Report on County Archer Get Together (CAGT) on Saturday 24th June 2023 held at St. Neots Bowmen’s field at Offord D’Arcy.
This was the first CAGT not to be held at Clophill as part of the initiative to get other clubs to host CAGTs. The idea is to “spread the love” and have the chance to involve more club members who might be reluctant to get involved in County events. With both Terry Course and Suzi Bredin, the County Team Managers, shooting in Finland that weekend, the event was organised and hosted by St. Neots Bowmen (SNB). Our judge for the day was Pat Kerrigan but following cancellation of a two-day competition at Stoke Mandeville, we had the bonus of having Brian Dunlop to assist.
Despite sending out invitations and reminders to all BCAA reps and club secretaries, there was not a great number of archers, but we did get representatives from six of our eight BCAA clubs and a variety of bow types. So hopefully the word will get back that CAGTS are both fun and useful.
The round was 3 dozen arrows at 30 metres on a 122-cm face, 10-zone scoring marking the arrow holes, and timed. Pat and Brian inspected our equipment, and we learned what sort of things that they are looking for. We had just one end of sighters and Brian initially indicated the full 4 minutes allowed to shoot six arrows to demonstrate just how much time one has. We had a bouncer, a lost pile, an incorrectly called arrow value, all things to consider and discuss. One archer, despite having been shooting for about a year, had not had the chance to shoot outdoors before nor had shot in a competition with a scoring sheet, cross scoring, etc. So, a steep learning curve but a very rewarding morning.
A special thanks to all at SNB who have apparently not run a competition on behalf of the County on their field for many years, so it was a good chance to involve the club members with setting up a field, checking distances, registration, and producing a target list. Thanks to both judges for sharing their expertise and giving up their time on a lovely sunny day.
Obviously, we missed Terry and Suzi, but we were pleased that the CAGT went ahead as planned.
I look forward to our next excursion, hopefully at yet another venue and hopefully attracting a larger number of participants.
Mike Collins
BCAA Chairman