On 29th & 30th of June, a team of 12 men and 3 ladies, represented Essex and Suffolk at the inter counties team competition held at Lilleshall, Shropshire.
Weather was very warm and sunny on Saturday and cooler but breezy on Sunday.
![national_team - flag.jpg](http://ecaa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/national_team/flag-768x1024.jpg)
Most of the team arrived on Friday to set up tents and have a practice in the evening.
Some of the team (Mark/Richard/Tony - Barebow, Bob - Longbow, Tony - Compound) had never shot in the team head to head format before, in this type of team event 3 archers must shoot 2 arrows each within a 2 minute timeframe.
Most of the teams managed to get some shooting practice in that evening, were happy with the shooting line up and had a chance to become familiar with the time pressures archers are under when shooting an arrow in 20 seconds!!
On Saturday, the teams started off with a WA70 /WA50 round, depending on bow style, each archer’s score is added to the other members of their team to give a total for the 3 team members. This combined score then determines your ranking position and who you will be facing in the, knock out, head to head round.
After the qualification round , Essex teams ranked as follows;
Ladies recurve 6th
Men’s recurve 9th
Men’s barebow 3rd
Men’s longbow 2nd
Men’s compound 3rd
A short break for lunch and team photos then onto the knockout stage...
![national_team - team.jpg](http://ecaa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/national_team/team-1024x768.jpg)
Ladies recurve won their first match 6-2 against Dorset and then lost in the quarter finals against Worcester, in a very close match, only losing in a one arrow each shoot off ......... very exciting!!
Men’s recurve had a bye but then lost 6-0 to Berkshire.
Men’s barebow won their 1st match 6-2 against Buckinghamshire and lost to Durham & Northumberland 6-2 in the semi final . In the match for third place the team were 4-0 down before fighting back to force a shoot off, unfortunately missing out and ending their fight in fourth place. A fantastic achievement as Richard Burgess had only shot an outdoor round about 3 times in the last 2 years!!!!
Men’s longbow team made the semi final but lost 6-0 to Devon & Cornwall so were also forced to shoot for third position unfortunately losing out to a strong Kent team, 6-0, and also taking fourth position.
Men’s compound team made it through to the third position match with wins against Norfolk , Warwickshire and a defeat against Berkshire. In their final match they overcame Oxford to take third place.
I would like to congratulate Bob Attalia and James Howell , who both broke county records for longbow & compound respectively.
Ladies The Compounds Keeping Cool
So onto Sunday a WA1440 . Just 3 scores for the round added together to give total for team with the final position of the team to determine points.
Results were as follows;
Ladies recurve 7th
Men’s recurve 16th
Men’s barebow 3rd
Men’s longbow 4th
Men’s compound 3rd
After the scores from the 3 disciplines were added up, the Essex & Suffolk Team ended up as follows.
Ladies recurve overall - 7th
Men’s recurve overall - 10th
Men’s barebow - 3rd and Bronze medal
Men’s longbow - 4th
Men’s compound - 3rd and Bronze medal
![national_team - barebow_podium.jpg](http://ecaa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/national_team/barebow_podium-1024x768.jpg)
Full results can be found on ianseo:
Day 1 - https://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=5762
Day 2 - https://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=5763
Well done to all the Essex Archers who participated in this event. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with the Team while handing out the sugar boosters !!!!
Tony King
Assistant Team Manager
![national_team - managing.jpg](http://ecaa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/national_team/managing-768x1024.jpg)