The Howard Bowmen
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League Shooting
As a club we are affiliated to Hertfordshire Archery Association (HAA), Southern Counties Archery Society (SCAS) and Archery GB (AGB).
Being part of AGB allows members to compete at any open competition or tournament throughout the country and details for some of the more local events are in the club calendar.
Within Hertfordshire, the HAA runs leagues for both summer and winter. These are organised at the club level, with each club entering teams for the bow styles they wish to represent, as well as the Junior team, which is not bow specific.
We currently enter Senior teams for Recurve, Barebow, Longbow and Compound, as well as the Junior team.
ALL MEMBERS QUALIFY TO SHOOT LEAGUE MATCHES
We do not select teams directly. Instead, we collect everyone's scores and use the highest to form the teams each month.
The scores for archers who don't make the team each month are also recorded, with individual results posted on the HAA website for everyone within each bow style category, allowing all archers to track their performance and compare it across the county.
Teams are made up as follows;
Recurve - 5 archers
Longbow, Compound and Barebow - 2 archers
Juniors - 3 archers
All members are welcome at all the league shoots, home and away, they're not excessively competitive or officious and if you're new to shooting, other archers will always offer advice and assistance.
It is a really friendly atmosphere and a good way to meet other archers, and during the summer league matches, the home team also provide food and beverages after the shooting is finished.
Learn More
More information about the Hertfordshire Archery Association Leagues can be found here:
Summer League
The County Summer League round is the Short Metric for senior archers, with shorter Metric rounds for the juniors, depending on their age group.
Fixtures are arranged in April and consist of 5 matches (one match per month) against other clubs in the County, starting in May and having the last match in September.
The Recurve and Junior rounds must be shot on the designated Match Day each month; any other scores submitted will not count towards the League (although will still count for an archer's Handicap and Classifications).
The location of the Recurve and Junior matches usually alternates between Home and Away shoots, but the specifics will be communicated with club members once agreed with the County League Officer.
All other bow styles shoot their Summer League rounds on a postal basis, so while they are of course welcome (and encouraged!) to shoot on the match days alongside the Recurve and Junior archers, Longbow, Barebow and Compounds can shoot their rounds at any time during the month and submit their best scores, as long as the normal rules of scoring are adhered to – one end of sighters, cross scoring etc.
Winter Leagues
Hertfordshire Archery Association runs two Leagues during the winter months, both of which are organised in October and shot on a postal basis, with the first matches in November:
Frostbite
Outdoors, the Winter League round is the Frostbite, which is 6 sighters followed by 36 arrows at 30m on an 80cm face.
Even though it is a postal league and so rounds can be shot at any club day, we do set a date for a Club Frostbite every month throughout the winter season, which is a really social and fun event. It also embodies the true spirit of the Frostbite, by way of the shoot going ahead regardless of the weather; sun, snow, wind, rain, freezing cold, we still shoot.
Only weather considered as dangerous stops play, the last occasion of postponing the Frostbite being down to a hurricane passing through!
Generally, the Club Frostbite match day is held on the third Sunday of the month from November through to March, with the exception of December, where the Club Frostbite is normally on the second Sunday (because of Christmas).
Portsmouth
The second Winter League that HAA organises is the Portsmouth League, which is generally shot indoors, although shooting a Portsmouth outdoors is not unheard of.
The Portsmouth League is also a postal event, so every Portsmouth round you shoot during the month can qualify. Additionally, every Portsmouth score will attract a handicap and indoor classification rating.
