Flying In The Right Direction

Hail and well met Raven followers, with the close of the outdoor season the numbers have been tallied and new personal bests have been set.

This summer's personal bests stand as;



Round	Personal Best
York	120
Hereford	141
St. George	124
Albion	333
Windsor	468
Long western	249
Western	200
American	271
Long National	138
National	260
Warwick	142

		Distances
		100yds	80yds	60yds	50yds	40yds
Arrow Average		0.31	0.97	2.42	3.14	5.05

 

Accuracy Average

24.64%

Plus with the fact I went from 3rd Class to 1st Class, I'm quite pleased with my overall progress over the summer, though I still have room for improvement.

 With the indoor season starting already, my ravens have already started to fly in the inner range. First shoot being the first monthly medal being a FITA 18m. Already setting a new PB of 278, followed by our Worcester shoot, the Castlebank Cup. Here I set another PB of 166, though this could have been better if there weren't so many loud people distracting while trying to shoot, it also seemed I wasn't the only one suffering from this distraction. I'm aware that to get to a top level in sports you've got to block out everything else, but it can be hard esp when in a room that echos and amplifies the sounds. Plus as archers talking to each other while on the shooting line, or to archers on the shooting line is against etiquette rules you don't really expect it.

Though we don't shoot them often I quite like shooting the Worcester round, its different and relaxing.

So far I've been shooting my heavier bow indoors to keep my muscles up, I'm actually enjoying shooting the heavier bow more than the lighter one. Though I think I might make some more arrows as looking at the angle they are going in the current ones maybe a bit stiff. Though I might leave experiments of the shafts for later on in the season.

This is quite a concentrated update compared to previous updates, but unlike the last update I've got an archery saying, goodnight all, and keep shooting:

Death is like and arrow that is already in flight,

and your life lasts only until it reaches you.

Georg Hermes





Winter Is Looming

Hail and well met once more followers and casual readers. Well with the end of today's shoot comes the close of the outdoor season, and the beginning of the winter season. I have to say I have enjoyed it overall though this year the weather was not really perfect, but then when is it ever perfect so you just have to make the best of it, archers have done so for centuries, or well technically thousands of years. But before we go into the seasonal look back, lets look at whats happened since the last update.

Since we last met, I've shot:
- Wirral Friendly (Albion)
- New Century Novice Shoot (National)
- Long National
- Long Western

The friendly against the Wirral archers is an annual club event, and this time it was a home match. Three Wirral turned up to shoot, and eight of our own archers (including myself). The day was reasonably nice though the wind blew strongly in gusts, soon the arrows were loosed and targets peppered. Though Wirral had no longbow archers the NCB longbow archers brought the longbows to bear. After a long day and a good meal provided by NCB members, the scores were tallied and compared together, and picking those who shot the same rounds with the same bows as the Wirral archers, NCB came out on top. But that was not the only success of the day, I took the first step towards achieving my season goal of first class. For those interested the battle of longbows was close, I was leading at 80yds, but after very bad shooting at 60yds Doug Shaw had over taken me. So at 50yds its all what counted, and with a determined eye I shot quite keenly, and as the last arrow landed and the scores were tallied, the final result was Doug 334, and myself.......333, one point was in it. A more exciting match could not have been seen.

With the success of my first class pip I was aware that I needed two more before I had earned the classification, but I had signed up to attend the novice shoot at New Century. So I set off hitching a lift with two other NCB archers Hugh and Lizzie Foster. Admittedly the weather wasn't the best, at the start of the day the wind blew, and on and off the rain fell. Despite that it was a very relaxing day and though I didn't shoot my best I still shot reasonably well and ended up winning 2nd longbow. I also managed to shoot enough to earn a purple Cheshire cat Cheshire badge. Also interestingly enough one of the other longbow archers had an Adrian Hayes longbow, so it was interesting and also a conversation starter.

