County Matches

In addition to the open tournaments that the Association organises, it also tries to hold a number of team matches against other counties. Typically there is an indoor match at the end of March and outdoor matches each month from May to August, with the season finale at the SCAS Inter-Counties Team Tournament in early September.

Unfortunately in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to stage anything like a full calendar of matches, mostly because of the reluctance of some counties to field anything less than their strongest team - this can be particularly difficult if their higher performers choose to attend national or other major events. This is not a problem that is likely to be solved overnight, given the huge volume of tournaments available to choose from.

All outdoor matches are based on the all-day 12-dozen rounds (either the traditional British York, Hereford, Bristol rounds, or, less frequently, the World Archery 1440 and ArcheryGB Metric rounds) unless the weather intervenes to shorten the event. The indoor matches are normally based on the Portsmouth round, but might alternatively use the World Archery 18m. Round, at the discretion of the host county.

Inclusion in the county team for any of these events is strictly by selection and the Selection Panel meets a few weeks before each county match to do so.

The county's Score Returns and Team Selection Policy contains the detail of how teams are selected, but there are a number of basic principles that should be kept in mind:

• only members of the KAA are eligible for selection;
• if you have recently moved to Kent from another county, there might be temporary restrictions imposed by ArcheryGB rules;
• you must ensure that your club Records Officer is regularly submitting your scores to the county Records Officer, however it is also recommended that you submit your own scores to be sure they are received in good time;
• you must have recently shot a reasonable number of appropriate rounds to be considered:
  • for outdoor matches, 12-dozen rounds of the right distances;
  • for indoor matches, a number of the indoor rounds will qualify.

It is also important to understand that team selection is not simply a matter of choosing the archers who have shot the highest scores recently, so the selection policy also describes a number of other factors that may be taken into consideration.