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
.
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.



May's Breeze

Well June is upon us so time for another update.

May has had its ups and downs...........and left to rights, and right to lefts. Yes its been a windy chilly month, and unfortunately the wind was the down fall of one of my long distance ravens, as it hit the edge of the boss side on and from a distance of 60yds was seen flying off in two separate pieces. So at some point it'll be stripped and at some point put upon a pyre.
The good news this month though occurred at the AGM, the meeting was generally good. New info passed around, sum up of funds which sounds like if we move sooner would be much better than later, so hopefully now everything will go through smoothly, and with enough time before winter. Angus is going to be the new club coach, Simon the field captain, Steve Dunn the new fixtures co-ordinator, and there are a couple of other new members to the committee. I was personally tempted to give it a go, might be a laugh but as I'm looking to move I don't know whether I'll be around the area as of yet.

But its what happened afterwards that shocked me, as well as the meeting it was awards for the indoor season, now I was already expecting the trophy for the Valentine's Cup and the Indoor Longbow Champion, because we have the results on the club website so kinda know its coming. They are very nice one looks like a crystal sherry glass, while the other is a small cup. What I wasn't expecting though was to win not only the best four Portsmouth rounds after handicap, which btw is a massive cup, but also the most promising new member, which is a shield with a carving of Horace A Ford. Who I discovered was an archer who picked up a bow at the age of 23 and four years later won the GNAM, winning 11 consecutive championships, and a twelfth come back after ill health and damaged muscles. He also set a high score in a double york shoot in 1857 (he was 35) which was unbroken for 72 years. Its a possible goal, not very likely but possible, yeah your right very very unlikely, but still nice to get the award.

Also on the roll of success I managed to win the Jubilee Handicap shoot despite the strong winds and the fact I shot badly. Though in all honesty I wasn't happy with my performance that day and was a bit grumpy about it, towards the end I was just loosing for the heck of it just wanting to get it over with, so kind of a hollow victory. That and the fact it was raining on and off whilst blowing strong gusts, and since I'm at the moment using my old bow I'm shooting at a high arch through crosswinds, which makes aiming more of a rough guess, despite the heavier piles.

The following week was the Phoenix Handicap and though I didn't win (came second) I enjoyed it much more as I hadn't looked up classification scores so I could relax, plus I already achieved 2nd class and that was the highest you could get for that shoot. On a related note, congratulations to Lizzie Foster who shot very well on that day, and achieved a 3rd class score. She seems to be settling into the longbow now.

You may be wondering about my heavy bow, well at the moment it is still with the bowyer under repair. I've been told that I should have it before the 19th which is the shoot at Kedlestone my first none team shoot. I'm hoping I get it some time this coming week so I can practice, esp now as the weather seems to have picked up. I need a rough guild of how it handles in the heat, and I need to get used to drawing the weight again. Its getting bad because my fingers are starting to lose their callouses, but hopefully I'll get them back before the shoot.

Well that's it for now, I leave you with a nice Archery quote:

Come archers, come, all ye who fought
At Cressy, Poictiers, Agincourt;
Pay the last honours due to one
Most worthy to be call’d your son.

Hughes.



Unforseen Problems

Greetings once more, I am sad to say a recent tragedy has struck my shooting. My new longbow is already delaminating, so its got to be returned to the bowyer. Not a good thing only after a few months, and to make matters worse, despite it already doing three trips neither Parcel Force, or the Post Office are willing to send it because of its length, so having to find different couriers who are willing to send it for a decent price.

Since this delamination has started I've admitted that I've had to go back to my previous lighter bow and I will tell you something. After a few months of using the heavy bow, the lighter bow now seems to have no draw weight by comparison. Seeing as the lighter one is about 20lbs lighter its understandable, but it till makes shooting harder in a way, not because of the draw because drawing it back is almost as easy as pulling your arm back without a bow in it, its the whole frame of mind. I've said before that I shoot instinctively and shooting a bow that I've not practiced outdoors with for 6 months, I'm having to re-learn where to aim with it, and since my old arrows aren't really the right length compared to the new bows arrows there are difficulties. I might shorted the arrows when I get time, give me a bit more cast, but at the moment I'm having to make do with what I have. Hopefully though at the latest my heavy bow will be back and repaired with me before Keddlestone, so I can re-practice. But in the mean time I will continue to practice with the lighter bow, just to keep my body used to the movements.

