Archery has been unduly overlooked given that it has some claim to be New College’s earliest team sporting endeavour, beginning in 1825, at a time when the college is only first recorded as having a rowing crew in Eights in 1840, and the college’s cricketing prowess is first reported only in 1857.  The earliest instances of competitive archery occasions or matches by New College against other colleges in Oxford are principally those involving St John’s College, as detailed well in the archives of that college.

New College Archery Club rules

 

Ely Hargrove’s Anecdotes of Archery (York, 1845), p. 181