Well June went past quickly didn't it. Don't know what happened there. Well where to start, on the shooting front June hasn't really been a good month for me. I've kept up shooting but I'm still shooting a couple of points below my handicap. I'm not sure why, perhaps its because I'm not getting as much practice as I used to, or I'm expecting too much from myself and bending under pressure rather than shooting for the fun of it. I know I blame my arrows alot (and 4" fletchings are not the best for 60yds plus) but they serve me well and trying to make new ones at the moment is slow as I have lots of other things to do. So I really need to try and relax more when shooting and remember it snot about the score but about the fun of it.
One thing I would like to say is a thankyou to Rochdale archers for coming to our club and shooting in a friendly against us, esp since both teams managed to have four longbow archers, which allowed us to have a small petticoat pot. for those not in the know a petticoat in archery is an arrow that hits the target paper but isn't scoring. So every longbow archer put in a £1 and the person with the most petitcoats wins the money, so just a bit of extra fun. Unfortunatly we didn't win the friendly shoot, our longbow team did beat theirs. Annoyingly though up until the last dozen I was top of the longbow archers, then my arrows decided to see if they could catch up on petitcoats and I went from 1st to 3rd. Ah well, it was still a good day.
We've also had a few of our club competitions, but despite not winning anything I did manage to secure my 1st class classification for this year. Though my target is Bowman, I don't think I'll be able to do it this year my arrows aren't accurate enough due to having to arc quite high at the longer ranges and catching the crosswinds, so maybe next year.
As you may or maynot have guessed from the title the weather of late has been ever changing one minute brilliant sunshine then all of a sudden downpour. So my fletchings have been taking a beating and have been steamed back to life over again. I'm also in the process of making new arrows, but alost of the shafts I got from archery world were banana shapped so I've been in the kitchen trying to steam them back into some sort of straight shape, before I varnish, fletch etc. Plus after visiting The Longbow Shop I picked up some nice supplies. I'm not sure what I think of the deerskin shooting glove, but since I've only shot with it once its not really broken in yet. I'm not too keen on the stitching on the side of teh fingers, compared to the one i've been using since I started with the stiching on the back, as it makes it harder to feel whether your gripping the arrow or not. But I did treat myself to some special arrowheads; Swallow tail, Firebasket, and Whistling. Ok I don't expect to shoot these or at least often, but they look nice and never know I might try at one point, get an old boss to be thrown away. Plus I got a low profile fletching cutter, so hopefully I'll have some long distance ravens probably by next year.
Yesterday though was one highlight of the year, the Derby Longbow shoot, held at Kedleston Hall on the grand lawn. Personally I always like going to longbow shoots, the people there seem more friendly and less serious than at other shoots, and being on time I managed to shoot all the arrows this year, and improved my score. Not sure I improved my score on hits, I forgot to check that. Unfortunatly one of my ravens returned home never to fly again. After striking the boss from the shooting line I could see it fall, thinking it had bounced out, but when I went to collect the point was still lodged within the boss. So at least the last thing it did was provide a score rather than break on a leg like other arrows did that day. But after it broke, my other ravens did it proud and my score increased rather alot, and it was brought home beside the rest of the flock.
I think I will leave this update here, but I will leave you with the last verse of "The Marching Song"
"What of the men?
The men were bred in England
The bowmen - The yeomen
The lads of dale and fell.
Here's to you - and to you!
To the hearts that are true
And the land where the true hearts dwell."