What is also a pain is that this month has quite a few shoots and competitions, and though I admit I could shoot the short versions of the round I would prefer to join in the longer distances, esp as I've now achieved my 2nd class I want to go for my 1st class, but I need the cast and weight of the heavier bow to reach the distances. Plus I find it easier shooting the longer distances, not for hitting the target but for drawing the bow. Also I currently be behind our current more experienced longbow archers, but bit of practice and could close the gap. Always gives a secondary sense of achievement, when I get close to some scores, or manage to beat others scores during certain ends, esp as I'm using arrows I've made, not ones that have been bought.

Catching The Wind

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters). Yes my friends another month has almost been and gone. Now in the month of May, and what a month April has been. Tradition has 'April Showers', this April though has been anything but wet, but infact has been gloriously sunny, so much infact parts of me are a little pink from it.

Last entry I ended just after the monthly medal, which I now have a picture for you:

This is the longbow medal, and the other three are similar to this with only slightly different shaped medal and designs on the medal itself. Technically you're meant to wear them at club shoots, but very few people do. Its a shame really, you do see a number of badges on peoples quivers (I have a few myself) but never really see any medals. I'm hoping when we get a new club house we'll have like a little trophy cabinet. We might not but it would be nice.

Since the monthly medal we were scheduled to have the clubs AGM and The President's Cup, both of which had to be postponed for various reasons, which came with mixed opinions from members.

But we did manage to shoot the FITA. Now this was the first time I'd shot a FITA and it was longer than I expected. A FITA is 12 dozen arrows: 3 at 90m, 3 at 70m on a big face. and then 3 at 50m and 3 at 30m on a smaller face. I'd never shot these distances and this amount of arrows either, and with my heavier bow it was a challenge esp on my finger that has blistered since using this new bow. But for  a bow I couldn't string when I first got it, I can now string by hand and shoot with comfortably.

Despite the long distances I did reasonably well shot to a 2nd class standard, which is one up from last years classification. This was also the first outing of the new flock of ravens, who are cut down compared to the previous ones, and have 4" fletchings, and 125grain field tips.

The next day there was a shoot against Bruntwood but unfortunately I was unable to attend, six of our members did represent us but unfortunately we were beaten. But I'm sure we gave them a run for their money.

Thanks to the Royals the previously cancelled York shoot was back on the the board, re-scheduled for us on the Friday. Now a York is another long shoot and one of the few you can reach Grandmaster Bowman status (not that I'm anywhere near that yet). Again this had distances I had not shot before as its a 12 dozen arrow round, 6 dozen at 100yds, 4 dozen at 80yds, and 2 dozen at 60yds. This was a very windy day and you could see arrows flying sideways when the wind caught them. What didn't help was that the wind wasn't constant in two ways, it gusted so sometimes it would be blowing a gale it would knock the arrow off from the rests and other times it would have dropped that when you shot compensating for wind, the wind wasn't there. It also wasn't consistent down the field, so you'd have crosswinds as the arrows travelled. So this wasn't the best day for my first York, but despite the conditions I don't think I did badly, again I shot to a 2nd class standard, and was only 40pts off first. I know that sounds alot but in retrospect 40pts lost could be just a bad end (6 arrows). To our surprise, few archers turned up (must've been enthralled by the royal wedding). In fact there were only 3 of us, we shot 12.5 dozen arrows in under 4 hours including time for lunch. So seeing as the calender said a National was to be shot at 2pm as well, the two longbowers of the day Steve Dunn and myself shot that as well. David Campbell didn't shoot the National with us but loosed a few to sort his bow out and get sight marks, as well as very kindly scoring for us. Steve did beat me in the York and National, but was still fun. 222 arrows later on the return home though I discovered despite keeping to the shade for a good part of the day, the sun had hit me enough to turn part of me pink.

