As usual we will be hosting our Open Handicap Portsmouth at Pool Academy. This year it is on Sunday 26th November. We will use the same format as has proved popular in previous years, where archers shoot half a Portsmouth round in the morning. Over a leisurely lunch break we calculate handicap allowances for everyone based on their score in the morning round. After lunch everyone shoots a whole Portsmouth round. A Portsmouth is 5 dozen arrows shot at 20 yards at a 60cm target face.

The allowances are then added to everyone’s scores to work out the final positions. The lower your score in the morning round, the higher your handicap number and the higher the allowance that is added later. The idea is that if everyone shoots to exactly the same standard in both rounds then everyone will lend up with the same score. The handicap system rewards those who do better in the second round, rather than those with the overall highest score.

So what’s to stop people deliberately shooting worse in the morning? There will be awards for the highest combined scores as well as the handicaps. Also, anyone who deliberately shoots badly in the morning is unlikely to shoot well in the afternoon. If you practise bad technique then it tends to stick, and it is hard to undo that later!

Download the entry form. This shoot is usually fully subscribed, so please get your entries to us early. The closing date is 19th November.