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Outdoor Target |
Arrows are shot either in ends of six or in ends of three at target faces which are either 122cm or 80cm in diameter. Depending on the round, a varying number of ends are shot during a competition and these have various names. The specifications of the rounds are given in the following links. Apart from FITA recognised rounds, each country may have its own set of rounds and called by different names.
In addition in keeping records, GNAS awards archers classifications based on scores attained either in competitions or club target days. The score required to attain these classifications is based on bowtype, the round shot, whether the archer is a lady, gentleman or a junior. Clubs can award the Bowman, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class but claims for Grand Master and Master for both senior and junior archers are awarded by GNAS. In addition to confirming the validity of the award, GNAS will send the archer the appropriate badge and publisise the attainment in GNAS's quarterly magazine - Archery UK. The requirements to achieve the classifications are detailed in the Shooting Administrative Procedure published by GNAS, the number and types or rounds vary depending on the bowtype, classification level and whether the archer is a junior or senior.
| Shooting Admin Procedures |
In addition to classifications, archers may also obtain awards for shooting in record status competitions. In particular for tournaments that have been accorded 'Rose Award' status and for archers shooting York, Hereford and/or Bristol I - IV rounds. The award is in the form of a badge depicting a white stylised rose on a coloured back ground. The scores required and the background colour of the Awards are:-
| White | Black | Blue | Red | Gold | Purple | |
| All Archers | 800 | 900 | 1000 | 1100 | 1200 | 1250 |
The Six Gold badge may also be claimed by archers shooting in competitions organised by GNAS or any of its associated bodies or in competitions at an associated club Target Day. The shortest distances at which the Badge can be claimed is:-
| Six Gold End Badge distances |
| Indoor Target |
| Field |
| Clout |
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Clout is probably the oldest form of archery competition dating from the middle ages. It was introduced to make archery training for war more enjoyable. Initially the target was a six foot post set in the ground at a long distance. In the archery revival of the late seventeenth century, the Royal Company of Archers (of Edinburgh) first practiced 'Clout Archery' using longbows to shoot at a 31" diameter white target at distances between 180 to 240 yards. The first recorded competition was in 1676. |
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Nowadays archers shoot at a flag set in the ground at distances of 7 score yards for ladies and 9 score yards for gentlemen. Juniors shoot at shorter distances. A clout consists of six ends of six arrows and competitions are for single clout and double clout. Scoring is done by measuring the distance the arrow is from the flag. An arrow within 18 inches of the flag scores 5 points (also called a clout), within 3 feet scores 4 points, within 6 feet scores 3 points, within 9 feet scores 2 points and within 12 feet scores 1 point. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The method of scoring is that one archer rotates a multi-coloured cord or tape looped around the flag and assistants collect all the arrows which are in a particular 'colour'. The arrows are then placed in distinct groups on the appropriate section of the scoring cord and the competitors call their scores, picking up their arrows as they do so. |
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In a clout competition, there are two possible trajectories
at which an arrow can be shot so as to land on the target, one
high and one low. Although longbow archers may shoot
either, recurve and compound archers
must shoot the lower trajectory for safety reasons.
It is also a condition of entry to all competitions that every archer must have received instruction for clout shooting prior to the competition. The dangers of overshooting, especially with a powerful compound bow are self evident. GNAS Clout competitions can be of two types: one-way where the archers always shoots from the same end and two-way where the archers starts from one end, shoots their six arrows and then carry their bows to the other end and shoot back. This practice was once used for target archery as well but has now completely died out except for clout. In windy conditions it can make for a very tricky competition but in some ways that is the appeal of two-way clout. There are also FITA clout competitions and these are always one-way. In a FITA Clout the target is much larger with arrows scoring 5 points if within 1.5 meters of the flag, 4 points if within 3 meters and so on. In FITA Clouts, ladies shoot 145m for longbow and recurve whilst compound shoot at 165m. Gentlemen longbow and recurve shoot at 165m whilst compound shoot at 185m. GNAS keep records for both one-way and two-way clout and double clout. Ladies are also allowed to shoot the gentlemen's distances. There are also records maintained for junior gentlemen and ladies under 18, under 16 and for junior gentlemen under 14 and under 12 whilst junior ladies have only the under 13 age group. Records are kept for longbow, recurve, recurve barebow, compound limited and compound unlimited. The recurve barebow has only been introduced recently and is starting to be very popular.