But a days rest to relax the shoulders, brought us to the Presidents Cup, which was a St.George to be shot on May Day, another day we celebrate with pagan history. Now a St.George (yes I know it would have made sense to shoot it on St.Georges day but can't have it all) is 3dozen at 100, 3dozen at 80 and 3 dozen at 60. Again this was a very windy day so much so you'd pick up arrows from the boss and ground at very odd angles, as they've been pushed sideways through the wind. What didn't help either was one of my eyes decided to constantly water and by the end was rubbed raw (blaming suncream getting into the eye). But despite difficulties I shot again to a 2nd class standard and under 20 points away from first class, so gives me hope that I might reach 1st class by the end of the outdoor season, (hopefully with some calmer days).

Unfortunately for Shaun and Steve, both lost some arrows as they broke on impact when hitting legs or metal pins, lucky for me though the only damage I suffered was some knocks that barely scraped the oil on the wood.

sighters for that.

I have signed up to shoot at Keddlestone, which I'm quite looking forward too. Being a longbow only shoot it'll be nice to see I suppose a band or even regiment of longbow archers, giving an impression of what it must've been like centuries back. Also being a longbow shoot the rules are a little different. For a start you don't get sighter arrows to gauge your range, you also don't get a second shot if your arrow bounces out of the target. Upside is though at the end of each distance you get cake and sherry(not my preferred drink but still an incentive).

Despite the wind its been a pleasant time of shooting this month and its a shame other archers haven't been coming out to enjoy it. To be totally honest I'd like to see some of the members who only seem to be names on the website come and shoot, I'm sure they have valid reasons why they don't shoot but its just a shame to have so many members but only a fraction of them shooting. Well the night marches on and the long bank holiday is over, so I will say Goodnight to you all, and happy shooting, may your arrows find their mark, and not sore too high on the winds.

The Spring Flight

Though this month is not over I thought I'd post up an update anyway to show how things are going. So far the weather has been pleasant and allowed the outdoor shooting to go ahead, and the new bow has been working well. I still need to build myself up to be able to draw it consistently over and over, as well as controlling the recoil. But I'm enjoying it none the less and re-learning the distances.

At the moment arrows for the new bow are still in the construction phase at the moment, and despite being sold arrow shafts with curves in them (looking at your archery world) I've gone ahead and made up arrows anyway. Mainly because I can't afford to get new shafts and waste these ones so I'll make do for now. The new flock of ravens will be slightly shorter than the older flock, but they will be thicker so hopefully I'll be able to use more power from the bow without it being wasted, though time will tell.

The short bodkin has been looked at with some negativity due to the edges that it has, so for the mean time that flock will be put on standby. Determined as I am not to waste them though, I am forming plans acceptable to all to allow these ravens to fly.

But for happier news, despite the first shoot being cancelled (and noting the 3rd shoot and President's Cup was cancelled as well again due to the rugby club using the field for warm ups) we did manage to shoot the 2nd scheduled shoot. This was the first outdoor monthly medal of the season (hurray!!).  This month the round was a National, which is four dozen arrows at 60yds, and 2 dozen arrows at 50yds. This is shot at a large target (122cm). Though two keen longbow archers arrived extra early to shoot a York round (so weren't allowed to shoot in the monthly medal), while some experienced archers shot a Long National (as the name suggests it has longer distances than the National).

As I didn't have my new arrows made, I used arrows donated to me last year by Shaun. These arrows are slightly unusual as they have 4 fletchings rather than 3, and also are much longer. Finding range took a few ends, but got their in the end. Though as is always the way outside we shoot in 6's and I only have 6 of these arrows, and yes you guessed it, a pile came off in the boss so I had to use a spare arrow which was shorter, different spined, different fletched and all around different. So with the spare arrow which most of the time promptly missed the target (having different arrow types is never a good idea), we proceeded to shoot.

