Talisman 252 Improvement Scheme

The rules are simple….

  • General Archery GB Rules of Shooting apply
  • An end of six sighters can be shot, followed immediately by three-dozen arrows shot in ends of six.
  • 252 rounds are scored using five-zone scoring.
  • The three-dozen arrows may be shot as the first part of a longer imperial round (see score submission notes below).
  • A qualifying score must be achieved three times to claim an award.
  • Qualifying scores for a given distance must be shot on different days.
  • Score sheets must be signed by the archer and a witness, as per a standard score sheet (so paper score sheets, not phone app sheets, please) and submitted to the records officer.
  • If you want to submit the first three-dozen arrows of a longer imperial round as a qualifying 252 score: score the imperial round as per normal. When you’re done and the form has been completed in the usual way, circle the qualifying cumulative total at the end of the sixth end/three-dozen arrows and write “252 Submission” clearly beside it so the records officer will know to include this score in your 252 records.

This award scheme is being set up to help you in your practice by providing some reasonably challenging, but attainable, goals. That can help give direction to your archery if you’re not working toward any other goals right now and it can help you improve by giving some shape to your practice.

Gender, age and bow type are not constraints, Talisman 252 is open to all. “252”: is the original score for recurve archers and that’s given the scheme its name, but for other bows there are different scores to achieve and these are shown below.

A 252 round comprises of three-dozen (36) arrows shot in ends of six, at an imperial distance. For it to count towards an award you must attain a score of 252 or more for the round (or the appropriate score for your bow if you don’t shoot recurve). You must achieve that qualifying score three times to claim your award. There are awards for each distance from 20 yards to 100 yards and each should be approached in sequence (but they don’t have to be, it just makes most sense to start at the shorter distances – it’s your call on the order you do them in).

Some Democracy..

There’s a mild difference of opinion on whether we should allow phone app score sheets for this. For me the problem with that is that it’s tricky to indicate on a round such as a Western, that your first 3 dozen score is to be submitted for your 252. If you have feelings on this please talk to Craig (Records Officer), if the consensus view is a switch to accepting app submissions, if Craig can accept them we’ll make the shift (but it’s also good for everyone to do paper scoring as that’s what you’ll have to do at tournaments).

Talisman 252 Award Badges

They’re in production! We’re producing award badges for all 252 distances, so you can build up quite a collection! The design has altered a little since you saw it last, it transpires people like the distance to be a main feature, so we’ve accommodated that as you can see below.

You’ll appreciate, there’s a cost to the badges and if the club bears all of that cost our membership fess might need to go up so, we’ve decided that the club will award your first badge to you for free, to recognise your achievement and the start of your journey into the 252. Thereafter, we’ll need to charge for the badges and they’ll be £1 each, so not a bank breaker.

This is how your badges will look…

Now you’re getting into all this…

Here’s one for you to look into and think about as something you can do alongside or after your 252.

Some of you will already know about the Archery GB Classification Scheme, but if you don’t you’ll probably be interested…

This is an Archery GB scheme that allows you to progress through classifications from Archer Third Class, through Archer 2nd and 3rd Class to Bowman, at club level. Beyond that you can advance to Master Bowman and Grand Master Bowman, but scores for those classifications have to be shot at UK Record Status events.

If you’ve not classified, if your a beginner or don’t submit score sheets etc. you’re currently an Archer, that’s the base line, a sort of 4th class position. The first step is to obtain your “Archer 3rd Class” classification and quite possibly, many of you already have!

You’ll find all you need to know in the Archery GB “SAPS” document, which give you the rules and required scores for the classification scheme – you’ll find a link to that on our downloads page, under the Archery GB logo and the red link “SAPS”. If you find it confusing (the scores can look like they might be) just ask and we’ll talk you through it.