So, this is a kind of “Ask the experts” as we got a great question from a relatively new club member asking about scoresheets. It’s something that causes a lot of confusion for new members so we thought it’d be helpful to write a bit of a Master Class on what it’s all about. We’ll put up some info about handicaps in our next post.

So, at 2020 Archery Roger is responsible for collecting in our scoresheets, collating them into ‘leader boards’ (here : https://www.2020archery.co.uk/club/archery-competition-info) and working out handicaps. Just ask one of the instructors or an experienced club member (Tim said I’m not allowed to call them Old Timers any more as it makes him feel old) where to find scoresheets, pens and clipboards if you’re not sure. They’ll also know where you should file the completed ones when you’re done.

To fill in the sheet you have two choices – you can do it yourself (in which case you won’t have a Target Captain) or you can ‘cross-score’ which is better and more like competitive archery. If you cross score you sign each other’s score sheet (or if you’re scoring as 4 people on a target one of you could sign them all as target captain) this means someone is verifying that it was done correctly with no cheating. When cross-scoring you should call the numbers from high to low i.e. 9,9,6. Never say “two nines” as invariably your scorer will write “2, 9” and then have to cross out the 2! This should be read out as “nine, nine, six”. Incidentally you must never touch your arrows when scoring in a competition. I know it’d be super difficult to manhandle it into a different zone but.. still.. it isn’t allowed. Try not to do it. We will accept scoresheets that have been filled in by the archer but its good to indicate this by not filling in the target captain. It also means there’s more chance of Roger double checking the scores (your target captain should do this if you’ve cross scored).

The scoresheet gets filled in horizontally with each dozen recorded and the E/T (end total) being the total for the first 6 arrows of the dozen and then the total for the second 6 arrows of the dozen. This is mainly because we shoot in ends of 6 arrows outdoors (further to walk to collect them). Now for the most frequent question that we get asked : what does the H G IG Sc and RT mean? Well, once you know its pretty simple with only one curveball. H = Hits (how many scoring arrows you achieved in the dozen), G = Gold (how many 10s and Xs you achieved). Yep, that’s right – 10s and Xs. A 9 doesn’t count as a gold on an archery scoresheet. No, I don’t know why. It’s just what I was told when I was a novice and I believed them. Any updates / suggestions about this please post in comments! IG = inner gold (very obvious – how many X’s), SC = score (total for the dozen) and RT = running total (all those dozen scores added together as you go).

So, this is an edit a week after the original post.. I asked for comments and boy did I get them! Sadly none of them would write their names in the comments box below *sigh*… the upshot seems to be that the X is not allowable for GNAS scoring but the situation on FITA rounds is a bit less clear.. this is slightly another topic (rounds and competitions) but basically the usual round we shoot at 2020 is a Portsmouth and this is a GNAS (Grand National Archery Society i.e. traditional British shooting) round. An example of a FITA round would be a FITA 18 which is very similar to the Portsmouth but shot at 18m on a smaller target face. So, apparently we shouldn’t be recording X’s on Portsmouths even though the target faces we use allow you to see how many you’ve got. The FITA target faces don’t have an X ring which means its impossible to record them.. apparently FITA rounds no longer count X’s for tie-breaks either, they look at number of 10s and then number of 9s. However, it can be a nice way to track your increasing accuracy so our scoring master (Roger – new title, great no?) is happy to accept scoresheets for Portsmouths where you have recorded the Xs.

I’ve filled in a fakey scoresheet with some of the salient bits highlighted. Please indicate if you’re shooting barebow, compound (lightweight obviously at our club), flatbow, longbow or any other permutation. We will assume your score is regular freestyle (sighted) recurve unless otherwise indicated. PLEASE write your name legibly. Roger’s eyesight isn’t getting any better despite all the archery practice and he needs all the help he can get. If you are on the leader board as e.g. Heidi Nickell instead of Nicholl drop us an email and we’ll yell at Roger. Or possibly scan and upload your dreadful writing for the rest of the club to laugh at (we won’t I promise – I win all the worst writing in the club competitions by a giant margin). Dates and club should be filled in for the sake of completeness. Theoretically you’re welcome to submit scores from elsewhere if you’ve pulled a blinder while visiting another club.

Do keep handing in scores – it keeps Roger out of trouble. Your handicap (and leaderboard position) will only change when a higher score is submitted but its good practice to keep scoring and measuring your progress (although its also good not to get obsessed and occasionally have a ‘fun’ unpressured practice shoot). Do feel free to ask questions in the comments section and do keep sending in “Ask the Experts” as they occur to you.

