Please see below the reports and photos from the latest County matches
Kent verses Essex & Suffolk Field Archery match.
Yes you read that right, a county match in the woods. As with all great ideas this was conceived over a brew and forms part of a Kent, Essex& Suffolk Presidents Series where the two counties compete over four competitions, Indoor, Outdoor, Clout and Field.
Thus two teams of 16 archers in four bow styles, some experienced field archers, some novice, some keen first timers and even target archers that were prepared to leave the shelter of their bivvy.
A 12 target, marked round, was shot in the morning to enable the archers to be ranked for a series of head to heads in the afternoon. The H2H’s were shot over 4 targets, one of each face size. The matches were made up with the top four archers from each bow style to shot an individual H2H, 2nd and 3rd placed archers shot a pairs match with the 4th place making up a mixed bow style 4 archer team.
After a short break for some lunch the stage was set, the players were sorted, and the supporters were all in place to give support and some friendly banter.
To some a head to head is nothing new and thrive on the pressure, to others it was a new experience. After 9 hard fought matches and 2 hours of being waited on like the pros the tired but happy teams gathered for the results. The individuals were split evenly with both teams winning 2 matched each, as was the pairs matches so it was all down to the team of 4 where Kent took the spoils to secure the win.
In summary, the day started damp and sticky underfoot with some great scores shot over the 12 target round when the sun came out and ended in a very close set of matches with medals shared across both teams.From comments received a great day of shooting in the woods.
My thanks go to KAF for massive amount of work to enable the event to take place, to Chris Horan for allowing the use of his format of the shoot, to InRange Archery for their support, to my small work party on the day and to the judges for everything but especially for ensuring the H2H’s flowed so well.
Bob Beaney, KAA President
