Colchester And District Archery Club 1954 - 1994
Page 6 : Scoreton Arrow And A New World Record
The following year elderly Ben Hird of ‘Ye Greene Company’ visited his hotelier son at Colchester where Bill prevailed upon him to write the history of the Scoreton Arrow which as a young man Ben won. This he did in a book owned by every toxologist. It is the oldest organised sporting event in the country dating back to 1673. It was in 1964 that the club abandoned its stunt shooting of the exploding arrow. The arrow pile was a test tube with a chemical inside probably phosphorous, and the shaft end in the test tube held back by a spring. Hitting the target the spring was compressed, the arrow moved forward into the chemical and there was a great bang and smoke was ejected. Unfortunately preparing the arrow for a fete show the arrow went off in the hand. One archer had an injury near his eye, one on his finger and one was blown over as he squatted.
Local business man Clifford Hunt became chairman although no great archer he had other skills. At this point in 1966 target fees were six pence. It was in this year the club cornered the county clout championships, individual and team. There were 28 clubs in Essex and Colchester was in the first six. There were demonstrations for the town carnivals with one year the beer tent behind the have-a-go site causing problems! Sue Osbourne won the Civil Service Open this year. Colchester through its president had a stake in the 1971 World Championships on York race-course. Asked by Mrs. Inger Frith (FITA) Bill, with his press experience, was involved in international public relations with the late commander Bill Patterson an archery notable and antiquarian, at the time with the COI. He went to York with his wife and carried out a recce drill. Bill P worked on the international agencies and Bill T the handouts to the media and a series of international newsletters. The two of them also organised an archer-antiquarian exhibition with slides and lecture. He recalls the morning on the first day a Boy Scout rushing into the tent saying the Russian flag was upside down. This was hastily rectified. After a successful tournament the two Bills prepared a report for FITA guiding them on future relations with the media.
In 1972 the club made national news with Barry Davidson and Bob Pritchard who got themselves into the Guinness Book of Records with a 24-hour indoor Portsmouth Round marathon with a score to beat of 21,700. By dint of small rest breaks and running back and fore to the target they established a new world record of 30705. It took place in the Odeon Cinema first floor lounge with automatic clocks, witnesses, automatic food machine and a rota of club members in attendance. Guinness have very strict rules to which to conform. They had three 25 minute breaks and one or two five minutes. Barry needed a cushioning handkerchief for a strained and blistered thumb. It was televised regionally. They worked out that the two of them had walked, or rather trotted, to and from the target 14miles, used 15 targets and damaged 16 arrows. Alan Robson in 1973 got two gold’s with one arrow in the target. His second arrow was in the knock of the first.
The club held annual rifle-cum-pistol matches, pistols later dropping out. The rifle club had national team shots at times and a formula for scoring was devised which allowed the archers to compete realistically for the Cheoladene trophy. In totals of several hundreds often a match was won on a single point, or a handful, so the system worked challengingly well. The trophy was named after the house of the late Howard Motson who permitted his land to be used for the rifle shooting and the annual archers open field shoots. His daughter Margaret Langridge carried on the tradition. In fact Richard and John Langridge took up the sport.
Cheoladene trophy line up.
from the Bill Tucker Collection
The site for the open is undulating and wooded and very popular. There were shoots in April and October but for the anniversary year the club planned a two day event in August involving painted targets, relief and cut-outs. The shoots attract archers from London and East Anglia into three figures and in the early shoots a special guest was former NFAS president Peter Regan. Organiser and king pin of the club’s fields was Jock Farquhar aided by son Nigel and Alan Miller and a club field party. Jock carries on building the field bosses.
Colchester came in an oblique way via its president into the World and European field championships in 1976 won by Essex archer Shirley Sandiford to the delight of fellow club members who included the British field manager Jack Seacombe. Bill for GNAS did the wording of the presentation illuminated scroll created by top illuminator Denzil Reeve, Colchester School of Art and Design, who had produced the memorial golden book for the Churchills. There was the usual gold leaf in the illumination but Bill recalls the GNAS archer’s breastplate was of platinum. Britain hosted the meeting a few years after with again oblique Colchester involvement. Tiptree organised in the 70s a Top Ten tournament Moreton winning it for Colchester in 1977.
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