Archery, medieval style.

NEWS

Archived from Tuesday 29th January 2008

© Companions of the Longbow

Return to News.

Companions of the Longbow Displays

 

As you may well know we’re trying to do two or three displays this year which will hopefully be of a big enough scope to make it fun and exciting for our participating members as well as generate revenue for our club funds.

 

One of the biggest displays we’ve got booked is over the weekend of the 12^th & 13^th July 2008 at Sherwood Forest in front of the Major Oak.  This one is a full costume display that will require casting and rehearsal (although support from non-costume members will be greatly appreciated with Have-A-Go).  This is therefore an early calling notice for interested parties.

 

Based on the lessons learnt from last years show and without giving too much away this time they’ll be much more of an emphasis on the Robin Hood legend as well as more hand to hand combat.  There’ll therefore be some lessons in fighting with a quarterstaff!  More details will be released soon but just keep the 12^th and 13^th July free if you’re interested.

 

Don’t forget we’ve also got Lackham Museum & Country Park confirmed for Sunday the 27^th July 2008 (details of this show is in the Member’s Area).  We’re also looking for volunteers (costume or non-costume) to possibly man a have-a-go archery range at Roves Farm for two days over the Easter Weekend (Good Friday is the 21^st March 2008).  Depending on a committee vote we might also have another big show at Clun over the May Day bank holiday.  Other than the odd fete, this could be all the biggies for the year so watch this space & check your e-mails!

Companions Trophy

 

Week 7 of the Companions Trophy saw a Nearest the Bull competition.  The rules are as ever, simple.  Every archer has six arrows to shoot at a standard FITA target.  For each round, the number of archers shooting translates into the number of arrows furthest from the bulls-eye that are eliminated and removed from play i.e. if fourteen archers are shooting this equates to the furthest 14 arrows being removed.  The next round all archers shoot with their remaining arrows.  If an archer has no arrows left they are out of the game and the number of arrows to be removed for the next round is revised i.e. if three archers from the original fourteen lose all their arrows the next round there will be eleven archers and therefore, for the next round, eleven furthest arrows are eliminated.  The game continues until the Range Captain calls the final round where the rankings are based on the archer who gets nearest the bulls-eye. i.e. nearest gets first place, second nearest second place etc.

 

The tactics for this game are fairly simple as a good archer really only needs one arrow to make it through to the end and win … as long as they get nearest the bull with every shot. 

Of course having all six arrows gives you a better chance as there’ll always be that freak gust of wind that puts your aim off at the crucial moment and leaves that dead cert arrow in the hay bail backstop rather than the middle of the gold …

 

Congratulations go to Mark for getting 1^st place (although Mark is writing the congratulations so this feels a bit weird).

 

Week’s 6 & 7 scores have now been posted up in the Members Area, and after Week 6 scores the following advancements have taken place;  Dave A, Rachel, Anna TB and Richard have all climbed from 4th-Arrowman to 3rd-Under Forester rank.  After Week 7 the following advancements have taken place; Andy TB & Mark have climbed from 3rd-Under Forester rank to 2nd– Walking Forester.  Good work all!

Companions Challenge

 

So if you read last week’s News you should be up to speed with this week’s Companions Challenge.  Click here & scroll down to see what it was all about.

 

Right, so this Challenge was in two stages.  The first was a long distance shoot at the centre stack of the hay bail backstop.  This represented the castle door.  The second stage then saw all arrows that hit the castle door being shot into a block of paper and their combined penetration added up.  If the Companions could shoot with a combined penetration of 32 inches the Challenge would be considered a success.

 

The first stage seemed to go fairly well as only a couple of archers failed to hit the castle door.  Some of the “big hitters” i.e. those archers with high poundage bows and/or carrying medieval needle point arrow heads managed to get on average about five of their six arrows on the castle door.   So it looked like everything was going well.  Of course it all went wrong at the second stage.

The problem with the second stage was that the archers were shooting at a target that was a little bit bigger than an A4 size piece of paper from a range of twelve paces.  The wind could’ve been a factor but a lot of archers seemed to be missing!  We therefore had in some cases five arrows shot with only one on target.  The Prize of Dubious Worth (a key ring pocket TV remote control) went to Andrew who managed to contribute the greatest contribution of penetration with four arrows (with field point heads) which managed a total of 4 ½ inches.  This was closely followed by Dave A. who was shooting with long needle bodkin heads but missed with four arrows.  He managed to get one on target and contributed a massive 4 inches with just that one.  Sadly though too many archers missed overall which meant that the Challenge ended with only 14 ½ inches of overall penetration, well short of the 32 inches required.  We’ve now had two failures in a row and the scores are eight successes to five failures.  Can we turn the tide?  Find out next week.

 

And Finally...

 

A quick errata; the date for the President’s Shield & Companions Banquet is the 5th April, not the 6th.  Sorry!

 

There’s a new article in the Reviews and Articles section on general equipment tips but apart from that, 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).