Kindly written by Daniel Hawley – Fort Purbrook Company Of Bowman Head Coach
On Sunday 5th October Fort Purbrook Company of Bowmen sent a team of 16 archers to the Southern Counties Field Archery Championships near Chelmsford in Essex.
As we had such a large number of people going we decided to take advantage of the Peter Ashley Activity Centres’ minibus and travelled together, this was better for the environment, parking, and team spirit, plus it got us noticed when we turned up in style.
Archers from other clubs commented that they wished that their club had something similar.
Our team represented a full cross section of the club, from club instructors and former GB Internationals Daniel Hawley and Anna Catling to archers who have just finished their beginners’ course and were entering their first ever competition.
Despite raining for most of the journey there and during the pre competition assembly the weather cleared up shortly after shooting started and the rest of the day was fine, with the sun coming out at times.
The competition was a 24 target marked World Archery round.
This means that there were 24 targets sent in a course around the woodland. These targets raged from 20cm in diameter at 5 meters range, to 80cm at 60 metres.
The shooting positions are marked by pegs in the ground, with the distance to the target marked on the peg. There are different coloured pegs for different age groups and bowstyles. This year for the first time new novice and junior pegs were included, which are set at shorter ranges. This was great as not only did it enable our younger kids to take part, but they brought their parents with them, who also competed, and in some cases surprised themselves by how well they did.
The course was well set and proved to be a great introduction to field archery with everybody enjoying themselves, finishing the day looking forward to the chance to enter another competition, even before the results were announced.
Results Highlights
Individual Medals
- Lady’s Recurve – Phoebe Nobel, Gold Open,
- Gent’s Traditional – Paul Creamer, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- Gent’s American Flatbow – Phil White, Gold SCAS, Gold Open (New Hampshire County Record)
- Lady’s American Flatbow – Anna Catling, Gold SCAS, Gold Open (New Hampshire County Record)
- Gent’s Longbow – Daniel Hawley, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- Gent’s Longbow – Brendon McCallum, Silver SCAS, Silver Open
- U15 Lady’s Recurve – Freya McCallum, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- U12 Lady’s Recurve – Chloe Wilson, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- U12 Gent’s Recurve – Henry Maule, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- U12 Lady’s Barebow – Faith Littlechild, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- U10 Lady’s Barebow – Katy Hawley, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
- U8 Gent’s Recurve – Tom Hawley, Gold SCAS, Gold Open
Inter-counties teams;
- Longbow, Gold – Daniel Hawley, Brendon McCallum
- Mixed Styles, Silver – John Foley, Stuart Wilson, Sean Littlechild, Paul Creamer.
Gallery
All Photos Kindly Sent In From Club Members Who Attended
As a bonus the club had a very successful set of results.
Medals were awarded for the Essex Championships, The Open Championships (Any archer who was not from Essex) and the Southern Counties Championships, which included team prizes.
Many of our archers won medals in both the Open and the Southern Counties Championships, plus as archers from Hampshire we represented our county in the Inter-counties teams, winning the Longbow gold, and taking Silver in the mixed categories.
To add to this success Anna Catling and Phil White set new Hampshire County records for their styles of shooting. This meant that we went home with 29 medals and two new county records between us, not a bad haul for a small club.
Full results are on the Essex County Archery Association website and the GB & NI Field Archery Facebook group.