For those who have never been to archery shoots before, you see archers comparing bow styles and arrow makers and don't often do that with longbow archers, so kinda a nice experience.

With only two shoots left in the season neither more than 60yds, the first class classification was still sitting in the back of my mind. So I decided that I wasn't going to waste the first class score and intended to do the longer versions of what it said on the calender.



The Long National was first, and my raven's inspired by their previous success landed comfortably in the target over and over, though they tended to stay out of the centre as that was being peppered by the compound arrows of John Stubbs. By the end of the day I had achieved the second pip of my first class classification.

Today was the last chance until the season ended and I'd have to do the whole thing all over again. It was a cloudy day and with strong gusts coming from behind. With a threat of rain at lunchtime, only five archers turned up today. Interestingly Meg Shaw has decided to get a bit of practice with the longbow.....another to the true archers? Well we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, today my ravens decided to brave the gold spot, and I almost managed to get a three gold end at 80yds, which for longbows is badge worthy, but my raven's rarely like to share their golden perch. esp as compound arrows were being pelted into it. One raven did stray too close and was dented by a compound arrow, but yet survived. But it was a success my ravens bagged enough point for my third 1st class score, and with that score, I'm now a first class archer and possibly knocked another point off my handicap score. So with the last shoots of the seasons I managed just to scrape in the outdoor goal I set out to achieve.

This is a big long so I won't do it now but my next post I'll post up my season stats, so you can compare to your own if you like, but for now thanks for reading and fly straight.

Settling The Roost

Hello once again, this month my archery has been suffering slightly. Though this isn't really much of a surprise, the latest addition to my family means I'm not able to practice as much, and though at times I don't mind not going to practice, when shooting and scoring I can see that my abilities have suffered because of it. Plus I think she has figured out what days I go shooting on and decided to try and keep me up those nights so I can't leave her in the morning, which I suppose is fair seeing as I'm up and out before she wakes up during the week.

But back to archery, we've now moved into September so almost the end of the outdoor archery season, and despite some wet days and some very windy days, its been rather nice for shooting, the past couple of times I've been at the club has been wonderful weather of sunshine and calm, but so few have turned up its been a real surprise. Next week is the friendly match against Wirral which I hope more of our member will turn up to.

Since my last update I have been to four shoots;
- FITA 900
- Albion
- American (BBQ shoot)
- National (Monthly Medal)

The FITA 900 is an interesting one as since most of the time I prefer to practice in yards rather than metres, and being a metric shoot its a ten zone score rather than a five, but is yet the same face as I often practice with, the 122cm one.  I can't really remember what the weather was like on that day, days are kind of merging together at the moment. But I know my performance on the day was as per my handicap at the moment, though I know I could have shot better.

The Albion again I shot not my best score though not far from it. Though I shot my best at the longest ranges but when it came to the shortest range my arrows did not find their mark and fell short. So despite shooting higher than other Albions at both 80 and 60 yds, I dropped valuable points at 50yds. I still think the problem I have with Albions and other long range shoots are my arrows. The bow I have is powerful enough but the arrows, are like I said before less than straight, and heavy. Meaning when I shoot I have to arc high which mean that its very susceptible to the wind.

The American BBQ shoot, quite ironically was almost a permanent drizzle, and overcast. With the weather mimicking my mood, my shooting was poor, only managing to shoot to a 69 handicap. It was also in the American that a tragedy befell my conspiracy as one raven struck the target and shattered upon its impact. Though this is not the first to have fallen, it is the first one to shatter and score at the same time. Oh and FYI the BBQ didn't take place, shooting in the rain is one thing but trying to cook is a completely different thing.

