The Civil Service Archery Association (CSAA) is the ‘Sports Representative Body’ (SRB) for archery within the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC). As such the CSSC provides the CSAA with direct funding to organise specific events on its behalf for its members. These events are listed below. The above tabs have further information on each event including, when available, links to entry forms.

The events are spread throughout the calendar year and comprise both target and clout archery. At present the CSAA is unable to provide opportunities to participate in either field or flight archery due to a lack of facilities. The Committee of the CSAA would welcome any offers of assistance from either clubs or Associations that would be able to assist with such events.

In addition to ‘CSSC’ funded events the CSAA organises an internal postal Winter Cup Competition solely for CSAA members and a ‘Winter Goblet’ Competition against other, equivalent, archery Associations.

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CSSC Funded Events

Indoor National Championships
National Clout Championships
Regional/National Championships
Outdoor National Championships
Representative Matches
Archery at the CSSC Games

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CSAA Funded Events

The Winter Cup
The Winter Goblet

CSSC National Clout Competition

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The CSAA has tried to run a Clout Championships for the last three years but after a successful initial event the take up has been very low. We are not sure if the CSAA will run a competition this in 2025 but please listen out for notifications in due course.

Clout archery is a form of archery in which archers shoot arrows at a flag (known as “the Clout”) from a relatively long distance and score points depending on how close each arrow lands to the flag. Scoring zones are defined by maximum radii from the flag pole. It is one of the oldest forms of archery in existence.

The results from the Clout Championships can be found on the Results page in the Members area.

CSSC National Indoor Championships

Portsmouth Round

The 26th Civil Service Archery Indoor Competition will be held at
The College Gym, RAF Cranwell, Cranwell Avenue, Lincolnshire NG34 8HB,
on the 22nd March 2025.
The prospectus for this competition is now available here
and the link to the online entry form is here.

The results from the previous Indoor Championships can be found on the Results page in the Members area.

The Categories being competed for are listed below.
Medals will be awarded according to the number of entries

CSSC Awards

• Gents Recurve – Ryland Jug
• Gents Compound – Association Cup
• Gents Longbow – Hodkinson Bowl
• Gents Barebow
• Ladies Recurve – Lady Ryland Jug
• Ladies Compound – Association Cup
• Ladies Longbow – Kent Bowl
• Ladies Barebow
• Junior Recurve
• Junior Compound
• Junior Longbow
• Junior Barebow
• Association Veteran Recurve – Fellowship Trophy
• Association Veteran Compound
• Association Veteran Longbow
• Team Award (4 Archers, any bow style) – Salver and Goblets

CSAA Awards

• Handicap Gents (based on Winter Cup Handicap)
• Handicap Ladies (based on Winter Cup Handicap)

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CSSC Outdoor Competiton

Details of the Outdoor Competition are shown in the Outdoor tab.

The UK is divided into 12 CSSC Regions; Eastern, London, Midlands, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South East, South West, Southern, Wales and Yorkshire. Each CSSC Region has a CSAA ‘Representative’ who is encouraged to organise an annual ‘Regional Competition’ through which those archers who fulfil the criteria set out in the policy document can obtain full funding to attend the CSSC Outdoor Competition which is usually held in a different part of the country each year.

For information archers should contact their Regional Representative, some areas are still awaiting a Regional Rep. please contact Sarah for more information about this role.

Eastern / John
London
Midlands / Sarah also Regional Co-Ordinator 
North East / Lorraine
North West
Northern Ireland
Scotland
South East
South West / Karen
Southern
Wales
Yorkshire

Would Regional organisers please contact Hilary with their details if they would like to be added here.

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South West Regional Competition 2025
The 2025 regional competition for the South West will be held on Friday 27th June 2025, at Bath Archers.
Details to be confirmed nearer the time.

CSSC Outdoor Competition

The 68th Annual Civil Service Sports Council Outdoor Archery Competition
will be held on a date to be confirmed in September 2025
This is a UK Record Status and Rose Award shoot.

Please contact the Tournament Organiser or Team Captain if your club would like to host the 2025 event.

The CSSC provides a limited amount of funding for selected archers to attend the CSSC Outdoor Competition in August/September. The mechanism used to decide which archers can apply for full funding to attend is the ‘Regional Competition’. See Regional tab for full details.

The results from the Outdoor Championships can be found on the Results page in the Members area..