So it is my pleasure to extend congratulations to the following people:

Monthly Medal Awards:

Scratch Medal:              David Campbell

Compound Medal:        John Stubbs

Longbow Medal:           Steve Mudd (yes that's me, yay!)

Handicap Medal:          Richard Park  

I would also like to extend a special congratulations to master Joe Shaw for having a 6 Gold End. My personal downside is that I was 4 points off a 2nd class score, but seeing as its only the beginning of he season there is plenty of time to achieve this. Plus no one can say that I don't like shooting, as one of my fingers is now sporting a blister thanks to the thinner string, and that is despite wearing a leather shooting glove.

That's it for now, stay tuned because I have some interesting stuff coming up, in the next few months.

April Showers

The indoor season has closed and with it has the month of March.

Firstly before I go on I'd wish to congratulate the members of NCB for their victory in the archery darts match at Chester. With a win of 14-6 so congratulations to all of you.

Its at this time we look back over the winter and remember, or well we compare our scores of the previous year and see if any improvements. So here are mine:

Bray 1:
Last year :                                        This Year:
High Score: 85                                 High Score: 169 (+84)
Average Score: 61                           Average Score: 134.5 (+73.5)

I only seem to have recorded Brays last year, but you can see that within a year a huge difference has been made, whether to quality of equipment, archery skill or a mix of both who knows. But it'll be interesting to see next year.

Portsmouth:
This Year:
High Score: 438
Average Score: 389.29

Though I don't have anything to compare it to from last year I can tell you its a big improvement. I know because I'm getting 59-60 / 60 hits this year while last year......well wouldn't be surprised if I'd jumped a boss.

There were other round too, but since they were shot on one off's and was my first time of shooting them this year I've decided to leave them off.

But dear readers I have something for you. Yes thats right photos, not too many mind but some better than none.

 To the left is a AAA battery (for size comparasion), a new set of arrowheads I have called short bodkins. (whether or not I'm allowed to use them at my club is still pending), and my current field tips (note that the field tip wasn't attached to the shaft at the time, my arrows are slightly bent but not like that.





Next we have PICTURES OF THE FUTURE!! Yes these pictures were taken from the year 2017 and y'know no one has aged a day since today. Nah just kidding the dates wrong is all it was from the last frostbite shoot.

 Here we are on the shooting line ready to loose, Angus observing. I think we were the 2nd detail.....may have been first can't remember.

No I'm not scratching my back, but drawing my next arrow and noticing that the camera man is around.. Btw it was freezing that day, hence why most are in multi-layers and coats and body warmers.









Last picture for today I have a game for you. You've heard of "Where's Wally (or Waldo if your American)" , well here is "Spot Steve".

       

Btw that's Robert posing, I'll point out where I am at the end, give you time to search.

Like I mentioned before the indoor season has finished and what better way to start the outdoor season than a club shoot.........or at least that's what we thought. When we arrived today we found our shooting field being laid out for the mini rugby players. So it was turn around and go home, six miles of walk in the rain was not fun, esp seeing as it was mother's day a wasted morning was frustrating. Whats more annoying is that the indoor range was laid out with tables and chairs (which were only used gone 12pm by the same rugby kids for hot dogs), and the first field was being used as a car park. Just shows you how much the rugby club likes us being there doesn't it.

But with the summer ahead of us and still plenty more shoots on the calender we'll be outside soon, and I'll eventually get my heavy bow worn in, esp now I've worked on the serving and nocking points. New flocks of Ravens are on the way and will soon take to the skies. Well good night all. Happy shooting.

Oh btw, if you haven't found me already see the longbow on the left, well that's my hand holding it and foot its resting on, I'm behind Richard (the guy with the yellow collar), well done if you spotted me.

Spring Is Coming

Hail and well met for those returning, or for first time readers. With the last club competition (or at least the last one I'm doing, archery darts is rather frustrating with a longbow) just gone and the end of the indoor season looming its time for a recap of the past events.

