Top Town Tournament
By Stan Snow – Life Member
What is it?
It is an Archery Event, in its’ heyday, a Big Archery Event. In those days there were very few big ‘shoots’ in South Yorkshire, one had to travel a long way to get enough score on long rounds to qualify for classifications.
Who’s idea was it?
The idea was built from a gem of an idea by several Doncaster & District Archery Association committee members, I believe a chap called Fred Lumly first mentioned the idea.
Who hosts the event and where?
The shoot is restricted to the borough of Doncaster. The first one was held at the British Rail Sports Ground at Hexthorpe on 2nd August 1960 and the same Sunday is still used for this competition. The round shot then was 6 dozen arrows at 60 yards, that being the longest distance available to allow for overshoot. The work party, organisers and scorers consisted of volunteers from the D & DAA. Over time and at differing venues such as BNS Sports Wheatley Hall Road, Harvesters Archers, Cantley Park and now at Danum Archers, Armthorpe Road (Castle Park Rugby Ground) the rounds shot have consisted of a York/Hereford, a Ladies & Gents FITA and at present an Albion.
What were the original rules that governed the shoot?
That any affiliated Senior Lady or Gentleman member of the GNAS or FITA be allowed to shoot for Trophies that had been donated by various archers, friends of archers, businesses and the then Landlord of the Wheatley Hotel who allowed us to hold our monthly meetings in the best room and donated the prestigious trophy we know as the ‘TOP TOWN TROPHY’. Along with this trophy we have records from the very beginning and these are kept in the Top Town Book, each year the winning town is entered into this book along with the archers names and clubs and the Coat of Arms for the postal town.
The winning team was the team which has the highest three scores by gentlemen and the highest two scores by ladies. However, recently a few changes have been made to accommodate the ever widening range of bows and the ever growing membership including juniors.
What makes the Top Town Tournament different to other shoots is that the team can consist of archers from varying clubs provided they have the same ‘town’ address i.e. if there are five clubs with one archer from each club, their registered club grounds must be in the same town.
~The biggest decision for the winning team is who looks after this magnificent trophy~
Entry Form 2008
The entry form will be published on this site in due course and the D&DAA welcome archers from all over the country, the more the merrier