CSSC Representative Matches

The next Representative match against The Royal Toxophilite Society (a fun and must do event) will be held on Saturday the 21st June 2025. This is a lovely day out, full of history and if you haven’t visited the ‘Tox’ it’s a great day. This year the team will be chosen 50% on competition and 50% on ballot. Please express your interest to Kevin, Team Captain if you would like to be involved.

The Outdoor Representative match (traditionally against the BPAA and the RAFAA) will be held in on the 30th August 2025. We are hoping that this year we may be taking on the Army and the Navy too in a 5 way Challenge. Again there will be the opportunity to shoot in the RAFAA internal competition if you wish.

‘Representative Matches’ is the generic term used to describe events where the CSAA/CSSC compete directly against similar, like-minded, Archery Associations, primarily from the public sector. The CSAA is authorised by the CSSC to organise three ‘Representative Matches’ on its behalf for its members;

The Outdoor Departmental 3-Way match against the British Police Archery Association (BPAA) and the Royal Air Force Archery Association (RAFAA). The CSAA also holds separate matches against the RAFAA (the Hullavington Cup) and the BPAA (the Webb Cup).

The matches are held annually at the home of the RAFAA, RAF Cranwell, sometime in August or September. This is open to all members.

The ‘Representative Match’ against the Royal Toxophilite Society (RTS) for the ‘Strong Tankard’. The match takes place annually at the RTS ground in Buckinghamshire. The first recorded match between the RTS and the Civil Service took place on 28^th April 1856 which, sadly, the Civil Service lost.

The Indoor Departmental 3-Way match is held against the BPA and the RAFAA during the annual CSSC Indoor Championships at RAF Cranwell and is open to all members. As with the Outdoor Departmental 3-Way match there are also individual matches against the BPAA and RAFAA. The teams of mixed bow styles for the matches are selected on the day by score. The CSSC handicap awards are based on the handicaps of the Winter Cup competition.

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All CSSC members are eligible to shoot for the CSSC at any of the ‘Representative Matches’ but, due to field restrictions, attendance at the RTS is by invite only. Attendance at the RTS and Outdoor ‘Representative Matches’ is managed by the CSAA Team Captain (15.01.22 we are awaiting content on eligibility criteria but contact him directly in the meantime)

In addition to this the CSAA organises an annual postal ‘Representative Match’ against the BPAA and Army Archery Association (AAA); the ‘CSAA Winter Goblet’. This competition is funded by the CSAA and is, therefore, only open to members of the CSAA. The CSAA team comprises the top six Recurve and Compound handicap adjusted scores each month throughout the ‘CSAA Winter Cup

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Awards; ‘Colours’ and ‘Super Colours’

Traditionally the CSSC awarded ‘Colours’ to those archers who represented it in ‘Representative Matches’ against other organisations. Until 2018 the badges were provided by CSSC. However, when the CSAA approached CSSC for a new batch of badges in 2018 it was informed that the CSSC no longer provided ‘Colours’. At a subsequent committee meeting it was decided that the CSAA would continue to provide ‘Colours’ to CSAA members representing the CSSC in ‘Representative Matches’. Funding for a new supply of badges was provided from CSAA funds. Consequently, non-members of CSAA are not eligible for ‘Colours’ even if they participated in eligible matches. The original criteria for the awarding of ‘Colours’ was three years which did not have to be consecutive. This was reduced in 2018 to one appearance.

During the 1980s/90s, the Association approached CSSC to introduce an additional, much higher standard of ‘colours’ which would be used to recognize a few archers who had been shooting for many more than three years. Despite numerous pleas, the CSSC refused to provide any “super colours” but did not object to the Association producing its own. To this end, the decision was made to produce a special, distinctive, badge. After several initial designs, the final one approved by the Committee consisted of the original CSSC Colours Badge for Archery but with a wreath composed of laurel and oak leaves. The whole badge would be in gold wire with the correct colours for the crown.

The standard required for these Super Colours was set at ten appearances over a period of ten, not necessarily concurrent, years. In 2018 the committee decided to reduce the requirement to 5 years which did not have to be concurrent .

‘Colours’ and ‘Super Colours’ are only awarded for attendance at the following ‘CSSC Representative Matches’ ;

• The Outdoor 3-Way Departmental Match at RAF Cranwell
• The Representative Match against The Royal Toxophilite Society

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CSSC Representative Match Badges

• The Outdoor 3-Way Departmental Match at RAF Cranwell
• The Indoor 3-Way Departmental Match at RAF Cranwell
• The Representative Match against The Royal Toxophilite Society
• The “CSAA Winter Goblet”
• Regional Representative Matches against other Associations

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Archers may only be awarded one badge per year; attendance at multiple events does not warrant the award of multiple badges.