Today's National was next and for the first two dozen my shooting was spot on as all but one end was higher than 30, first end being 29. Though only one had all 6 on target. Though after those first 24, whether my aim, hand, or combination could not place the arrows where they should, dropping form 36 to 17 and then to 0. For any archer hard to come back from as with archery you must have a clear mind but remained focused, and a dramatic break can make the mind think of other things. When the range was changed, my shooting though improved did not reach to what it was at the beginning. But yet with a score of 260, that's my best score for a National so far. This was the shoot for the monthly medal, so being the only longbow there I got the longbow medal, John Stubbs being the only compound (though would have probably won anyway) got the compound medal, David Cambell won the scratch and Robert Frank the Handicap medal. Four archers, four medals everyone is a winner. It was also nice to see during most of these shoots three of our newer archers who seem to be improving rather well. Though with the closing of the season being all longer shoots unless they do lots of practice I doubt we'll be seeing them doing the longer shoots. Though the main interesting thing today was that the field was littered with a mass amount of money spiders, which were quite distracting esp when they appear on your glasses while your trying to shoot.

Well to follow what I think I have been shooting I would like to leave you with a Spanish Archery proverb:

The archer that shoots badly has a lie ready.

Good night to all and good shooting.



Hatching Nest

Its that time again to hear from the aviary, well on the archery front its not been that busy for me. I've not even been able to make it to practices really because on the 23rd of July, one of the next generations was born. That's right I'm now a father to a little girl called Enya.

Though I was allowed to go and compete in the Club Championship shoot, the next day. This was a York shoot which proves a good challenge as you realise that the slightest wind can change the trajectory of arrows esp with larger fletchings. My ravens as standard have 125 grain piles, with 4" fletchings, this are rather heavy piles, which if there is wind is good as they are able to fight the wind, though the fletching counteracts this as they can catch the wind. Also the downside of the piles is that it means the arrows have to be sent on a higher arch so they go higher and catch more wind, so really my ravens are for shorter distances probably up to 60yds, but for the moment that's all I have and can afford. I might have to invest in a fletching cutter so I can get some lower profile fletchings and some lighter piles. Plus straight shafts would help but for now just have to cope. So if anyone reading this knows where I can get some low profile fletchings please leave a comment.

Despite this arrow obstacle I got the highest longbow score for the gents, though seeing as our Grand Master Bowman wasn't there it did give me a better shot. Though at the start it was close with Doug Shaw, who seems to be adapting to the art of the longbow quite well. Infact so well Doug has managed to beat me on the past two monthly medals, though I will admit I was shooting very badly until the last dozen, but that's doesn't mean he was shooting well.

I think for a while my practice will be cut short whilst raising this little girl, or at least till she gets into a more steady routine of sleeping at night rather than during the day and awake and wriggly during the night. Though still have my goal of trying to get 1st class this year, I find is quite annoying as I always seem to just miss out on getting it but a dozen or so points, but I suppose that's what I get for shooting instinctively with unstraight arrows.

 I have started though to help out, or at least try to help out by creating club events on facebook, not sure exactly how well they are working but I'm hoping they are helping some club members remember what shoots are on and encourage those who can to come down, as shoots are often better with more people, and for fun rather than a score, for to me archery is a sport where if you don't enjoy doing it you won't get any better, so with that I leave you with a quote from what I'm told is an old Chinese poem, which translates to:

"If archer shoots just for fun he has all his skill.
If he shoots for score his hands tremble
and his breath is uneasy.
If he shoots for a golden price he becomes mad and blind.
His skill was not lessened, but the vision of the target changed him."

Oh almost missed this (mainly for the fact we've not been able to do anything so kinda passed un-noticed), that I have now reached my quarter century on this planet, so belated happy birthday to myself, and to my good lady whose birthday was celebrated in hospital giving birth to our little girl. All the best people and may the wind under your wings take you to where the sun sails and the moon walks.



The Summer Soaring

Greetings once more, these few weeks have been busy archery wise. During the outdoor season the club often tries to have a club shoot or event each weekend, and so since my last post on here there has been:
Friendly shoot against Rochdale Archers,
The July Monthly Medal,
The NCB longbow shoot.

