Early Planning

These are things you should consider well in advance of the date you are planning to hold your competition.

• Consult with the League Organiser about a date(s) for the competition
• Book a hall for the competition on the given date(s)
  • Ensure the hall is long enough to shoot a Portsmouth (20rds shooting distance + boss space, shooting lines, waiting lines etc…)
  • Ensure the hall is wide enough for at least 8 bosses
  • Make sure the hall is fitted to take the safety net you have at your disposal
  • Ensure the hall is booked for a long enough time, accounting for setting up and putting away time, as well as shooting time
  • Facilities such as Toilets should be readily available throughout the day
• Confirm the hall is booked on the given date to the League Organiser, so they can then publicise the date to the other B.U.T.T.S. clubs.
• At this point, inform the League Organiser how many archers you can cater for from each University, and also mention if you are planning to invite any non-B.U.T.T.S. archers as guests.
• Ensure you have paid your membership to the League for the year, as the League Organiser will need this WELL in advance in order to get your medals in time.

Closer to the Date

This in stuff you will need to consider when the date of your competition is close. Leaving this till a fortnight before you event is probably as late as you should leave it, as some of the points depend on other people and deliveries.

• Ensure you have enough bosses, stands, target pins, and other standard club equipment for the competition. Please make sure the equipment is of a usable standard, taking into account you will have to cater for high poundage recurves and compounds. (See equipment checklist)
• Buy or acquire enough 60cm target faces for the day. You will need two per boss per session as standard, plus spares for if the gold is shot out by particularly good archers. Remember to get “Three Spot Faces” for compound and high-level recurve archers to avoid excessive damage to equipment, as well as frequently replacing faces.
• Whoever is allocated as your judge/judges for the day, should be an archer/experienced member of your club and have a knowledge of ArcheryGB rules. It is highly recommended that they have a copy of the ArcheryGB rules available to them.
• Recruit enough members of your club to help out on the day. Jobs may involve:
  • People in the hall for general inquiries
  • Judges
  • People to help switch faces between sessions
  • People to escort other clubs to social areas such as pubs/restaurants/shops
  • People to help set up and take down the range at the start and ends of the days
  • People to help process score cards.
• Check with your campus security, that they know which club will be arriving, and adequate parking and security will be available to them.
• Ensure any social area chosen for drinks/food/medal presentations will be open at the desired times. If people are likely to eat, it is best to check that the establishment is happy to cater for the quantity of people who may arrive. This is especially important if you are hosting a leg on a Sunday.
• Publish a set of instructions for arriving at your hall from any nearby large roads, such as motorways and A-roads. E-mail this to all attending club, possibly via the League Organiser
• The tournament organiser shoud send an e-mail to all other clubs, asking for lists of competitors from each University at LEAST a week in advance.
• Ensure you have all required information for each competing archer, such as novice/experience, bowstyle, name, etc.
• Decide which universities will be shooting on which sessions. Make sure you consult the League Organiser AND the university representatives that they are happy with the assigned session. The rule of thumb is to put teams with more travel time into the later session(s)
• Compile and publish a target list. This preferably would be sent by the tournament organiser to all attending university clubs before the shoot
  • • Make sure there is at least one experienced archer per target.
    • It is often more convenient to put one experienced and one novice shooting on one face, so that one part of the face is not consistently shot out.
    • Especially in early legs of the league, do not expect novices to be able to score. (Under ArcheryGB standard rules, the C-Archer is normally target captain and as such scorer).
    • Generally, put Compound archers on the same targets, ensuring the boss is especially sturdy.
    • Mix up clubs on bosses.
• Purchase or produce score cards for the day; it is always helpful to provide a clipboard and pen as well.

On the Day

Here is a list of things that will be important on the morning of your competition before your archers arrive and on their arrival.

• Ensure shooting and waiting lines are adequately marked out and visible.
• Ensure safety signs are posted in appropriate places for the safety of both the archers and any members of the public.
• Ensure the range is set up as specified in the ArcheryGB rule book.
• Designate an area for setting up/taking down kit, and for spectators.
• A copy of the target list should displayed prominently.
• Inform any Sports Centre staff (e.g. on receptions) of the competition, and which Universities will be arriving to avoid any confusion.
• Put up signs close to your hall to indicate it’s location to arriving Teams.

