The FITA British Cup

[grantwomack]

Something I've been toying with for a while now is the idea of having a "British Cup" of archery.
So many other sports have a series of competitions around their country or around the world (as does archery with the World Cup, the Asian Grand Prix and the European Grand Prix), could we potentially start a series of competitions around the UK for higher-level archers? It would be a nice way to introduce a rolling-ranking system (updated after each tournament) and would be a great way to ensure top archers got the essential head-to-head experience required for international competition (before arriving at the event).

I'd like to see a series of 6-8 FITA Star (Sat.) and 70m head-to-head (Sun.)events throughout the outdoor season - say every third weekend - across the entire UK (incl. NI). The tournaments could be attended by anyone who meets the MQS in open tournaments but British Cup ranking points would only be allocated to the top 32 archers at each event. Additionally, the Sunday could have individual head-to-head in the morning and team head-to-head in the afternoon.

It could be done so that only the top four points totals from all events counted towards the overall ranking total for each archer. That way people wouldn't need to follow the entire tour, just a selection of events. But it would be accessible to everyone.

Whaddya think?

[Shirt]

What do you set MQS at? 1200 recurve, 1300 compound?

I quite like the idea, I await the unfortunate barrage of criticism you're likely to get for being elitist.

Oh, and how do you pick teams for the team head to head - would it be something along the lines of teams of sponsored archers, so you end up with Bowsports vs. a shop or something?

[grantwomack]

Those sound like good levels for MQS. Achievable but not overly easy.

One thing people need to remember that, whilst archery is currently an all-encompassing sport, in order to evolve we need to start introducing things like this! They already exist internationally but there are only two competitions I know of in the UK which are closed shoots: Masters and British selection shoots.

[Shirt]

Another thought - would the Sunday bit be 720 + H2H, or just H2H? If you get a 720 score out of it as well it's another shot at selection scores and so people are more likely to hang about for it... if it's just a H2H, it's less attractive.

Also, if you go with FITA + H2H rather than two events - how do you allocate ranking points? Qualifying or final placing? Or both? If you stick in a 720 you could use that to qualify (which also eliminates the problem of the top qualifier in the FITA getting clobbered the following day because they're freezing to death and so get beaten by someone like me who has the advantage of not feeling cold) and then do one set of points off the final placing for each day? And say you need 3 FITA and 3 720/H2H in your points total for the year or similar...

OK, work beckons so I'll shut up now.

[mk1]

Grant

[mattfink]

That sounds like an excellent idea! Like it alot - however, do you think people would be willing to travel to these events? For the top archers (international) they are already going to be travelling alot, and for others, they may not need to travel far to get a decent number of WRS shoots per year and therefore go for the cheaper option.

[nfinite]

Sounds like a good idea but I dont know it will ever happen.

Finding a number of clubs to put the shoots on is always a problem but then to limit the amount of archers that can shoot.

I cant see many clubs putting a shoot on and then restricting the amount of archers which can enter it.

You could end up with 30 MB archers shooting and paying or 100+ all classes shooting and paying.

Why would a club put something in place which would result in less profit.

But anything can happen

[Schme1440]

I think its a great idea but the Logistics of arranging venues would be a nightmare. The thing with the world cup ones is countries ask to host events. Dont think we would get that in the UK. Great Idea but unfortunatly unless 4-6 clubs will say YES it will only be a bit of a pipe dream.

[Shirt]

One thought would be to ask a selection of double FITAs or FITA/Yorks around the country to convert their Sundays to the head to head bit...

You could get one at Lilleshall at the start of the season, one of the NCAS ones that isn't Timperley, then Kirby or Lincoln to get a third in England.
Ayr and Banchory would get Scotland, and I don't know two shoots in Wales, but that's how many it should be. Get one more in NI and that's 8, which should be more than enough.

[Wrexham Exile]

good idea.

no reason why it couldnt work either.