This month had in store the Club Indoor Championship, the last Frostbite, and the Monthly Medal.

Luckily my raven's have survived up till now, though some are in better condition than others, as most if not all are curvy, esp one in particular which has decided to bend in two places. There will be a new flock of ravens shortly as I have picked up supplies to work with the new longbow for the outdoor season. The new longbow is very nice but I know I will have to build up muscles to shoot it properly, but I suppose as the wood learns to bend, my muscles will learn to draw the bow and as such we'll grow used to one another.

But back to the monthly news. This year's was a Portsmouth round, and despite not shooting up to my best I shot well enough with a score of 397 59/7 (yes I don't know why I've been missing recently on this target). So very pleased with myself, though Doug Shaw since putting down his recurve for a longbow is becoming some stiff competition as after the first dozen he was ahead, but I managed to push past in the 2nd dozen and stay there. Elsie Smith shot very well with a score of 414 making us both wonder why weren't we shooting better at Chester the previous month.

The next round to come was the Frostbite, now since longbows don't generally tend to get high enough for Frostbite score submissions, barring the occasional scores by Shaun Allan or no recurves turning, neither of these factors stopped three longbow archers coming out into the open air to shoot, myself being one of course. Because we were outside I decided to use my short winged ravens (they only have short fletchings), so picking up my straighter ones ventured out to the shooting ground, and though I shot worse than the last Frostbite which we shot in Knutsford, I still managed to stay ahead of the other longbowers though it was very close, one point.

Last but not least was tonight's monthly medal which was a Bray 1 round, though there was definitely something in the air tonight as everyone shooting longbow seemed to do badly in comparison to usual. I don't know what happened, esp the previous Tuesday I had shot a Bray 1 round, of 162 seven off my personal best with only two misses. Tonight I just scraped to 100 with lots of misses, to show how badly we were shooting I don't think barring Shaun any longbower tonight got 100+ after the first two dozen, four of us stayed to shoot another Bray1 afterwards, and even though we all improved by some varying degrees we still weren't shooting well and each end seemed to last forever. Now a Bray1 is only 30 arrows, very quick round, but when your shooting bad arrow after bad arrow and not knowing what your doing wrong it just drags on and on. But congratulations to Alex Smith(scratch), John Stubbs(Compound), Shaun Allan(Longbow), and Joe Shaw(Handicap) this months medal winners.

In all honesty I have a suspicion that my shooting is going down is that as well as being tired most archery nights, I'm bored with shooting indoors. Last indoor season I was using a home made longbow, and just starting so was a challenge to hit the target, then when we went outside I had a new pro-made longbow and I was learning the distances and enjoying the weather and all its variables that effected the shooting. Being able to shoot six arrows at a time in competitions, or dozens while practicing, and being able to spread out between archers and open up the body. Now back inside the challenge was just to reduce the handicap and I have done from a 79 to 60, possibly try to make it a 59 before the month ends and the season really closes, but we'll see. Now I just want to get out again and enjoy real archery (longbow, with no aiming aids) and all that comes with it. Yes I know shooting a longbow without an elastic band or an aiming stand is not the best but to me, its proper archery, I often wonder if those aids were removed from longbow archers would those high rankings be so high or would they drop? would they drop alot or a little? But that's my thinking, I'm sure other longbow archers will say that its target archery and if I want instinctive go to field archery, everyone has their own style of shooting and that's mine.

The next post I shall post up my high scores and average scores for this indoor season and allow those who shoot to compare. I should have pictures for the next post too of the new flocks. Goodnight and good shooting.

Oh just remembered this month, as my chainmail shirt is now of a wearable state of completion I've worn is a couple of times to archery, and despite needing some minor adjustments it does feel nice shooting in it, and doesn't effect things that much. Ok true to do get warmer in it and does weigh your shoulders down, but that's just needing to get used to the weight and build up the muscles to cope.