The GNAS National Clout championships have been held at Harrogate during October but due to increasing numbers of competitors was held at Bronte's field near Bradford in 2008. The last two years have attracted over 100 archers from all over the country. GNAS also keep records for the FITA Clout however there are no World Records since it has proved impossible to standardise the scoring systems and course layout amongst all the member countries of FITA. For example Australia and New Zealand use a 10 point scoring system. Clout archery is extremely popular in the North of England but less so in Scotland and the South East of England but if willing to travel there are competitions most weekends throughout summer and even a few during the winter. However because of the longer distances shot, scores can be much lower in blustery conditions and on exposed fields. During dry periods compound archers, in particular, can suffer from their arrows skating through the target area and this is made worse at the shorter distances. Rain on the other hand causes arrows to drop short. A feature of clout archery is that there are a large number of different styles of sights used, often arranged with great ingenuity such that the sight is below the arrow or attached to the end of the long rod. Periscope sights with arrangements of adjustable mirrors are popular in Australia. The Tassel Award for Clout archers has been operative for some years now. First introduced in 1996 within the boundaries of Northern Counties and later adopted by GNAS nationally. Although the scheme is nationally run, Northern Counties Archery Society administers the scheme and issues the awards.
GNAS award a six clout badge, the holy grail of Clout Archery. So far nobody has obtained it however a couple of archers have achieved five clouts in a record status competition. |
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| Flight |
Flight Archery is sometimes called the Formula 1 of archery. It is at the same time the simplest, to shoot an arrow as far as possible and also at its most complicated in that specialist bows are made to maximise the power and arrows specially designed to minimise drag are used.
Because of the technical nature of the sport, and much like Formula 1 cars, there are sets of design rules within which bows and arrows must be manufactured. Unlike target archery were there are many manufacturers of target bows, flight bows are almost always made or modified by the archer and there are a great many unique designs.
A Flight Archery Competition consists of four rounds of 6 arrows and an archer can shoot in up to four classes. Although this doesn't sound much, by the time everyone has walked up to find their arrows and marked the furthest arrow, the competition can result in a very long day. For the longbow archer typical distances will be around 300 yards however for a compound flight bow this might well be just short of 1000 yards. Finding the arrows can be a problem since they don't always fly straight and are not very big, sometimes only 14 inches long which when you have a large airfield to look for it in, it can take some time.
Until recently the discipline was dominated by the Americans however in recent years, thanks to a handful of dedicated British archers, Great Britain have wrestled a substantial number of World Records from them despite the American advantage of holding their competitions on the Salt Flats in the Mid-West where the air is thin, dry and very calm.
In Great Britain there is one World Record Status competition and one British Record status competition, both held at RAF Church Fenton in Yorkshire. In addition there is currently another record status competitions, the West Midlands Flight Competition near Lilleshall but this excludes flight compound bows and target compound bows over 45lbs. The Scottish Flight Competition at Castle Fraser near Aberdeen has not been held for a couple of years. The main problem is in finding sites where there is sufficient room, there being remarkably few places where one can guarantee over 1000 yards free of other people.
In British competitions there are 6 types of bow, longbow, target recurve, target compound, crossbow and in addition specialised flight recurve and flight compound bows. In other countries, other bow types may feature such as the American longbow and flatbow. Target recurve and target compound must be standard target bows shooting standard target arrows however flight recurve and flight compound bows are usually very small with very thin strings shooting very small arrows. Since these bows are at the limit of the strength of the materials used, it it not unusual to see archers wearing a hard hat, safety goggles and very thick leather gauntlets. The noise made by a bow or string breaking can be quite spectacular.
Bows are also divided into weight categories depending on the type and weighing the bows forms an important preliminary to the competition and can also take place between each round. Unfortunately GNAS (and the Americans) use imperial measures whilst FITA uses metric and there is no direct one to one correspondence between them. The weight categories also differ between ladies and gentlemen.
