Glasgow League heating up

In a Meerkat mob, one member of the group will act as a sentinel, on the lookout for predators while the others get on with their foraging.

The Glasgow League competition has settled into a comfortable monthly meet, shoot and gossip session for the various teams in and around the city. Seven clubs are on the books as competing and to date we've had two shoots. For those of you hearing about this for the first time, details in the link above but in summary ... The league is based on the Portsmouth round (60 arrows, 60cm face, 20yards) shot once a month over the winter. Its a team based shoot so each club ideally brings four or more archers. The top four archers scores are added together for the club score and then ranked against the others. First gets 5 points, second 4 points and so on. At the end of the winter season the winner of the shield will be the club with the most points over the scheduled six competitions.

So far GA has been showing up to compete. In the first round (host East Kilbride - Eastwood High School, Newton Mearns) Oksana led the team to first place and 5 points. In the second (Host GA - Time Capsule, Coatbridge) with Oksana unavailable ... Euan, having had an extra Weetabix, just missed out leading GA to first again but had to settle for a commendable second (4 pts). It needed Strathclyde's ace Benji shooting an impressive PB to help drag his team over the winning line ahead of a feisty GA. That's not to say there hasn't been standout performances in Team GA. Ashley had a strong showing in her first competition for the red and black and Dunky shot a PB, both in round two, to cement our second place. Everyone in the squad has contributed so far and has a medal to prove it. One show off has two!

... displayed on rich Corinthian leather!

Looking at the boxplot scores (see link below), combining the two scores to date, Glasgow the most consistent team with a high and narrow variation in skill set. Strathclyde with a slightly wider if a smidge lower range in skills but an edge in top end and median scoring. In other words, neck and neck!
However, with a first and second under their belts, GA has its nose in front. But as with all things in archery, consistency will be the key to taking the competition shield. Looking at the scores that have been submitted to date, if everyone shot to their best during a round, there would only be 27 points separating the top four clubs. Pretty tight when you realize that's a mere 1% variation in scoring between 1st and 4th. Margins are wafer thin and its still all to play for. If interested, the stats and individual results can be examined in the link below.

So with the competition now up and running, its hoped this will become a staple of the winter schedule which has been a little sparse since the dark days of covid. Its open to all archers from the competing clubs in the greater Glasgow conurbation (love that word, Ed). Its something every archer should try as its always nice to travel to other clubs, shoot some arrows and indulge in some head to head banter.
Next Event - The Time Capsule, Coatbridge on December 21st. Talk to John (tourney organiser and sausage aficionado) if you are interested in competing as a member of Team GA.

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Current state of play and the stats for the Glasgow League can be found on the competition website