18 Aug 2025
Photo Credits: Scott Kendal (click here to view full album)
By Ainsley Ward
I won’t lie; it’s been a tough weekend for Team Scotland down in Macclesfield. We arrived with an air of excitement with our most promising squad for several years, and yet we come home with Bronze for another year, and the need to capitalise on our opportunities more when the Cup weekend travels to Scotland in 2026.
The bright side is that our team had no shortage of talent and attitude. The approach and spirit from all of our team, including the reserves, has been exceptional and I’m proud to have been part of this journey. Every single archer showed up and did the best on the weekend that they could. I want to extend my thanks publicly to them.
In a competition against the UK’s best, with each nation boasting GB-level archers, it has been a tournament of fine margins, including a number of single arrow shoot-offs and matches decided on the final turn of the card. Unfortunately for Team Scotland our lack of practice in team matches showed and gives us clear direction for next year’s training focus.
Qualifying was shot in pleasant conditions, with the occasional gusty breeze throwing in a wildcard. Our team faired generally well, with some standout performances from William Anderson (barebow 2nd), Linda Dallas (recurve 7th) and Kyle Scott (compound 5th). Scotland barebow reserve, Kaitlyn Mason, drafted in at last minute from the U21 squad to cover a withdrawal, justified her selection by finishing at the head of the barebow women’s team.
On Saturday afternoon we moved into team and mixed team semi-finals. With the calibre of talent on show across the field, these were all tense affairs, and while Scotland was on the losing side across the board, there were no whitewashes or matches where we looked less than competitive. Particularly so of our men’s compound trio of Ru Barlow, Hamish Galpin and James Ross, who lost by a single point 222:221 against the England team. All the other matches were similarly tight and mostly down to a single arrow.
So, we entered Sunday morning’s medal matches knowing that as a team we were in Bronze position, and our team matches serving to deliver some personal and national pride. In the mixed teams the competition from the combined team primarily showcased the English strength in depth and we secured 4th place in each bow discipline.
However, as we moved on to teams, it became clear that Scotland was ready for a battle with both our recurve teams and men’s barebow winning through to take bronze, the barebow men winning through an exceptionally tense shoot-off. With combined nation teams including a Scottish archer, Kaitlyn Mason, Kyle Scott and Kitty Orr all shot well to earn their own Bronze medals, Kitty’s coming in a 215:215 match that required a shoot-off to decide.
So while from a medal perspective this has not been a bumper year, I think that we’ve got great foundations on which to move forwards and the spirit with which the whole team approached the competition was exceptional.
I’m now really looking forward to this year’s indoor Home Nations, which will be held on Friday 5th December during the National Indoor weekend, and for the first time this year will be live streamed by Archery GB. Keep your eye out for the selection policy being published shortly.
For full results from the event, click here.