The 2024 National County Team Championships took place at Lilleshall National Sports Centre from 28-29 September.
At a fairly chilly and windy Lilleshall, over 370 archers representing 27 different counties from across the UK came to compete for the titles up for grabs. Saturday was the three-person team competition, and Sunday was the mixed team portion of the event.
Archers of all abilities shoot side-by-side at this event, with some of the competitors having attended for years and for others this was their first time. Norfolk’s Imogen Flitter fits into the latter category, competing for the recurve women at her debut National County Team Championships.
Imogen said: “I wanted to do it to be able to represent my adopted county because I’ve moved here for university. It’s been really fun to have the opportunity to do this and to meet more people in my county and get to shoot with them.”
This event is also a very close-knit tournament, with many of our archers competing alongside family members. On the Yorkshire team, the three Smarts got to shoot on the same squad: dad, Roger, and brothers, Johnny and Bert. Recurver, Johnny, came away with a mixed team gold alongside teammate Malgorzata Sobieraj, and gold for the top recurve county also including his dad, Roger. Bert made the podium too, winning bronze with the other five archers who made up the Yorkshire compounders.
Johnny said: "It was great to represent Yorkshire with my dad and Bert. Me and Dad have been shooting together since we started archery nearly ten years ago, so it was a proper proud moment to shoot with him on the county team. Me and Bert have grown up shooting together, so it was brilliant to see him and the compound team podium."
Recurve team – Yorkshire
Compound team – Hampshire
Barebow team – Leicestershire and Rutland
Longbow team – Lancashire
