Leamington and Midland Counties Archery Meeting

Some Winners from the Early Years of the Tournament

The Grand National Archery Meeting, organised by the Grand National Archery Society, was held in Leamington for three years; 1851, 1852 and 1853. To capitalise on this when the GNAM moved on to Shrewsbury a new Tournament, the Grand Leamington & Midland Counties meeting was held in 1854 and, with short breaks for two World Wars, has been going ever since.

The first chart below shows the highest Gent and Lady scores at each of the meetings held at Leamington until the introduction of the perpetual trophies. The years 1851 to 1886 were taken from results printed in W Butt’s 1887 revised edition of Horace Ford’s classic book, The Theory and Practice of Archery.

The scores for 1851, 1852, 1853, 1873 and 1882, shown in green, are from the Grand National Archery Meeting which was held in Leamington, the first three on Parr and Wisden’s cricket ground and the others in the grounds of Mr Wise’s Shrublands Hall. All the other years show results from the Grand Leamington and Midland Archery Meeting which was held in Jephson Gardens.

The scores for 1862, shown in orange, are one-day scores as the second day was abandoned after 4 dozen on account of the bad weather.

It is a measure of the total dominance of the sport by Horace Ford that his scores of the 1850’s were not matched for nearly a century at this meeting, or anywhere for some 70 years, long after his death.

It is believed that the early meetings were all ‘open’ with no ‘Midland Counties’ awards, although it is known that there were ‘Local Archer’ awards at some meetings.

List of Winners of the Major Trophies from 1885

From 1885 separate awards were made for the highest scores made by archers from the Midland Counties. A silver cup, later known as the Fisher Cup was first awarded in 1885 and was to be kept permanently by anyone who won it 3 years running – which Major Fisher promptly did! In 1888, a new trophy, the Leamington medal, was awarded to the Gentleman Champion (Midland Counties). Major Fisher then gave the cup back in 1891, to be won by the highest double York score (open). From 1894 A silver mirror was awarded to the lady (Midland Counties) making the highest score in the double National, the round then shot by ladies. In 1951 the ladies’ round was changed to a double Hereford. Most of the scores below are recorded on the trophies.