Friskney Bowmen members participate in target competitions organised by the club and at other competitions around the United Kingdom. The rounds shot depend on the competition and governing rules.
Imperial Rounds (Archery GB rules)
For Imperial rounds, the standard indoor distance is 20yds, with 5 dozen arrows being shot in a round known as a Portsmouth round. Outdoor distances range from 40yds to 100yds, for seniors, and 10yds to 80yds for juniors.
Competition is divided into ends. An archer shoots either 3 arrows per end (indoors) or 6 arrows per end (outdoors). After each end, the competitors walk to the target to score and retrieve their arrows.
At all record status tournaments, archers must adhere to the Archery GB dress code, which consists of wearing dark green and white clothing, or ‘club colours’. Club colours are those which are unique to a club and registered on the Archery GB shooting colour register.
In a tournament, awards are normally split into categories according to sex and, for juniors, age. All registered Archery GB archers also have an indoor and an outdoor classification, and classification awards may also be presented – this allows archers to only shoot against those of the same ability.
Archery GB Classifications
The Grand National Archery Society runs two systems of classification: the main Classifications (for indoor and outdoor shooting) and Handicaps. To do this, they produce tables of scores for all recognised rounds and an archer’s classification and handicap can be worked out from their scores, normally by a club’s Record Officer.
There are six classification grades for seniors:
- 3rd Class
- 2nd Class
- 1st Class
- Bowman
- Master Bowman
- Grand Master Bowman
There are five classification grades for juniors:
- 3rd Class
- 2nd Class
- 1st Class
- Junior Bowman
- Junior Master Bowman
For indoor rounds, an archer has a Classification represented by a letter from A to H, with A being the best and H the worst. This applies for both seniors and juniors.
Scoring
Standard FITA targets are marked with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, which generally have score values from 1 through 10 assigned to them, except in outdoor Imperial rounds under Archery GB rules, where they have score values 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. In addition, there is an inner 10 ring, sometimes called the X ring. This becomes the 10 ring at indoor compound competitions. Outdoors, it serves as a tiebreaker with the archer scoring the most X’s winning. The number of hits may also be taken into account as another tiebreaker. In FITA archery, targets are colored as follows:
- 1 ring & 2 ring – white
- 3 ring & 4 ring – black
- 5 ring & 6 ring – blue
- 7 ring & 8 ring – red
- 9 ring & 10 ring – gold