So, this is a kind of “Ask the experts” as we got a great question from a relatively new club member asking about scoresheets. It’s something that causes a lot of confusion for new members so we thought it’d be helpful to write a bit of a Master Class on what it’s all about. We’ll put up some info about handicaps in our next post.

So, at 2020 Archery Roger is responsible for collecting in our scoresheets, collating them into ‘leader boards’ (here : https://www.2020archery.co.uk/club/archery-competition-info) and working out handicaps. Just ask one of the instructors or an experienced club member (Tim said I’m not allowed to call them Old Timers any more as it makes him feel old) where to find scoresheets, pens and clipboards if you’re not sure. They’ll also know where you should file the completed ones when you’re done.

To fill in the sheet you have two choices – you can do it yourself (in which case you won’t have a Target Captain) or you can ‘cross-score’ which is better and more like competitive archery. If you cross score you sign each other’s score sheet (or if you’re scoring as 4 people on a target one of you could sign them all as target captain) this means someone is verifying that it was done correctly with no cheating. When cross-scoring you should call the numbers from high to low i.e. 9,9,6. Never say “two nines” as invariably your scorer will write “2, 9” and then have to cross out the 2! This should be read out as “nine, nine, six”. Incidentally you must never touch your arrows when scoring in a competition. I know it’d be super difficult to manhandle it into a different zone but.. still.. it isn’t allowed. Try not to do it. We will accept scoresheets that have been filled in by the archer but its good to indicate this by not filling in the target captain. It also means there’s more chance of Roger double checking the scores (your target captain should do this if you’ve cross scored).

The scoresheet gets filled in horizontally with each dozen recorded and the E/T (end total) being the total for the first 6 arrows of the dozen and then the total for the second 6 arrows of the dozen. This is mainly because we shoot in ends of 6 arrows outdoors (further to walk to collect them). Now for the most frequent question that we get asked : what does the H G IG Sc and RT mean? Well, once you know its pretty simple with only one curveball. H = Hits (how many scoring arrows you achieved in the dozen), G = Gold (how many 10s and Xs you achieved). Yep, that’s right – 10s and Xs. A 9 doesn’t count as a gold on an archery scoresheet. No, I don’t know why. It’s just what I was told when I was a novice and I believed them. Any updates / suggestions about this please post in comments! IG = inner gold (very obvious – how many X’s), SC = score (total for the dozen) and RT = running total (all those dozen scores added together as you go).

So, this is an edit a week after the original post.. I asked for comments and boy did I get them! Sadly none of them would write their names in the comments box below *sigh*… the upshot seems to be that the X is not allowable for GNAS scoring but the situation on FITA rounds is a bit less clear.. this is slightly another topic (rounds and competitions) but basically the usual round we shoot at 2020 is a Portsmouth and this is a GNAS (Grand National Archery Society i.e. traditional British shooting) round. An example of a FITA round would be a FITA 18 which is very similar to the Portsmouth but shot at 18m on a smaller target face. So, apparently we shouldn’t be recording X’s on Portsmouths even though the target faces we use allow you to see how many you’ve got. The FITA target faces don’t have an X ring which means its impossible to record them.. apparently FITA rounds no longer count X’s for tie-breaks either, they look at number of 10s and then number of 9s. However, it can be a nice way to track your increasing accuracy so our scoring master (Roger – new title, great no?) is happy to accept scoresheets for Portsmouths where you have recorded the Xs.

I’ve filled in a fakey scoresheet with some of the salient bits highlighted. Please indicate if you’re shooting barebow, compound (lightweight obviously at our club), flatbow, longbow or any other permutation. We will assume your score is regular freestyle (sighted) recurve unless otherwise indicated. PLEASE write your name legibly. Roger’s eyesight isn’t getting any better despite all the archery practice and he needs all the help he can get. If you are on the leader board as e.g. Heidi Nickell instead of Nicholl drop us an email and we’ll yell at Roger. Or possibly scan and upload your dreadful writing for the rest of the club to laugh at (we won’t I promise – I win all the worst writing in the club competitions by a giant margin). Dates and club should be filled in for the sake of completeness. Theoretically you’re welcome to submit scores from elsewhere if you’ve pulled a blinder while visiting another club.

Do keep handing in scores – it keeps Roger out of trouble. Your handicap (and leaderboard position) will only change when a higher score is submitted but its good practice to keep scoring and measuring your progress (although its also good not to get obsessed and occasionally have a ‘fun’ unpressured practice shoot). Do feel free to ask questions in the comments section and do keep sending in “Ask the Experts” as they occur to you.