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Funding

CSSC provides the CSAA with a limited amount of funding for CSSC members to attend Representative matches. For details see the ‘Expenses‘ page in the members area

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Results

The results and photographs from the representative matches are on the Results page in the Members area.

28.01.22

CSAA Winter Cup

The ‘Winter Cup’ is funded by CSAA, not CSSC. All participating archers must, therefore, be current members of CSAA and Archery GB. Membership of CSSC does not, in itself, constitute a right to shoot in the ‘Winter Cup’.

The winners of the competition receive the ‘Winter Cup’ and a gold ‘CSAA Spoon’ with the runners-up and third placed teams receiving silver and bronze spoons respectively. The awarding of spoons is a CSAA tradition that was established many years ago for the ‘CSAA Winter Pairs’ competition and has been proudly continued for the Winter Cup.

Previous Winners:
2018/19: London
2019/20: South West
2020/21: London
2021/22: North West
2023/24: South West
Full results can be found on the Results page of the Members area.

The Winter Cup competition is based on the new Archery GB handicap and classification system for 2023. As a result of these changes a new set of Equivalence Score (ES) tables have been devised for the Portsmouth round to enable all bow types, gender and age groups to compete on an equal footing.

The rules of the new competition are as follows:
1. The competition runs from November to March – 5 months.
2. The round shot is a Portsmouth round which can be shot indoors or out as not all clubs have indoor facilities.
3. Archers can shoot as many rounds as they wish in a month and submit the best score. (If two rounds are shot on a day only the first round shot can be counted). Different bow types can be shot and entered as separate entries i.e. an archer can submit recurve, barebow, compound and longbow scores if they wish.
4. Individual archers will submit their score(s) using the online form on the CSAA website. (No need for Regional Organisers to compile results for their region). Scores for a given month to be submitted by the 10th day of the following month. That is scores for November must be submitted by the end of the day on the 10th December.
5. To compensate for the large discrepancy in region sizes, there will be an amalgamation of smaller regions into super-regions – please see below for the new super-regions.
6. The Winter Cup consists of the 4 highest scoring (ES) archers from a super-region with their ES’s added together. The super-region with the highest score gets 4 points with the next highest scoring super-region scoring 1 point less. The winner of the Winter Cup will be the super-region with the highest number of points after the five rounds. In the event of a tie with points the grand total of ES’s will decide the places.
7. In addition to the Winter Cup based on super-regions, all archers will be entered into a single league table by Bow style with their ES being added up each month to give a total ES. We use the ES methodology as this enables equivalence between gender and age groups within a bow type. (Men, women and 50+ groups all compete equally within a bow type). The winner of the competition will be based on the total of the three best ES scores, over the five months added together.
8. And finally there will be a handicap competition for the last month (March), where the actual score shot in March has the Archery GB handicap allowance added. (The handicap is based on the scores submitted in the previous months (minimum 3 months). This means that to enter the handicap competion a minimum of four scores must be submitted over the course of the competition.

The super-regions are as follows:
South West:
North, Scotland and Northern Ireland:
consisting of North West, North East, Yorkshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
South and London:
consisting of South East, London, and Southern.
Wales, Midlands and Eastern:
consisting of Wales, Midlands and Eastern.

There are four tables devised to calculate the equivalence scores. These are based on Women 50+, Women, Men 50+ and Men using the four bow styles Recurve, Compound, Barebow and Longbow.
The Ready Reckoner will calculate the equivalence score for you.

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For this winter league session, we are planning to run a trial system of 4 separate leagues:

• Compound Bows
• Recurve Bows
• Barebows
• Longbows
  

Spoons will be awarded to the first/second/third places in each category. The ‘Winter Competition’ is funded by CSAA, not CSSC. Therefore, all participating archers must be current CSAA and Archery GB members. 

We will welcome any constructive feedback referencing the league format. However, we are trying to keep this simple (no handicap, no conversions from WA18 and Portsmouth rounds etc.)

Email the Team Manager

The results from the Winter League can be found on the Results page in the Members area.

