Archery, medieval style.

NEWS

Archived from Tuesday 9th October 2007

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Companions Challenge

 

This challenge came from the self proclaimed historically based but suspiciously-wrong-with-the-historically-basics 2004 film “King Arthur”.   In this film it’s the last days of the Roman Empire in Britain and a Roman officer named Arturus (a.k.a. Arthur – I won’t spoil the ending but the film’s title should tell you he does quite well for himself) and his Sarmation “knights”  (600 odd hundred years before the term knight was used) have to travel north beyond Hadrian's Wall to rescue a very important Roman (who has set up his home for reasons best left to himself very deep in enemy territory).  Here they come across an angry Saxon horde who have (also for some other reasons best left to themselves) decided to invade Britain from the Scottish side of Hadrian’s Wall rather than from the south like the history books said they should have done.  Maybe that’s why they are so angry?  Who wants to go miles further north to Scotland in winter when it’s only a hop, skip and a jump into Essex?   Maybe it’s because the main leader of the Saxon horde looks like Dennis Waterman and he’s already been to Essex?  All together now “I could be so good for you, I'm gonna help ya, love ya like you want me to …”

Anyway, there’s only a handful of “knights” left to stop them (plus Keira Knightly’s Guinevere who can draw a bow a mere day after having her broken fingers reset).  Luckily they’re on a frozen lake that’s looking a bit iffy in the holding-a-Saxon-horde stakes so our heroes are trying to shoot at the sides to make the men group together and crash through the ice.  And hence another Companions Challenge is born.

We took our hay bail wall and designated it as our Saxon horde.  To define the side areas at the end, tape was used to create two identifiable sections.  These were our target areas.  The idea was to give a group of archers 45 seconds to get at least three arrows each in both ends of our Saxon horde.  Therefore if there were seven archers shooting we needed at the end of 45 seconds, to be able to count at least 21 arrows in the left section and 21 arrows in the right section to class the Challenge as a success and say that the horde would’ve grouped enough together to crash through the ice.  (This number was based on pausing the film, counting up the number of dead bodies and adding a few more for good measure).  The trick to this Challenge was the fact that you’re shooting against the clock and you’re not really shooting at a defined target.  With such a large area it’s easy to lose focus and shoot inaccurately so each archer had to mentally pick their own spot to aim for.   The winner for this week’s Prize of Dubious Value would be the archer who could get the most arrows on target.  So how did we do?

 

Well, after a couple of practice runs to make sure everyone knew what to do (at one point the very strong left side of our shooting line pumped loads of arrows into the left side of the Saxon horde but the right side was left with only a couple of arrows in it!) we decided one final attempt would be the one for real.  So after 45 seconds of shooting we all approached the hay bail wall and counted the arrows up.  There were only six archers on the shooting line so we needed 18 arrows in both the left and right sections to call it a success … and there were!  There were actually about 21 in the left side and exactly 18 in the right.  So this challenge was deemed a success and so we can call for this series of Companions Challenges two successes to two fails.   The winner of the Prize of Dubious Value was Dave A. again who managed to shoot 13 accurate arrows in 45 seconds.  For his efforts he was rewarded with a miniature Boules set.  So, now he can talk Boules as well as play with his Boules.  Well done Dave!

Archery “Room 101” & Range Captain Qualifications

 

Because it’ll be half term at the New College, Saturday 27^th October is the yet to be confirmed date for Range Captain qualifications and Archery “Room 101”.  Archery “Room 101” is the chance to bring something along that you hate and get everyone to shoot it to bits.  Full and franks reasons as to why you hate the object may convince archers whether to be accurate or not …

 

The range captain qualification is basically broken down into the following rules;

 

(1) There are six places open.

(2) Previous range captains will get first dibs on re-qualification however if a previous range captain does not want to re-qualify this year an open spot will become available (more than likely).

(3) Those who wish to become a range captain can put themselves forward for qualification on the day.

(4) If you’re interested in becoming a range captain you’ll have to sign up to the Companions of the Longbow safety case.  This document can be requested at any time by all members but if you want a copy now e-mail Mark at webadmin@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk and I’ll send you a copy.

(5) To stop range captains getting rusty there’ll be a greater chance for all captains to have a go at setting up and running their own ranges.  There may even be a requirement to run a range a regularly intervals just to ensure everyone remains up to speed.

 

The actual date of the 27^th will be confirmed nearer the time.

 

Christmas “Companions Event”

 

It was suggested at the last committee meeting that it might be nice to do something for Christmas.  We’d like to keep our annual medieval banquet as a separate occasion but it was suggested that we ask Rupert for the use of his barn to hold a Christmas event in.  If we do manage to get this barn what would you like to do there?  Fancy dress?  Barn dance?  Pub quiz?  Pot luck?  All suggestions welcome.  Send your ideas to suggestions@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk

 

Multi-coloured Swap Shop

 

For those of you who remember watching Saturday morning children’s television between 1976 and 1982 there’s now our very own Swap Shop (sans Noel Edmunds & Keith Chegwin) area in the Member’s Area.  This new section that will enable our members to sell, give away or swap anything they went to exchange or just find a good home for.  The rules on how to do this are all posted up there and I’ve even stuck the first item to get the ball rolling.  If there’s no takers it may end up as a Prize of Dubious Value.

And Finally...

 

As always … got a suggestion for the club?  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).  Our Suggestions box will be up and ready to use as soon as we’ve got use of the Roundel field again.