Flying Solo

Hail and well met once more my friends. A Happy Solstice to you all as well, though I suppose its after mid-night so its not the solstice anymore, but who cares its one of the few recognised pagan celebrations that is still celebrated. Yes I'm away there are others that are celebrated but those aren't generally recognised as pagan, but moving on.

Since my last post had a few things happening:
Bill Hodkinson Shoot,
Monthly Medal,
Mid-summer Handicap,
Kedleston Longbow shoot.

And just over halfway through the month, well starting at the top. I was unable to shoot at the Bill Hodkinson shoot as it was an afternoon shoot and I had other plans, but I did turn up in the morning and shot a respectable short metric round (or least for me) of 240 25 hits, 2 golds. A short metric is a round on a smaller target, than normal imperial outdoor targets, but you use a 10 zone score rather than 5 zone. But because you have a smaller target when the target is out at 50yds you can start screaming because your arrows have hit the paper and not the scoring ring. Unfortunately the results of this shoot sparked off a heated discussion which lead to one of our members leaving, but won't go into that here. I appreciate comments on here, but not arguments.

This months Monthly Medal shoot was a Warwick round, which I didn't shoot my best but I still managed to win the longbow medal despite using my old lighter bow. In all honestly the bow isn't that bad, its just much lighter than my heavier one and the only arrows I have are more or less all bend or curved and it is a bit of a struggle at times. though by this point I was still hoping that my heavier bow would have arrived.

Mid-Summer Handicap came next, and well comments of,"Its mid-summer why is the weather like this?" were voiced alot due to the overcast and slight breeze and spatter of rain. This was a National round, and though again it wasn't my best, it wasn't far off, despite still using my old bow. I did manage to get the highest longbow score, it wasn't good enough to place in the handicap scores, but its nice to see new members winning them. If my experiences last year were anything to go by, it'll really help their self-belief and confidence and make them shoot better.

Last but by no means least was the longbow shoot at Kedleston Hall. I must admit beyond any shadow of doubt this must have been my most enjoyable shoots ever. For a start it was all longbows, no recurves or compounds to be seen. So for a start the atmosphere was much more relaxed as normally (or at least from my experience) its always longbows finish first and have to wait around for other bow types to finish. Well with all longbows it was almost shoot collect, shoot collect, so the pace was smoother, and also there was less fear of arrows being broken, though sorry to say there were a few casualties on the day, though luckily for me all my ravens remained intact, though one or two may have had some knocks and bruises.
The other thing about the shoot was that all other archers were so friendly, focusing less on the score and more of having a good time. Though the change distance sherry's may have had something to do with that in some cases, yes that's right readers longbow shoots serve alcohol when its time to change the range. Looking at your bows any different now?
The weather was again very pleasant, it wasn't glaringly hot sun that made it all uncomfortable, and the rain held off, there were a few gusts of wind, but nothing too serious, and because of that not only did I beat my personal best with a score of 404, I also knocked a point off my handicap. I also was placed 25/50 for senior gents, or 29/64 overall. Not bad, esp for shooting for just under (I think) 18months but what I have yet to tell you is that because I turned up a few minutes late, I wasn't able to shoot the first six arrows, and the first six I did shoot were rushed because I was rushing to get ready so I could shoot. But can't change that I just think its nice I was down 6 arrows and still came mid table.
Two more interesting points about Kedleston:
1. Ranking is based of number of hits before score, most shoots its the other way around.
2. If you go to mixed shoots you struggle to move around behind the waiting line because each bow has its own stand and the bow sticks out horizontally as well as vertically so have to be really careful, while at Kedleston (and shows you how much more social longbowers are) that the bow stands can accommodate 2+ on one stand, and because they are all vertical there is more room to move about and talk to people.
3.(Yes I know I said two, but I remembered one more) When shooting at 60yds as well as marking golds for "best gold" award, if you get an inner gold you get £1 per inner gold. Unfortunately no one told me that at the beginning so probably didn't try as hard (be amazed what money can inspire to achieve).

Well its late so I will finish by saying congratulations to all the winners of this month's events so far. I'll leave you with a picture from the Kedleston shoot and a quote from "The Song of the Bosonian Archers", by Robert E. Howard
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Good night all and good shooting.

"A long bow and a strong bow,
And let the sky grow dark.
The nock to the cord, the shaft to the ear,
And a foreign king for a mark!"

Oh just remembered, added tonight archery excuse 183. I have a screw loose.