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Archery, medieval style. |
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© Companions of the Longbow |
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An Archer’s Holiday by Andi Kidd |
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In August of 2007 the Companions did a weekend show at Sherwood Forest. The following short anecdote comes from Andi & Mel and their trip up to Scotland ...
The Sherwood show had finished, we had said our goodbyes and it was off to our hire car for the next leg of our journey. Due to some confusion we had already missed a day of holiday as we thought the show was on the Saturday. But we decided it was a chance too good to miss and drove from Swindon to Nottingham on Sunday morning with the intention of finishing our drive to Scotland that evening. There we would stay over until the next morning when we would complete the drive to our remote cottage in the highlands.
The cottage we were staying in was an old Shepherds one. When I say that I mean it used to be a Shepherds cottage, not that it belonged to an old shepherd now. You get my drift. Anyway, the cottage is a mile and a half from any other dwelling and 6 miles from the nearest shop, pub or village. Fantastic. The road it was on was single track and ended a few miles after the house. To actually get to the cottage you had a third of a mile of bumpy track from this road.
As we had our bows anyway, we planned on doing some shooting on ‘our’ land but due to children and a hectic touring schedule of castles, swimming in lochs, walking and eating shortbread (when in Rome…..) we didn’t really get a chance.
But not being easily deterred we decided that on the morning of our leaving we had to shoot at least a couple of arrows apiece. So we scrambled up the nearest hillock so that we could shoot. Sheep on the left of us, Cows on the right, into the valley of death shot the two. Due to time, distances and other factors we decided just to do some gentle indirect shots down into the big grassy bit ahead of us.
As I loosed the first arrow, it majestically flew through the air silhouetted against the beautiful sky above the horizon full of mountains, then swooping down somewhere in the vicinity of the hire car.
‘Careful’ said Mel and I wondered what I was meant to do now that I had let go of the shaft and, if unlucky, the deposit for the car!
The arrow landed well and not in the lovely black Zafira that was sitting outside the even lovelier shepherd’s cottage. We shot a couple more each and then decided we had to go as the boys were restless and we had to start the long journey home.
We went to collect the arrows from the field and the last one we picked up was the first one I shot. I think the photo gives a better sense of how close I was, rather than me describe it.
When I took the car back to the rental firm, the gentleman checking for damage never looked at the roof. I wonder if I’d have got away with it if I dropped my arrow 12 inches shorter!! |
