Attending tournaments is a great way to meet other archers and expand your archery experience. There are tournaments set at all ability levels from tournaments catering for novice archers to top level UK record status (UKRS) and World record status (WRS) events. For those of you who are looking to be highly competitive, you will generally find that there are several tournaments available to shoot at nearly every weekend. There is normally an application form to complete and a small entrance fee to be paid to enter a tournament.
You may think attending a tournament is a bit daunting but there are also tournaments and shoots run by clubs for their members. High Elm Archers run several such events throughout the year – see our Events page and club calendar for more information.
Before attending a tournament, have a chat with a club coach or other members who have attended tournaments.
What to take
What to take to a tournament can be an endless list, but here are a few things to remember.
- dress appropriately, you may want to check what the dress code is for the event
- your Archery GB membership card
- your shooting kit (bow, arrows etc -make sure you have some spare arrows)
- toolbox, for emergency repairs
- lunch, drinks and snacks to graze on while shooting
- a pen
- a folding chair may be a useful addition
- if it’s an outdoor tournament
- a line tent
- rain coat / umbrella
- sun cream / sunglasses
Attending a tournament
So you have signed up for your first tournament. What should you expect?
Firstly arrive at the venue in time to allow for registration and to set up your gear.
Check your target assignment and which archer you are (A, B, C, or D). Locate your target and introduce yourself to the other archers on your target. Most archers are friendly and will help you out if it’s your first tournament.
There will be a kit inspection, where the judges will check your kit to ensure it complies with the regulations for your bowsytle.
Once registration and kit inspection is complete there will normally be a short address by the tournament organiser and the Judge in charge of the shoot, who will explain how the shoot will be controlled. This could be via whistle or, for record status shoots, a timed traffic light system.
We are lucky in Lancashire that many of the tournaments that take place use the traffic lights so that archers can get used to shooting under these conditions, and the Lancashire judges are a friendly lot.
Shooting will normally be in details with four archers per target (A, B, C and D)
Archers will be called to the line ready to shoot. Archers A and B shoot first followed by C and D. For the next end this will be reversed, so C and D will shoot first and then archers alternate for the rest of the tournament.
Once all archers have finished shooting, the judge will give the signal to score and collect arrows. At the target each archer will call out the scores for their own arrows. If there is any uncertainty regarding the value of a score the archers on the target may agree the value, if not the judge can be called to adjudicate.
Archer C is normally the scorer and records the scores for all the other archers, archer D then records the scores for archer C. If any errors are recorded, call the judge who will correct and initial the score sheet.
The link below displays a list of scheduled tournaments in the Lancashire County area.