In 2019 the CSAA Treasurer challenged the Chairman of the British Police Archery Association to a friendly monthly winter postal competition between the two Associations, which he duly accepted. In 2021 the CSAA purchased the ‘CSAA Winter Goblet’ to be presented to the winning Association and extended an invite to the Army Archery Association, which was also accepted. For the 2023 season the RAF Archery Association also took part making it a four way competition.

The CSAA team for the ‘Winter Goblet’ competition will comprise the top four Equivalent Score (ES) adjusted scores each month from the ‘CSAA Winter Cup’ competition.

Previous Winners:
2019/20 CSAA
2020/21 CSAA
2021/22 CSAA
2023/24 CSAA

Full results are available on the Results page in the Members Area.

The Winter Goblet competition is based on the new Archery GB handicap and classification system for 2023. As a result of these changes a new set of Equivalence Score (ES) tables have been devised for the Portsmouth round to enable all bow types, gender and age groups to compete on an equal footing.

The rules of the new competition are as follows:
1. The competition runs from November to March – 5 months.
2. The round shot is a Portsmouth round which can be shot indoors or out as not all clubs have indoor facilities.
3. Archers can shoot as many rounds as they wish in a month and submit the best score. (If two rounds are shot on a day only the first round shot can be counted). Different bow types can be shot and entered as separate entries i.e. an archer can submit recurve, barebow, compound and longbow scores if they wish.
4. Individual archers will submit their score(s) using the online form on the CSAA website. (No need for Organisers to compile results for their Association). Scores for a given month to be submitted by the 10th day of the following month. That is scores for November must be submitted by the end of the day on the 10th December.
5. The Winter Goblet consists of the 4 highest scoring (ES) archers from an Association with their ES’s added together. The Association with the highest score gets 4 points with the next highest scoring Association scoring 1 less point etc. The winner of the Winter Goblet will be the Association with the highest number of points after the five rounds. In the event of a tie with points the grand total of ES’s will decide the places.

There are four tables devised to calculate the equivalence scores. These are based on Women 50+, Women, Men 50+ and Men using the four bow styles Recurve, Compound, Barebow and Longbow.
The Ready Reckoner will calculate the equivalence score for you.

CSSA Summer League

The Summer League is funded by CSAA, not CSSC. All participating archers must, therefore, be current members of CSAA and Archery GB. Membership of CSSC does not, in itself, constitute a right to shoot in the Summer League.

The Summer League is based on a Warwick round and there are four seperate leagues for:
– Compound Bows
– Recurve Bows
– Barebows
– Longbows

The rules of the competition are as follows:
1. The league will run from May to August – four months
2. The round is based on the Warwick round (2 dozen at 60yds and 2 dozen at 50yds).
3. To increase participation if a National or Western round is shot, the first 2 dozen scores at each distance can be combined to make the “Warwick” round for this competition.
4. Scores must be submitted by the 10th day of the following month i.e. scores for May to be submitted by the 10th June.
5. Scores to be submitted using the online form on the CSAA website.
6. Only submit the best score for the month, i.e. one entry per month in a given league.
7. Archers may compete in multiple leagues.

Full results are available on the Results page in the Members Area.

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The UK is divided into 12 CSSC Regions; Eastern, London, Midlands, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South East, South West, Southern, Wales and Yorkshire. Each CSSC Region has a CSAA ‘Representative’ who is encouraged to organise an annual ‘Regional Championship’ through which those archers who fulfil the criteria set out in the policy document can obtain full funding to attend the CSSC National Outdoor Championships which is usually held in a different part of the country each year.

For information archers should contact their Regional Representative, some areas are still awaiting a Regional Rep. please contact Sarah for more information about this role.

The UK is divided into 12 CSSC Regions; Eastern, London, Midlands, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South East, South West, Southern, Wales and Yorkshire. Each CSSC Region has a CSAA ‘Representative’ who is encouraged to organise an annual ‘Regional Championship’ through which those archers who fulfil the criteria set out in the policy document can obtain full funding to attend the CSSC National Outdoor Championships which is usually held in a different part of the country each year.

The UK is divided into 12 CSSC Regions; Eastern, London, Midlands, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South East, South West, Southern, Wales and Yorkshire. Each CSSC Region has a CSAA ‘Representative’ who is encouraged to organise an annual ‘Regional Championship’ through which those archers who fulfil the criteria set out in the policy document can obtain full funding to attend the CSSC National Outdoor Championships which is usually held in a different part of the country each year.

For information archers should contact their Regional Representative, some areas are still awaiting a Regional Rep. please contact Sarah for more information about this role.