Before Shooting Starts

Once your archers begin arriving, and are preparing to shoot, these are the things you should ensure you do before the competition begins in earnest.

• Get team captains to register on arrival, and check that the details of their teams are correct. It is highly likely that teams will change between e-mailing you and arrival on the day.
• Get your medals from of the League Organiser, who will supply them for you.
• Provide each University Club Captain with a contact number of someone in your club who will be available all day, in case of any queries or problems. Make sure you get a contact number for each club too, in case you have to contact them for any reason (such as time delays in presentation).
• Before commencing shooting, do a quick safety talk to the all archers covering the following minimum details:
  • Location of fire exits.
  • Location of toilets.
  • Who is the Judge for the session.
  • Who is the Field Captain for the session.
  • Any rules that may be specific to your range (such as warnings of spectator areas etc…)
  • Get the archers to check their details on the score sheets before shooting, and that they understand the score sheet.
  • If you are running one of the early legs, you will need to run through a full safety talk including whistle commands, and fast calls, as most novices will never have shot in a competition before.
• Give people a short gap ( ~5 minutes) between the safety talk and sighters to prepare themselves.
• For smooth running of the day, attempt to get started as promptly as possible.

Between Sessions

If you are running a competition with multiple sessions of shooting, there are things you should do between different groups of archers shooting.

• First ensure all archers who have finished competing have completed their scoring, signed and handed in their score cards.
• Then, get all finished archers to clear their kit as soon as possible, and make space for incoming archers to set up their kit.
• During this time, your club helpers should rotate the bosses (especially important on bosses which compounds have been shooting on), and replace shot target faces with new ones for the next session.
• Have a member of your club available to guide the finisher archers to any facilities for food/drinks etc…
• Ensure new score cards are put out for this session.
• You should allow at least half an hour for all of this.

During the following sessions, club helpers can process score cards. This involves:

• Checking all score cards have been signed. If they are not signed, they are not legal, and as such, not eligible for the competition.
• Check the addition on each card and all fields have been filled in.
• Compile a list of archers in score order (remembering to separate novice, females, teams, other bow disciplines etc…), allowing space for subsequent sessions (this is obviously easiest on some form of spreadsheet).

Once Shooting has Finished

At the end of the last session, these are some things you should make sure you do, as well as doing any of the relevant items from between the session too.

• As with the end of any other session, ensure all archer finish scoring, sign score cards and hand them in. Then make sure they pack up and head to the presentation area under the supervision of one of your club helpers as swiftly as possible.
• Take down your range.
• At the same time, have helpers process the final score cards as quickly as possible and finalise winners of each categories.
• Leave the hall in the way you would expect to find it, and ensure any relevant sports centre staff know that you are finished for the day.
• Proceed to the presentation area, where any remaining teams should be. Here, have a club representative run through the presentations of the medals. Medals are awarded for:
  • Gents Recurve
  • Ladies Recurve
  • Gents Novice Recurve
  • Ladies Novice Recurve
  • Barebow
  • Novice Barebow
  • Compound
  • Longbow
• DO NOT FORGET the Mars Bar, which is traditionally awarded by the Birmingham Captain to the score closest to 222.
• Remember to also make mention of the winning novice and recurve teams.
• It is customary to give a full run down of scores for top three in each category for any results.
• Before people leave, thank them for taking part, and have advice at hand if clubs ask you for your opinions on local places to eat, as it has been known for clubs to go out for a meal after the presentations. 

Equipment Checklist

Below is a recommended list of equipment you should have on the day of an Indoor Archery Competition. You should have spares available of all major kit such as bosses, in case anything goes wrong. With smaller kit, it is often quicker to have replacements than to attempt repairs, Please ensure all equipment is of standard expected for a competition.

• Bosses
• Stands
• Appropriate floor protection from stands (e.g. mats)
• Safety net
• Shooting Line/Waiting Line (easily done with masking tape)
• Safety signs
• Direction signs
• Seating (preferred but not required)
• Target pins
• 60cm Portsmouth faces
• Score cards
• Whistle
• Pens
• Clipboards
• Red pens for judges
• ArcheryGB Rules of Shooting
• Laptops & power to charge them
• Toolbox (this is not mandatory, as clubs should provide their own equipment, but is often helpful in ensuring any equipment failures are dealt with as rapidly as possible)