United Bowman of Philadelphia

The United Bowmen of PhiladelphiaFounded 1828 The Oldest Archery Club in the United States            2012 Open Team Tournament by Mail Featuring theUnited Bowmen Round   Founded in 1828,  the United Bowmen of Philadelphia, is the oldest archery club in the United States. We are hosting an international mail-in team tournament  for club teams worldwide beginning this year.   We solicit your assistance in recruiting Australian club teams to participate in our event. As the senior club in the United States, we would appreciate your help in introducing us to our counterpart senior club in Australia so that we can develop a correspondence with them and work with you and them to recruit some Australian club  teams for our  event.  We recognize that with the Olympics nearly upon us, that your organization is very busy at present.  If you can connect us with our counterpart senior club in Australia, I’m certain that we can make some progress while you are otherwise engaged.     Shooting must be completed by year-end.  The United Bowmen Round will be shot as described below.  Pick a date ,  shoot your round for the tournament, and send  the results to me on —-  DRBaier@UnitedBowmenTeamShoot.com. There are no fees. The Bowmen Round consists of   84  arrows at 80 yards on a 48-inch diameter (122 cm)  5-color target face scored 9-7-5-3-1, with rebounds scored 5.  No marking of hits  on the target face is required.  All age, equipment, and gender divisions are welcome.  All archers will shoot at 80 yards.   The Bowmen Round was first shot on August 15, 1835 – 9 years before the emergence of the York  Round  in 1844.  As  such, the United Bowmen Round is arguably the oldest standardized target archery round in the English-speaking world. The Bowmen Round is   the only round that our club has shot at club field days since 1835. We have been shooting the Bowmen Round in annual one-on-one mail-in team competitions with the Surrey Bowmen and the Royal Toxophilite Society in England since the mid-1930’s. Our membership  enjoys  these team mail-in events and have decided to invite all-comers in an expanded team tournament by mail beginning this year. This is our inaugural year  for the expanded mail-in team shoot ,  it’s an Olympic year, and we started late.  Despite that, we have teams in Illinois, Washington State,   Pennsylvania,  Florida,  Ireland,  Missouri,  California,  Indiana, Wisconsin, England, Canada, and Barbados.  USA Archery will  include an article about the Bowmen and our fledgling team tournament in their newsletter this summer, and give our tournament some space on their website.   The U.S. Intercollegiate Archery Association will do the same.     Thank you for your attention.  I hope that we can recruit some Australian teams for our event.                                                         Best Regards, The United Bowmen of Philadelphia by David Baier