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Arrows are fired at about 45 degrees to the horizontal and
each competitor may have an assistant to help with getting this
angle right. Flight archery competitions are also unique
in that archers do not have to wear the standard green and
white, in fact they are encouraged to wear bright coloured
clothing. Archers shoot along a line and distances are
measured perpendicular to this line so there is an incentive to
be on this line. The rules state that the actual line can
be chosen to gain any advantage from the prevailing wind however
in Britain we cannot gain this advantage since this direction is
also determined by the available space.
As can be expected wind conditions and weather pay a critical part in any flight competition, rain is especially damaging to distance as is a cross wind. In the latter case the arrow shaft is not in line with its flight and this increases the drag substantially. The ideal conditions are flat calm or with a slight following wind where it is the hope of the archer that they can get their arrow to float through the air and substantially increase the distance. The aim of the archer is to make a perfect release of the arrow and that the arrow is perfectly tuned to the bow. Every effort is made to reduce drag and the arrow shaft and pile are highly polished whilst the fletch is reduced as much as possible. Flight arrows are also peculiar in that they usually have very light points in order to minimise the overall weight of the arrow. Flight archers put a lot of effort into getting their arrows just as they think are correct, barrelling the shaft to get an aerofoil shape is just one of the many tricks. |
| Papingo |
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The annual shoot originally used live birds but by the seventeenth century the live targets had been replaced by a wooden model with detachable wings. |
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| Old papingos displayed in the Abbey Tower Heritage Centre | The papingo used in todays shoots |
| Over the years the competition for shooting the papingo has had different formats. In 1724 David Muir, merchant in Kilwinning and Chamberlain to the 9th Earl of Eglington presented the silver arrow for competition. In subsequent years the winners afixed to it a badge of silver or gold. This continued until 116 medals commemorating those who had been successful in their attempt to 'ding doon the Papingo' when the present prize was created with a silver bow and crossed bolts supporting David Muir's arrow. Over the years there have been various changes to the format of the shoot, and for a time after 1844, an amendment to the rules was made to allow a competitor to shoot by proxy. |
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The Papingo Trophy |
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In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many archery societies had elaborate uniforms. In 1713, the captain wore a scarlet ribbon 2 1/3 yards long, over the shoulder. In 1814 the uniform was to consist of a white cashmere vest and a double breasted green long coat to be lined with white silk and the buttons to be made with crossed-arrows with points downwards. By 1844 when the then patron of the Society was no less than His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, the full dress uniform included a Stewarton bonnet, white with a red top and a green circle which is still worn today |
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David Tough with the captaincy sash prior to shooting at the buts for the Club Captaincy in 2009 |
The Stewarton Bonnets as worn by the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers |
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shoot consists of two parts, first shooting at the buts. This comprises six dozen arrows shot in ends of three at the Kilwinning target. This is a target consisting of three concentric circles - gold, red and blue scoring 3,2 and 1 respectively. The distance is 30 yards. Each archer picks a target and recurve or longbow may be used. (In the open shoot in August, a compound bow may be used but must be shot off the fingers) |
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After the target shoot at the buts is completed, the archers gather at the tower of Kilwinning Abbey and the shooting of the papingo is held. The order of shooting is determined by the scores in the buts. Longbows supplied by the club must be used and the arrows are blunts. Seen from underneath, the papingo appears a very small target. Shooting continues until either the papingo is hit or until a set specified time. Some years nobody hits the papingo and the trophy is not awarded. |
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| Initially the wings are fixed to the body of the papingo and if somebody manages to hit the papingo, they are awarded the trophy. The papingo is then fixed and the two wings freed and shooting at the papingo continues until both wings have been dislodged, those that manage that are awarded a rosette. Only arrows that hit the papingo on the upwards flight count. | ||
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Papingo viewed from the tower after one wing shot away |
An archer shooting at the papingo |
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| The Club Captaincy Papingo Trophy | Ann Todd - winner of the 2009 Open Papingo receiving the Walker Rose Bowl Trophy from David Tough | |
