Archery, medieval style.

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Archived from Tuesday 3rd June 2008

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Retinue League Latest

 

The second week of the new Retinue Competition and this week we played a game based on the legend of the early 13th century Marcher lord and outlaw Fulk Fitzwarin.  There’s a bit of background on the real outlaw and his story in the Reviews & Articles section, click here to read it (but don’t forget to come back).

 

So now you’ve read the background (or not) here the story behind this week’s Retinue Game.  A hundred knights are dispatched to hunt down and kill Fulk Fitzwarin and it’s while Fulk is journeying in the forest of Kent that the hundred knights learn of Fulk’s position.  This extract is taken from “Fouke le Fitz Waryn” edited by Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren;

 

“The hundred knights immediately sent out a summons through the countryside. They hastily rounded up knights, squires, and foot-soldiers, in sufficient numbers to encircle the whole forest. As if this were an animal hunt, beaters and receivers were placed at strategic points. Others were positioned throughout the countryside with horns to give warning the moment Fouke and his companions came out of the forest. Fouke, however, remained in the forest, unaware of all this activity. At length he heard a horn sounded by one of the attacking knights. He became suspicious and ordered his brothers to mount their horses. William, Philip, John, and Alan immediately mounted, as did Audulph de Bracy, Baldwin de Hodnet, and John Malveysyn. The three Cosham brothers, Thomas, Pieres, and William, who were good cross-bowmen, and all the rest of Fouke's followers were soon ready for the assault.

 

“With his companions Fouke came out of the forest and saw, before all the others, the hundred knights who had been hunting him throughout England. In the first rush of battle Fouke's men killed Gilbert de Mountferrant, Jordan de Colchester, and many other knights. They made several passes back and forth through the hundred knights, knocking them down in great numbers. At length, however, many knights, squires, burgesses, foot-soldiers, and people in great numbers joined in the battle. Fouke wisely perceived that he and his men could not continue thus. Finally, after his brother John received a bad head wound, he decided to return into the forest. Fouke and his companions spurred their horses. But before they left, many a good knight, squire, and foot-soldier were slain. People from all over then began to sound the cry, and they were pursued by the populace everywhere they went. At length they entered into a wood and saw a man raising his horn, about to sound the warning. In an instant, one of Fouke's men shot him through the body with a cross-bow bolt. That put a quick end to the warning blast.”

So this week’s game is based on the final part of this section where by archers must shoot a man before he can raise his horn and sound an alarm.

 

The knight target was set up at not less than 30 paces from the shooting line.  In turn each archer took it in turn to shoot the knight however, a volunteer from one of the opposing retinues was standing to one side with a hunting horn strung and hanging loosely from their shoulder.  The rules were that the horn must be touching the horn blower’s hip and the horn blower must start with both hands on their head.  No assistance was allowed from any other archer (although to be fair no one tried to cheat).  The archer shooting was allowed to start with one arrow nocked on their bowstring.

 

From the call of “loose!” the archer shooting shot as many arrows as possible to strike the knight.  The archer shooting was allowed to shoot as long as the opposing retinue member did not or could not blow the horn.  As soon as the horn was blown the archer had to stop shooting.  As soon as the archer shot the knight they were deemed to have shot the “man raising his horn, about to sound the warning”.  Therefore this game was one of speed between the archer and the member who is trying to “sound the warning”.

For each archer that succeeded in shooting the knight before the horn was blown one game point was given and the team with the most game points received the most Retinue Points.  So how did they do?

 

Well a couple of archers seemed to have problems blowing the horn which was a big help to those archers shooting.  The range captain had to help blow the horn for Anna and Richard’s attempts at blowing the horn (take note for those who are looking for the sheriff’s stooges!) and some archers just didn’t have time to get a good killing shot.  The scores at the end were; The Bowyers got one kill, the Fletchers got 2 kills and the Stringfellows got 2 kills.  Therefore as the Fletchers and the Stringfellows came joint first they get two Retinue Points each.  The Bowyers received one Retinue Point for coming last.  This means that overall the Bowyers and the Fletchers are equal first with four Retinue Points and the Stringfellows are catching up with three Retinue points.

 

You can have a look at the Retinue League positions in the Members Area.  Next week’s outlaw will be Eustace the Monk.

 

Companions Trophy

 

The Week 22 scores of this 27 week competition have been updated in the Members Area and there are a few congratulations.  Firstly to Martin who has gone up from Arrowman 4th rank to Under Forester 3rd rank (there’s still technically time for Martin to get the 60 points needed to qualify).  Secondly to Anna TB and Nigel P who have gone up from Under Forester 3rd rank to Foot Forester 2nd rank.  Finally to Ade who has gone up to Riding Forester 1st rank and qualified for the final.  Congratulations!

 

Quarterstaff Training & Sherwood Forest Rehearsals

 

For those involved regular rehearsals are now scheduled for the Sherwood Forest weekend.  These are;

 

Every Tuesday at Roves Farm at 7.00pm is quarterstaff training.

Every Saturday at Roves Farm at 1.30pm is Sherwood Forest rehearsals.

 

With only a month or so left before Sherwood those taking part in the main show may be pleases to know that scenes two and three have been written and they are progressively shorter than scene one.  So there’s plenty of time to learn your words if you’ve got a speaking part!  All events are published in the Calendar page.

 

Member’s Messages & Chairman’s Statement

 

Members!  Please take a look in the Members Area.  Firstly Stuart has posted a request on the message board (which is now also posted in the Members Exchange now)  Secondly there’s a new page for the Chairman innovatively called the Chairman’s Page.  Here will be posted the business from the last committee meeting plus anything which Andy thinks needs further explanation.  I’ll let you know in the future when this page gets updated.

 

And Finally …

 

Check out a “new” article in Reviews & Articles called “Arrow Throwing” which was submitted by Clive Hollick.  Got it in on time Clive after all!

 

For those that have the time have a watch of last Friday’s QI with Steven Fry (click here to go to the iPlayer).  It’s a very light hearted quiz show that rewards or punishes players for knowing interesting facts or urban myths about a particular subject.  Friday’s show was titled “England” and there’s a question on the two fingered archers salute.  According to this show the myth of having an archer’s fingers cut off was generated around the 1970’s and the two fingers actually means a sort of “you’re a cuckold”.  The hand sign itself it says doesn’t appear until the beginning of the 19th century (or the 20th, I’ll have to watch it again).  Anyway have a look.

 

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).   There’s also a Suggestions box in the first shed (look inside the door, it’s marked up with “Suggestions”) so please write something and pop it in there if you want to remain anonymous.