Christmas Party

This Friday is the Companions of the Longbow Christmas party at the Roves Farm visitors centre.  As a reminder the start time is 6.30pm, there will be shooting, there will be food, and there will be non-alcoholic drink - though you are welcome to bring your own wine and beer as long as you know that for safety there’ll be a “beer out, bows away” rule.  In addition there will be a raffle (if you want to donate a prize the more the merrier!) and there’ll also be a quiz featuring 16 hard as nails medieval multiple choice questions and 16 easy peasy general knowledge questions – look for the question sheets in the café area.

There’s also the fire arrows if it isn’t raining (bring at least one made to the specifications shown in the Members Area).  The fire arrows will make up a Companions Challenge (and a Prize of Dubious Worth) which will be shot around 8.30pm’ish.

Range captains – the idea is that we’ll pull games out of a hat and take it in turns to range so that everyone gets a chance to shoot.

Fancy dress is optional if you want it (time to dust off that medieval costume that you’ve not worn for at least 3 months?) but the main thing is DRESS UP WARM – it’ll be freezing!!  If you want to come but haven’t put your name and your guests names forward e-mail Ade at social@companionsofthelongbow.co.uk.  There’s a small fee of £4 per person to cover the cost of hiring the facilities.  See you there!

Companions Trophy

Using sound scientific principles, the first game was designed to test both the speed and accuracy of the archers. The game consisted of four rounds in which they had to shoot as many arrows as they could at a standard target in 30 seconds. The scores from each round were added together and then divided by two to give each archer an average Points  

The second game was six rounds of archery golf using three metal rods with coloured buckets on the top as targets. Unfortunately, Hamish was badly handicapped as two of the targets were beyond the range of his bow. However, he did score a zero between the two targets that were closest to each other. The results (lowest score the better):

So congratulations to Ade, Richard and Mark who all qualify this week as Riding Forester 1st Rank.  You can check out all the scores in the Members Area.

Companions Challenges – Season Three


So now that the Retinue League is over it’s now a chance to play new Companions Challenges and replay some of the best of the old ones.  For those who don’t know the Companions Challenges are one off archery shots inspired by history, books, films, television and history.  The Challenge can be a group or an individual shot but either way it results in a “completed” or a “fail”.  Currently we’re starting the third season of Companions Challenges with twenty two named Challenges and 16 success to 12 failures (we’ve played some challenges no more than twice).  So, tradition dictates that we have one new Challenge followed by one old Challenge and this week we’re starting with a new Challenge called “The Death of Hotspur, Harry Percy”.

The story is that Sir Henry Percy, also called Harry Hotspur, with his paternal uncle Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, led a separate rebellion against King Henry IV of England in 1403, forming an alliance with the Welsh rebel, Owain Glyndŵr, who was leading his own Welsh rebellion. This conflict had its roots in the way Hotspur dealt with the Welsh rebels which was contrary to Henry IV’s (and parliament’s) ideas, as well some broken promises for land and money following Henry IV’s over throw of Richard II in 1399.  However before the English and Welsh rebels could join forces, Hotspur was defeated and killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury (21st July 1403).  Hotspur apparently raised his visor to get some air and was immediately hit in the mouth with an arrow.  His death was said to be the catalyst which, after three hours of fighting, led to the rebel army routing.  The Battle of Shrewsbury was also where the young sixteen year old Prince Henry (the future Henry V of Agincourt fame) was also shot in the face with an arrow.  Of course, unlike Harry Hotspur, and thanks to the best possible care, Prince Henry survived.  An account of John Bradmore, the surgeon who invented a device for removing the arrowhead from Henry’s face can be found by clicking on the following link.  http://www.rcpsg.ac.uk/hdrg/2006Nov3.htm.  For those who remember a replica of the device used to remove the arrowhead was also demonstrated by Hector Cole at the 2007 Companions Banquet.

But how easy is it to anticipate an enemy knight lifting his visor and shoot that one arrow accurately?

The setup was such that a dummy Harry Hotspur head, complete with helmet and raised visor was be set up at the correct height for a knight on a horse (it was actually a tad higher than the estimated 15 ½ hands for a medieval war horse plus rider but I don’t think anyone minded).  A shooting line was initially placed around 200 paces from the Harry Hotspur head.

To simulate the random chance of Harry raising his visor each archer were asked to draw and memorise a playing card from a deck of cards that had all the picture cards removed (so they could only pick ace to ten).  The archer was required to remember the number or face card, not the suite as the suite was not important.  Once everyone was ready with an arrow knocked the Range Captain drew a card from his deck and called nock, draw, loose for those archers who held that numbered card.  The archer, once their number was called, had 3 seconds to shoot one arrow at the dummy Harry Hotspur.  This way no one archer knew when they had to shoot.

If after everyone had shot and Harry Hotspur remained untouched the line was moved forward 20 paces and the game repeated.  If at any point an archer hit Harry Hotspur’s head in the face, the game is over and that archer wins the prize.  The arrow must strike the unprotected face as any arrow that is lodged in the helmet will not count (as the arrow would probably have been deflected).  If the archers fail to shoot the head by the 20 pace shooting line the game is over and the challenge is considered a fail.

So how did they do?

In a word, they were “rubbish!”  We had a few near misses from the 100 to 80 yard range but even by the time we got to the 20 yard point we still had no hits (I think if two arrows were allowed they might have been able to adjust their aim after the first “ranging shot”).  Also I think the random element also introduced a certain amount of haste to the shooting which threw the archers off (as it should have done).  Therefore it is with some sadness that we must declare the first of the new Challenges a failure.  On a plus note we all volley shot the head and with the second volley got multiple hits!  Hurrah!  It was decided that Ade should win the Prize of Dubious Worth some sinew which can be used to back a primitive bow (which were masquerading in a pet shop as a dog chew toy).  His arrow was found to be lodged in the metal tube which supported the head (a chest shot had it been for real).  As we couldn’t remove the arrow Ade actually won both the Prize of Dubious Worth and the Hotspur head …

Ade and his second prize of dubious worth.....the actual dunny head.  Taken home so he could remove this arrow at his leisure