Archery, medieval style.

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Archived from Tuesday 5th February 2008

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Sunday 10^th February 2008 – Wye Valley Archery Shoot

 

For those who whish to know what manner of challenge will be undertaken next Sunday, the following letter has been received;

 

Sir,

 

The day will commence with signing the paper for entrants, a practice session will then commence for 15 minutes (this will not be needed for my bowmen, but would surely be advantageous to your minions).

 

During this time names and details will be collected and put into two hats, to be drawn when all are present. The "Pairs" will then be issued with each others cards to score, and released in said "pairs" with an interval of 5 minutes between each.

 

The shooters will shoot targets that are marked on the cards provided, they will all be 3D animals.

 

There is a time limit (that shall be disclosed on the day) to complete this part of the day, their is a penalty in points for any pair returning after the allotted time, their is also a penalty for lost arrows (they will leave with 6 only in their quiver/bag) broken arrows will not be penalised.

 

Juncture for tea and baiting at this stage of the day (more practice time for your companions).

 

We will then be shooting in pairs at a detail of new and old targets in the "Roving Field", some of these are designed to test skill and speed (as we know a good bowman should be accurate, and fast).

 

Juncture for "Special Shoot", This is a two shot challenge for all competitors for a Bottle of Mead, no score allowances for either side.

 

More Targets of sorts will now follow that will include "Luck" as part of the equation, of which I will mention no more.

 

Special Event, the "Trial of Strength". This will be a trial for two shooters from each side, it does not involve a bow nor arrow, but measures the speed and accuracy and strength of your chosen man, this is for fun and the spirit of competition.

 

Finally the score will be tabulated and if necessary adjusted.  The final scores will be disclosed at the Hostelry to "hoots and cheers" (and no doubt hisses and jeers) There will be a "Special Prize" for the lowest scoring archer which must be worn at all public events for the coming year!

 

I thank you for your time, and look forward to being the bringer of humiliation and mockery to all present.

Yours

 

Longshank.

 

Remember, it’s 10am on Sunday 10^th February at Wye Valley Archery.  Directions can be found on their website or in our Locations & Maps page.

 

Companions Trophy

 

Week 8 of the Companions Trophy  was a 40 yard deer shoot.  Six arrows were allowed with scoring on the deer given progressively higher for a wound, a lung shot and a heart shot.  Unfortunately there were no extra points given for antler shots or eyeball shots, which was a shame.

 

Congratulations this week goes to Rachel for getting the top spot and claiming the full Trophy ten points!  Members can view their position on the scoreboard in the Members Area.

Companions Challenge

 

Shortly before the Battle of Crécy (1346) started a short rain storm caused the Genoese crossbowmen fighting for the opposing French army major problems by soaking their crossbow strings and shortening their effective range.  The archers in the English army on the other hand were quickly able to unstring their bows and stow their bowstrings under their hats, helmets and in pouches until the rain stopped.  Once the rain had passed they restrung their longbows and with their dry strings and longer range were able to shoot down the crossbow men.  But how easy is it to unstring, string again and shoot your longbow when the pressure is on?

 

Well we started with a reminder that a badly strung bow is unsafe and may jeopardise the archer and the bow.  All archers were warned that they should not draw their bow if they were unhappy with the way it has been strung.  After all it’s better to get knocked out of a game than injure yourself, or worse break your precious longbow!

 

Firstly the archers were divided into two categories.  Those that string their bows with a stringer and those that don’t.  The two categories had an identical Challenge but the only difference was the time that they were allowed.

 

The two groups took it in turn with the first group consisting of those archers who use stringers.  The archers started on a shooting line of around 30 paces from a square target boss.  All archers started with their bows strung, ready for action.  Archer’s who used stringers were allowed to have their stringers on the ground ready to go but it was made clear that they must be removed and clear of the bow immediately after unstringing and stringing.

 

When called the archers had 30 seconds for stringers and 5 seconds for non-stringers to unstring their bows.  For the purposed of this game the bows needed only to be unstrung from the top nock, the bottom loop may be left on.  Once an archer has unstrung their bow they must have raised it to signal that they had finished.  If any archer failed to unstring their bow in the allotted time they are out of the game.

 

Next those archers who are still in the game were asked to re-string their bows and shoot two arrows into the square target boss in the allotted time.  The time given to complete this task was 40 seconds for stringers (more on this later) and 30 seconds for non-stringers.  More than two arrows could be shot if an archer failed to get two arrows into the target to begin with, however if they failed to get two arrows into the target in the allotted time they were out of the game.  Once an archer had two arrows onto the target they had to step back from the shooting line to signal they have completed the game.

 

At the end of the game we should have the fastest stringer and fastest non-stringer archer who has completed the Challenge in the allotted time.  These two fastest archers would then have a shoot off to determine the winner of the prize.  We needed at least one archer from each group to complete the Challenge otherwise it will be deemed a failure.  So how did we do?

 

There was an extremely high success rate for unstringing the longbows and nearly all of our archers went through to the second round, those who unstring by stepping through the bow found it tricky when under pressure!  Those archers who use the push/pull method could be unstrung in a couple of seconds.  Surprisingly those who used stringers were much quicker than anticipated and hence they’ve only got 40 seconds for the second round.

 

The overall winner of the non-stringing group was Dave A. (no surprise really as Dave can shoot 18+ arrows a minute).  The winner of the second round for the stringers group was Alina and so the two had a shoot off to decide the winner of the Prize of Dubious Worth.  The shoot off was simply who could put an arrow in the deer first (the deer was still set up from the Companions Trophy).  After calling nock, draw, loose, there followed a frantic half dozen arrows as the pressure began to mount.   However the eventual winner was Dave A. with a butt shot on the deer.  Congratulations!  Dave A. won the prize of dubious worth which this week was a pamphlet on heraldry.  Everyone say “ooooooooh”.

 

So we’ve broken our losing streak and completed a successful Challenge.  Find out how we do next week.

And Finally

 

The Gallery has been updated with some photos of the open day at Swindon New College as well as the longbow shoot at Phils field on Sunday 6th of January 2008 against the Plantagenets and the Throgmorton household.  Thanks to the TB family for the photos.  We’ve also got another short article on the medieval three fingered glove in the Reviews & Articles page (I know you’ve all been secretly waiting for this ever since Companion started).  Have a look in the Calendar as Sheila as forwarded details of a talk called “The Long Bow: Changing the face of medieval warfare” with Magnus Sigurdsson, Master Armourer and Ancient Arms Specialist at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.  Finally have a look in the Members Area and the Members Exchange—Helen (club secretary) has put a couple of things up to be borrowed.

 

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).