Archived News 106

Archery, medieval style.

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Archived from Tuesday 27th May 2008

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Retinue Competition – First Week—Hereward the Wake

As you may already know this Retinue competition takes three teams named after three fictional outlaws (the Bowyers, the Fletchers and the Stringfellows) and sets them up in games that are based on real or legendary outlaws (and sometimes real outlaws who have become legend). The teams are bolstered by mercenaries, however one of the mercenaries and one of each of the regular team members are working for the sheriff and are actively trying to thwart the team’s efforts. At the end of the competition each retinue will have a chance to pick which team member and which mercenary they believe is a sheriff’s stooge based on how their shooting has gone. Guess correctly and they get bonus points, guess incorrectly and they lose points. The stooges will have to work hard to shoot badly but not look as though they’re shooting badly.

The outlaws are going to be presented in chronological order so the first game this week was based on the events of an outlaw called Hereward the Wake who was apparently kicking around shortly after the William the Conquerors invasion of England in 1066. There’s a whole extra page detailing the background on Hereward the Wake in the Reviews and Articles pages. You can read the new relevant section by clicking here (but don’t forget to come back!)

Okay so the basics of this game is that it’s based on an event written in the Gesta Herwardi about Hereward the Wake. It goes as follows;

Soon after the invasion by William the Conqueror the monks on the island of Ely, which was surrounded and protected by marshland called the Fens, were afraid that they would have a Norman appointed over them in the manner of other such places and so they rebelled. There were soon joined by other noted Saxons namely Earl Morcar, Count Tosti, Earl Edwin, the one time archbishop Stigand and the last surviving member of the Saxon royal household, Edgard Atheling.

They called for Hereward the Outlaw to join them and so he and his gang travelled by boat to the isle. William de Warenne, later to be the 1st Earl of Surrey, brother-in-law to William the Conqueror, travelled with a force to cut off Hereward’s advance. However Hereward was faster and was there before him and on the far side of the river bank. While the future Earl marshalled his forces Hereward took his bow and shot an arrow which struck him and wounded him. The William de Warenne was carried from the river bank and his forces were forced to withdraw.

And Hereward, leaning a little forward, stretched his bow and discharged an arrow with great strength upon the breast of the Earl. And though it glided off the corslet that protected him, yet he was almost killed by the blow.

The Setup

For the start of the Retinue competition we kept things simple. A series of cardboard boxes we used to create a “man sized target” set at no less than 100 yards from the shooting line. In turn each Retinue shot six arrows at the target. For each arrow that hit the target one game point was awarded. Each team was allowed to shoot three times, one after the other. The twist for this game was that hung in the centre of the target was a balloon. If the balloon was struck this signified that the shot had killed William de Warenne contrary to the legend. If that happened that Retinue’s scores would be zeroed. The Retinue with the most game points at the end won 3 Retinue Points, second place gets 2 Retinue Points and 3rd place got 1 Retinue Point. So how did they do?

Well it was a very blustery day. In fact as can be seen from the photograph on the right, even William de Warrene had trouble staying upright despite being staked to the ground.

By the end of the second round only one archer—Jenni (captain of the Bowyers) had managed a glancing blow for one game point. In order to settle things the game was altered slightly for the last round. Each retinue was asked to select their three best archers to “swim” across the “river” and shoot from a modest 30 yard range. It’s worth noting that the Stringfellow gang opted to send both of their mercenaries over which risked one of them being the sheriff’s stooge and shooting to pop the balloon! Luckily for the Stringfellows both mercenaries scored points without popping the balloon and the Stringfellows ended with 4 game points. The Fletcher’s three archers managed 6 game points in the final round as did the Bowyers. However thanks to Jenni’s previous long range shot the Bowyers ended on 7 game points. Therefore the scores at the end of the first game is 3 Retinue Points to the Bowyers, 2 Retinue Points to the Fletchers and 1 Retinue Point to the Stringfellows.

Next week’s game is based on the outlaw Fulk Fitzwarren and involves a hunting horn. Find out how they do next week.

Quarterstaff Training for Sherwood Forest

After an hours training last Tuesday it was decided that more practice is needed. Therefore, starting next week, unless otherwise notified there will be quarterstaff training at Roves every Tuesday starting at 7.00pm. If you are taking part in the Sherwood Forest display as a Merry Man or Sheriff’s Henchman you’ll probably need to attend at least one of these training sessions just to pick up a basic routine. Otherwise we’re going to look like a bunch of sissies! Training sessions will not last longer than an hour – quarterstaves are provided. Come along even if you’re not in the show as we’ll need plenty of new fingers to break – only joking - come along if you want to just for fun.

This week, for one week only, quarterstaff practice will be at 7.30pm on Wednesday 28th May at Roves. Why? Well hopefully you will have received the following e-mail from Andi:-

Dear all

Thanks to those who turned up last Tuesday for stick fighting practice. I was impressed how much everyone managed in the hour that we had. As I said to people there, we are not learning how to fight with real quaterstaves but are practicing how to look okay for the Sherwood show. Again, if your not going to Sherwood then your still welcome to come and play. There was only one injury last week and that was me, so it's pretty safe!

Next week we are gonna try and steal some time at the Wednesday shoot (28th)starting at 7.30 as I will be away Tuesday, after that Tuesdays will be the regular practice day.

I have some sticks and will bring what I can. Please let me know if you are coming as we need to try and get enough weaponry. The RRP of a Japanese Read Oak 6' stick is about £13. I can get just over 20% discount if you want one of your own. Please let me know ASAP so I can get them ordered! They may not be authentic but they are safe and relatively cheap!

If you have any other weaponry please bring it so that we can see if it can be worked into the fighting.

Please can you let me know if you are planning on coming. I'd advise anyone going to the show to try and turn up. Looking forward to emails flying into my inbox! Please copy in [original e-mail removed from this message] as well then I can pick the messages at home as well. (Apart from this weekend when the server is down!)

Will look forward to seeing you there!

Andi

If you want to e-mail Andi send it to webadmin@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk and I’ll pass it on.

First Companions Wednesday Shoot

The following quick e-mail was sent by Andy TB which sums up what happened at the first Companions mid-week shoot way better than a second hand account from me;

Attached are some pictures from the Conpanions 1st Wednesday shoot. It was well attended thanks to the fine spring weather. Nigel, Jeff and Dave were assessed by Le Chat for range captain during which we were artillery shooting on command, shooting at cardboard tubes and the 3D wolf. Anna was successful in getting her arrow right down the tube (picture 3082). The evening was marred by poor Kevin's bow exploding. Thankfully he was not hurt but it reminded all of us that it can happen. Kevin reckoned that it was possibly because he regularly over drew (over drawed ?) it.

Regards, Andy TB

Jen’s MA Final Show Informaiton

Check out the Calendar for information on when the final shows are for Jen’s MA work. Congratulations Jen!

And Finally …

Ronnie would like this following Youtube clip from America’s Got Talent to be included in the next series of Companions Challenges … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otAWg_NhAeU&feature=related. Is it do-able?

As always … got a suggestion or question for the club (or committee)? Send it to suggestions@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk or send them direct to any of the committee members e-mail address (see Contact Us page for these).