Archery, medieval style.

NEWS

Archived from Tuesday 29th April 2008

© Companions of the Longbow

Return to News.

Companions Trophy

 

This week we’ve got two congratulations.  Firstly to Nigel P who has gone from Arrowman 4th rank up to Under Forester 3rd rank.  Secondly to Jeff who has gone up from Walking Forester 2nd rank up to Riding Forester 1st rank and qualified for the Week 27 competition.  Congratulations!

 

Companions Challenge

 

So Saturday was the last Companions Challenge for a while as come the 17th May we’ll be kicking off the 5th Retinue Competition.  As it was the last one in a slight change this really wasn’t what you’d call a proper challenge …

 

After playing penny prykking some while ago now the search was on for another medieval game that involved arrows.  In the search a game came up that involved using a weighted stick or arrow called a cockstele.  The game itself was also called cockstele which makes it easy to remember although once you find out what the game was you’d probably find it hard to forget it.  The idea was that you took a cockerel and buried it in a hole until only the bird’s head was showing.  You then took a number of paces away and in teams or as individuals threw your cockstele at the poor unfortunate bird’s head.  Thomas More (later to be known as St. Thomas More) wrote in 1500 that the game was popular among boys.  But how good were we?

Okay so we didn’t have a cockerel but we did have a balloon that was inflated to the size of a chicken’s head.  The archers were split into two teams, the English and the Welsh, and each team were required to throw their arrows (or cocksteles) at the chicken’s head.  For each hit their team got a point and the team with the most points won.  Well the English team went first and after the first couple of throws you could see the rest of the Companions quickly wander off to practice their new throwing techniques.

 

Only two people managed to hit the chicken’s head (which at nine paces was very small).  The two were Ronnie and Clive, both team members on the Welsh team.  So the Welsh won, hurrah!  Of course we had another Prize of Dubious worth and seeing as we’re supposed to be an archery club the chicken’s head was fixed to the hay bails and shot at.  Each archer was allowed three arrows at 20 paces and the prize went to the archer with the nearest arrow to the head.  The nearest arrow in this case was shot by Dave A. who actually got a direct hit.  Well done Dave!

Next Week - Richard’s Shoot

 

It’s Fortress Wales for some of the Companions on the Sunday and Monday so next week there’ll be no Companions Trophy (and you webmaster is away too.) As a result Richard has kindly stepped into the breach and will be running next week’s shoot.

 

BBC4 Medieval Season

 

Some of you have been watching but if you’re not interested skip to the end.

 

Okay, last week’s big highlight was “Heist” (When Dick Puddlecote (Kris Marshall) comes out of jail to find he has lost everything to the King, he decides to take his revenge.)   Panned by most TV critics who thought it was more BBC3 than BBC4 (think Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels meets Maid Marion and Her Merry Men with lots of swearing) it was enjoyable enough and is repeated over the coming week.

 

Yesterday was “Art of Eternity” (The Glory of Byzantium: Andrew Graham-Dixon traces the roots of Christian art from ancient Rome to medieval France), “A History of Britain by Simon Schama” (Nations: The story of Edward I who tried to force English rule on Scotland and Wales, but the slaughter that followed resulted in more calls for independence) and the film “The Hour of the Pig”  (when a jaded Parisian lawyer (Colin Firth) moves to a small village, he is appointed to defend a pig in a murder trial of a young boy).

 

On Wednesday at 9:00 pm there’s “A History of Britain by Simon Schama” (King Death: Looking at Black Death which killed huge numbers of Medieval Britons and caused decades of anarchy).

 

Then on Thursday at 7:30 pm there’s “In Search of Medieval Britain” part 4 of 6 (Heartlands: Dr Alixe Bovey explores the life of the commoner, discovers the origins of precedent in common law and uncovers the foundations of modern parliament), followed at 9:00 pm by “Inside the Medieval Mind” part 3 of 4 (Belief: A look at the beliefs of our Medieval forebears, who believed they that shared the world with the dead and angels and demons battled for control of souls), followed at 10:00 pm by  “Crusades” part 3 of 4 (Jihad: Terry Jones reveals how the Arab world came to launch a counter-Crusade, with Saladin as their leader). 

 

More Terry Jones on Sunday at 8:00 pm with “Terry Jones' Medieval Lives” (The Knight: Terry Jones travels around Europe to reveal the truth about the Medieval knight. Were they really as brave and chivalrous as they were depicted?) and at

8:30 pm “Terry Jones' Medieval Lives” (The Damsel: Terry Jones travels around Europe in discover whether damsels were in reality, in constant need of a knight of shining armour to rescue them).

 

All of the listings are on the BBC4 website and nearly all can be watched up to seven days later via the magic of the interweb on the BBC iPlayer service.

 

And Finally …

 

Don’t forget it’s Fortress Wales this Sunday and Monday and check out the Gallery page for the President’s Shield and Banquet pictures (courtesy of Andrew and the TB family!)

 

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).