There was another club shoot but that I didn't go too as it was raining hard all day, and a 3 mile walk in the pouring rain, followed by shooting in the rain and then walking back, kinda damped my spirits.

Unfortunately at the moment my practice has taken a back seat as soon there is going to be a little one around so I've traded my Tuesday evenings to preparing myself for the event. Though it hasn't effected me too much, it has a bit but not a great deal. But on with the activities so far.

Firstly the Albion shoot against Rochdale didn't go as planned, the main handicap was that only three members of NCB turned up to represent our club. These were David Campbell, Richard Park, and myself. In all honestly I was quite disappointed about the lack of support we showed for this annual event, I was even informed last year also had very little turn out as well, and those that did turn out were novices at the time. So while there were only three of us, there were fifteen of Rochdale's archers. More of an interest to me though was the fact that one of their members was a longbow archer, so him and myself had our own little competition between us. Despite the lack of numbers we gave a good run for their money, though we did lose the odd stacked against us it was kinda obvious, but as a side note I did beat the other longbower, who had been shooting long only a little less time than I have so were kind of on an even keel. Despite the poor turn out by NCB, Rochdale were very friendly and laid on a wonderful spread, esp for those non drivers as there were a few bottles of beer. Also it was a lovely sunny day with very little wind, so lovely in fact that a couple of us retreated to the shelter of the indoor range to re-apply suncream and to cool down.

The next club shoot that I attended was the July monthly medal, which again was a Warwick shoot, though this month my shooting was definitely left wanting, perhaps this was down to being tired from work, perhaps not. But at the start of the shoot there was a sudden cloud burst, which had the fair weather archers pull out quickly, though the shower passed within minutes. But as I said for whatever the reasons my ravens weren't wanting to fly to the target that day. On the other hand Shaun Allan set a new club longbow record, and Doug Shaw shot extremely well lowering his handicap by 5 points. Shows you what high quality arrows and a good shooting day can do. Though yet to see how all this effects the new handicap league results.

 Last but not least of the shoots was the club longbow shoot. Now for those unfamiliar this shoot is where archers come down to shoot, yes you guessed it longbows. This is often a chance for recurve archers (and a few compounds) to try their hand at a more traditional style of shooting. Its a Windsor round so shooting 60/50/40 and longbows ans arrows are lent to club members normally from our two (G)MB longbow men, Angus Reynolds and Shaun Allan. What makes it even more fun is that during the range changes we often have a selection of cheese and biscuits enhanced by a good sampling of port. This time as a guest shooter we saw the return of Steve Dunn.

Yes the rain did fall, but this was usually only luckily during the range changes so sheltering under the gazebo from the rain gave a good excuse to give the port glasses a top up. I will admit that I surprised myself with the fact that out of 108 arrows I only missed with 7, which though still leaves room for improvement but still only missing the target twice at 60yards was a big feet for me, though not sure why I seemed to miss the target the closer it got. But it was the second highest score of the day, and if we go by longbow rules and go by some longbow shooting rules I would have won on hits.

But I would like to offer an extra congratulations to Elise Smith for achieving a 3 gold end. Which is a big achievement......or at least it is for me.



After the Windsor it was time to shoot the knights, three knights (an archer, a knight with a small round shield, and a more armoured knight with a large kite shield).
This is where we split into teams and shot at each knight in turn gaining (or losing points) depending what part of the knight we hit, whether weapon, head, body or limbs, shields were classed as misses. Though my team didn't win it was still fun to shoot at something more than a five coloured target, and French knight makes the hits an awful lot sweeter.

Though tonight a tragedy has befallen, one of my ravens has died and will not be able to fly again. With a side contact with the boss stand the pile broke and now the shaft is too short. Its always kinder to let it travel back with its flock so they know it too and I often find that they fly truer at least for a short while to honour the flocks fallen member.

So with this tragic news I come to a close. I shall leave you with not an archery quote but one by Edgar Allan Poe:

Quoth the Raven,"Nevermore."

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.