The club has a year round calendar of competitions. The ones that are designated ‘tournaments’ include trophies, prizes and medals (and a raffle). They are usually what we call a ‘Jacob’s Join’ which means all the participants bring food to share when we stop mid way through for a lunch break.
During the summer, the rounds shot include: Windsor, Warwick, York, Hereford, Long Western, National, Albion etc. Juniors will shoot a shorter round on the same day. There’s also a Summer Knock-Out competition which can include some metric rounds as well.
During the winter, there are regular ‘Frostbite’ competitions held outdoors on Sundays. The club also takes part in the county-wide ‘Postal League’ which is shot indoors. There are also two indoor knock out competitions: The Roy Widdop Cup and the Lord Commissioner’s. Any bow style can be used and the handicaps are applied.
Note for beginners: If you don’t feel ready to compete on competition days, you are still welcome to come along and shoot shorter distances on the field. Just be aware that your choice of round on the day may be limited to number of arrows being shot at each distance to match the competition round.
Other Clubs’ Competitions
Club members often attend other club competitions. These are listed on the Yorkshire Archery Association’s website. Application forms can be downloaded. If possible, members who sign up for the same events will arrange to travel together.
Handicaps
As with other sports, archery has a handicap system. This enables archers of different shooting abilities to compete and have a chance to win events.
To gain a handicap, archers shoot and score three recognised rounds and give them to the club’s Records Officer. He will work out the handicap rating for each score and the average value to obtain the handicap. Separate handicaps are required for indoors and outdoors – and also for different bow styles (ie. if you shoot both Recurve and Longbow, you will need to obtain a handicap for each.)
Clothing
When attending tournaments at other clubs, the White Rose Archers’ branded clothing should be worn. Polo shirts, t-shirts, sweaters and rain jackets can all be purchased through the club.
Rounds
It is useful to know what distance each GNAS round constitutes and the information is available from the Archery Score Pad site. This is summarised here for both Imperial and Metric rounds.
