’s less drag on the arrows at altitude so it was important to check everything was as it should be. I ended up adjusting my sight tape by half a metre.

During practice, each team was called to equipment inspection which is very much like any UK shoot. Sometimes the judges also check your bag and you can be asked  but otherwise it’s all the same as what you can expect from a UK shoot.

After practice, to avoid dragging kit back and forth on the bus, I checked mine into bow storage before heading over to the official opening ceremony, shortly followed by a welcome bevvie and buffet.

Qualifications

Day 2 and 3 were qualification days. On my first day I was randomly assigned to a target with 3 other archers.

After the customary pin swap, we started on the more difficult of the two courses.

My target mates and I agreed to spot for one another. This isn’t a given, some archers prefer silence.

English is the official event language and we were required to use it when competing. The only 4 words we were required to know were good, bad, yes and no. Unlike with UK shoots, there are no tea breaks. You simply continue and dash to use the facilities dotted on the course.

I was very nervous and I didn’t relax properly until perhaps target 8. And this showed. My target mates and I had an equal mix of great and average shots, as well as misses. Unlike my fellow shooters, my lack of experience meant I struggled shaking off the bad shots and carried some of them with me onto the next target. This cost me a few points. I really enjoyed the course and was left a little disappointed with my score but overall I expected I would do better on the second qualification course.

The following day we were ranked according to our first score and put into different groups. We went back out onto our second course, the shorter and flatter of the two. Unfortunately a quarter of that course consisted of deer targets, which I have consistently struggled with all year. And I did once again. One mistake early on caused me to lose all confidence in my shot process, preferring to go for ‘safe’ shots rather than aiming square at the 11. I was left frustrated as a lot of my arrows actually landed where they were aimed, and If I’d simply trusted myself more, I would have had a better overall score.

Unlike other archers who were up on day 1, I was down. Still, it was all to play for as I was through to eliminations along with the rest of the GB team.

Eliminations

Ianseo worked its magic and assigned all of us into pools. Eliminations consists of 6 targets. You shoot your match and if you win, you stay and the next higher ranking archer joins you. There’s really all to play for, and it’s not uncommon for archers to work their way back up during eliminations – but it helps if you’ve done the hard work in qualification!

In my case it was over after the first match and I finished 15th.

Being knocked out in the first round meant I could focus on supporting my team mates and so I joined the big (and fairly noisy) crowd watching the rest of the matches.

If you want to see what it’s all about, the finals are available on World Archery’s YouTube channel . Matches on the finals field are shot over 4 targets, 5 if there’s a shoot off, and there were quite a few of those!

So what now?

I can’t say I’m not disappointed with my overall score, but it’s been a fantastic experience and it’s made me even more determined to improve and come back better.

Archers are a really friendly bunch and this is especially true of field archers. Irrespective of the country you represent, you’ll always find someone cheering for you and sharing tips and advice to help you progress. I have come home with some things to work on and some good advice.

3D is growing in popularity and it would be great to see more Kent archers give it a try. There are more and more courses available and taster sessions being organised across the country over the Winter. Check out the GB & NI Field Archery Facebook Group for more info about tasters and shoots.

All Photos from Cécile Midrouillet

Silver for Chris Horan at the English Field Champs

This weekend, Exmouth Archers hosted the English Field Archery championship as part of their annual shoot near Exmouth, Devon.

The shoot consisted of a World Archery, 2 day mixed round, that is 24 targets, 12 with marked distances and 12 with un-marked distances, using the standard black and yellow field faces. Shooting 3 arrows per target, with scoring from 1 to 6. That means 72 arrows per round.

At the end of day 1, Chris, gents compound, lay 2nd with a score of 374, 1 point ahead of Hampshire’s John Foley.

At the end of day 2, Chris had stretched his lead over John to 16 points, cementing his 2nd place.

Congratulation Chris

All pictures courtesy of Chris Horan

Keep an eye on this website for have ago field archery sessions next year as well as information about the Kent Field Archery days that are held at Gore Wood, near Sittingbourne during the outdoor season. Kent are actively trying to arrange inter county team field matches. To be in with a chance to compete in these submit your scores via Golden Record. If you don’t have a Golden Records account contact the Kent Records officer at records@archerykent.org.uk.

Medals at 2023 National County Team Tournament

The weekend of the 23/24th September saw the National County team tournament held at Liliieshall. Kent Archery sent three teams, Gents and Ladies compound and Gents Barebow.

The shoot took place over 2 days with the medals awarded based on the combined points from both days.

The men’s barebow, consisting of

RIORDAN Jack
SANDERS Ian
WILLIAMS Thomas

Placed 3rd overall, congratulations all.

