RAF Archery Success at UK National County Champs

Nine archers from across the RAF recently participated in the 2024 UK National County Championships at the Lilleshall National Sports & Conferencing Centre. The team achieved their best ever result in the competition, collecting a bronze medal in the Mixed Barebow event. We caught up with Sergeant Ellie Spinks and Flying Officer Ryan Elkes to hear all about the event and their success.

“For the purposes of UK Archery, the RAF counts as a county, and as such we were pitted against the best archers from each county across the UK. Overall, 370 archers from all around the UK participated in the competition.

We travelled to RAF Cosford the day before for a pre-competition team meeting, before starting the weekend with a qualification phase where each team shoots 72 arrows per archer to get a team ranking. This ranking is then used to map out the next stage of the competition.

In the head-to-head phase, each team is matched with an opponent team based on their ranking. Teams had two minutes to shoot six arrows, two arrows per archer at a time. This introduced an element of teamwork and increased the pressure on time. The team with the highest score were awarded two points, any draws saw both teams scoring one point. The first team to five points won the match and moved onto the next match. The head-to-head format was a unique challenge with some of us having never experienced it before.

Sunday started with another qualification phase, except this time archers were ranked individually. Teams were then created by matching the best male and female archers from each shooting style across the counties. The afternoon was another head-to-head phase but with only 80 seconds for each team to shoot two arrows per archer.

At this point the weather took a turn for the worse with strong winds and rain further increasing the challenge of the competition. The RAF was represented by Sergeant Ellie Spinks and Chief Technician David Inglis shooting Barebow and Mrs Jenny Collins and Air Specialist (Class 1) Chris Wright shooting Recurve.

The Mixed Barebow team finished the qualification round in 8th place. After a shortened lunch break due to the weather closing in, the head-to-head rounds started. We knew that the first match was going to be tight, they were very closely matched to Nottinghamshire on paper but took the match 6-2. Next up was the Berkshire team, which included the current world record holder for 50m! Berkshire struggled in the wind, and we unexpectedly took it 5-1.

Next up were the competition favourites, Leicestershire and Rutland. They lived up to their reputation which put the RAF team into the bronze medal match. Up against the 4th placed team, we knew it was going to be tough. However, the team of two experienced SNCOs called on all of their experience and training and remained calm under the pressure despite ever worsening wind. Taking the first two sets, they were looking good, but then lost the third set which caused some angst for the rest of the RAF team who were lined up providing much appreciated support.

It was a tense few minutes as they walked to the target face to count up the totals. Suddenly, a huge cheer went up from the supporters as the judge held out their arm signalling that the RAF had taken the bronze medal!

For Flight Lieutenant Ryan Elkes and Air Specialist (Class 1) Dan Bennett, this was their first time shooting at a major competition, shooting at 70 meters and shooting in a head-to-head format. Flt Lt Ryan Elkes said how as a less experienced archer, the County Champs were a great opportunity to gain experience in competition shooting as well as learning from other more experienced archers.

The competition ended with a medal award ceremony. Sgt Ellie Spinks and CT David Inglis received bronze medals for the mixed teams shoot, making it the first year the RAF have won medals at this competition!

extremely grateful for the support of the RAF Central Fund in helping us to get to where we are today.

Overall, it was an enjoyable weekend for all involved and we are extremely grateful for the support of the RAF Central Fund in helping us to get to where we are today.

The charity has been enormously supportive in helping to re-build the RAF Archery Association (RAFAA) by providing help, advice and funding to allow us to purchase enough equipment to enable RAFAA to run centralised beginner courses. We also lend equipment to other Stations, enabling clubs to get going whilst they source funding, normally through Central Fund Enrichment Grants, before having to buy their own equipment.

One of our proudest achievements is the support that our members are able to give patients at DMRC. Using RAFAA equipment, we provide the opportunity to take part in archery once a month and have been told that the sessions noticeably improve patient rehabilitation.

Having club kit means that anyone can come along, pick up a bow and arrow and have a go. There’s no pressure on people to buy their own kit, but once they are hooked on the sport, the Fund can help people buy the most suitable personal equipment they can afford. This kit will see them through many years of shooting, making archery a relatively cheap sport to take part in.

The greatest appeal of archery is the inclusivity of it, the sport is accessible to everyone, with novice archers to Olympians and para-athletes all standing shoulder to shoulder on the shooting line.”