Individually

Mens Compound

Ajay Scott placed first in the mens compound. Jamie Mackrill placed 27th and Jason Byatt placed 44th.

Women’s Compound

Michelle Sword placed 2nd and Mia McGuane placed 13th.

Mens Barebow

Jack Riordan placed first, Tom Williams Placed 5th and Ian Sanders placed 27th

Congratulations all.

Medal Success for Isabella Bruguier at the European Field championship.

After a field have a go, run by Hannah Brown at Medway archers at the start of the year Isabella Bruguier first field tournament was only in March this year, at Pentref Bowmen in Wales. That Isabella took to field archery, she was already an accomplished compound target archer, under the guidance of a great mentor and accomplished field archer from Kent, like a duck to water is an understatement.

This week Isabella has been competing as part of the GB squad, in the under 21 women’s compound division of the European Field Archery Championship, in Cesana – San Sicario, Italy. What a weeks its been too.

Qualifying 2nd in the division she went into multiple team and individual finals.

Medals

Bronze – Women Under 21 Team Demo Event. Along with Kathryn Moreton and Louisa Piper

Bronze – Compound Under 21 Mixed Team. Along with Ioan Rees.

And the best for last the individual final

Silver – Compound Under 21 Women

Contratulation Isabella

Keep an eye on the this website for more have ago field archery sessions next year as well as information about the Kent Field Archery days that are held at Gore Wood, near Sittingbourne during the outdoor season. Kent are actively trying to arrange inter county team field matches. To be in with a chance to compete in these submit your scores via Golden Record. If you don’t have a Golden Records account contact the Kent Records officer at records@archerykent.org.uk.

Ajay Scott wins silver at the National Tour Final

At the start September the countries best archers gathered at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, for the national tour finals. Lining up with the best mens compounds was Kents Ajay Scott(Abbey Bowmen).

Qualifing 3rd Ajay faced Dillion Crow in the first round.

Ajays run to the gold medal match wasn’t the easiest, requiring two single arrow shoot offs, the first of which Erol Flynn would have been proud of, Ajay v Dillion Shoot off.

Up next for Ajay was 2nd placed qualifier Adam Carpenter, Ajay v Adam, after drawing the match 143 each after 15 arrows, Ajay produced another 10 to Adams 9.

Last up was James Mason, Ajay v James, the earlier ends were tight but after a couple of loose arrows James took the win 147 v 144

Picture (c) Archery GB and Malcolm Reese

Congratulations Ajay

4 way intercounty junior shoot results

On Saturday 9th Sept a team of 11 Kent Juniors travelled to Sussex to compete in a 4-way match with Hampshire, Essex and Sussex. Unfortunately Essex couldn’t field a team so it became a 3 way shoot.

The Kent archers dominated the results achieving the highest score for four of the 8 categories.

Matt May – Highest gents recurve
Lucy Noar – Highest ladies recurve
Niamh Kelly-Halabi – Highest ladies longbow
Evan Clarke – highest gents compound and his 6-gold badge.

Kent won the event by over 200 points with Sussex in second and Hampshire in third.

The team shot amazingly well in the scorching heat and did the county proud.

If you would like to be part of the next county events, there is likely to be more opportunities for both seniors and juniors on the horizon, please submit your scores through Golden Records so we know what you are up to.

Hannah

All photos curtsey of Hannah Brown

Golden Records goes Live

Please share with all club members and Kent members.

Score Submission – new online platform

The ARCHR.net score keeping programme is not being maintained so has fallen behind Archery GB’s changes to rounds, handicaps, & classifications.As a result, KAA have had to switch to a different platform: Golden Records.

Golden Records is up to date and is actively maintained.  It also includes field rounds, which were never catered for on ARCHR.net. 

Existing Kent records and ARCHR scores have been transferred to Golden records.  Scores that were submitted by clubs and individuals, since January 2022, have also been uploaded to Golden Records. Scores for 2023 havehad their handicap and classification updated in line with Archery GB.

To enable this,all Kent archers who have submitted scores in the past 18 months, either directly or via club record officers, have had a new Golden Records account created.

Golden Records is now live!

Next Steps:

Archers who previously supplied an email address in order to use ARCHR.net will be sent an email with log in details.  ARCHR.net will not accept new scores from 9th August.

Those who previously relied on their club records officer are asked to email the KAA records officer: records@archerykent.org.uk

Reminder:

The responsibility to submit scores lies with individual archers NOT club records officers. This change was made in 2020 because very few clubs were submitting scores so talented archers may have felt overlooked.

All scores should have proof attached,e.g., an official competition results sheet, an IANSEO screenshot, a signed scoresheet (app generated or paper based).

When selecting Kent teams,the selection committee will give priority to proven scores.