This week was the penultimate game for the current sixteen week game and still way out in the lead are the Bowyers with 31 Retinue Points.  In second place are the Stringfellows with 26 Retinue Points and still in last place are the Fletchers, bolstered by their last win though, with 24 Retinue Points.

This week’s featured outlaw is a man called Jack Cade, as featured in the William Shakespeare play “Henry VI”.  As leader he gave his name to a rebellion that kicked off in 1450 and pretty much ended following a night battle on London Bridge.

So the setup is that it’s the summer of 1450 and after looting parts of London Jack Cade’s rebels have been barred access from Southwark back across London Bridge into the city.  A battle ensues on the bridge which lasts from 10pm to 8am the next morning and this game replicated an attack on Stone Gateway, the bridge gate on the Southwark side of the river Thames.

In this game the hay bale backstops will acted as the Stone Gateway, the erm, gate, with a number of zones marked out that gain the teams either positive or negative game points.  The set up was as per the following diagram;

In front of the hay bales (here after the hay bales will be called Stone Gateway) is Jack Cade and the rebels.  Jack Cade in this case because he was about the right size was represented by Warwick, our 3D black bear field target.  As he was supposed to be attacking he was turned to face Stone Gateway and looked liked he was having a pee.   But anyway, shots into this area in front of the gate incurred -1 game point penalty per arrow.  Shots into Jack Cade/peeing Warwick the bear earned the archer’s team a -10 game point penalty.   You really don’t want to be killing your own leader.

Any arrows that landed on top of Stone Gateway gained  +4 game points as this is where the main defenders would be stationed (plus the zone was harder to hit).  The next closest zone behind Stone Gateway gains +2 game points and the next after that +1 game points.  Any arrows that land wide of these areas have landed in the Thames and did not score.  Any hits on the flat FITA targets gain +5 game points as these represent the captains of the bridge defenders.  The captain of Stone Gate defenders was represented by an old kettle fixed to the front of Stone Gateway.  This was chosen because (a) it offered a head sized target, (b) it was metal so needed a powerful shot to pierce and (c) was placed lower down the hay bales so direct shots weren’t lost in the longer grass.  Any successful (i.e. pierced) shots on the captain of Stone Gateway earned the archer’s team +10 game points.

The game was played from a 60 pace shooting line over three rounds with each archer getting 6 arrows per round to “drop” & score as many points as possible.  The scores were worked out with a combination of highest overall score and wins per round.  So how did the teams do?

Well firstly the Bowyers have consistently managed to muster more archers per game other than one week when more Fletchers turned up.  Through sheer strength of numbers the bowyers have often managed to win the day (and some tactical play too, mind).  Alas for the other teams this week the Bowyers were back to “business as usual” with four archers shooting against two for the Fletchers and zero for the Stringfellows.  Luckily we had two mercenaries who stepped in to shoot for the Stringfellows.  This is the second game where zero Stringfellows have turned up and it would seems a little unfair on the Fletchers (and the Bowyers) if they should eventually win when they’ve “contracted out” two of their games!

Anyway, this meant there were four archers in the Bowyers, two in the Fletchers and two in the Stringfellows.  Eventually numbers won out as the Bowyers romped home to victory with a total score of 68 game points to the Stringfellow’s 33 game points and the Fletcher’s 31 game points.  Those good with maths may have noticed that as the Bowyers had twice the number of archers as the other teams it’s no surprise that they scored twice the number of points.  However, take note those who are looking for the sheriff’s men, in the second round Chris M for the Fletcher’s managed to lodge an arrow in the back of Jack Cade’s head (-10 points) and Dave A. (mercenary shooting for the Stringfellows) also managed to shoot Jack Cade in the middle of the back (another -10 points) in the last round.  Was this done on purpose?  They were both very good centre line shots!

So we go into the last game with the Bowyers still in the lead with 34 Retinue Points, the Stringfellows in second with 28 Retinue Points and the Fletchers last with 25 Retinue Points.  The final deciding game will take place on Saturday 29th November and there will be some tough choices for some.  Those present will get a chance to nominate who they think is;

(1)     The sheriff’s man working as part of the three mercenaries.

(2)     The sheriff’s man working as part of their own retinue.

(3)     The two sheriff’s men working as part of the other two retinues.

How the team’s choice will decide the three mini-competitions;

(1)     The mercenary game where the mercenaries must shoot well enough not to be picked as the mercenary sheriff’s man!

(2)     The sheriff’s men’s game where sheriff’s man (or woman!) who is part of the 3rd placed retinue wins!

(3)     The sheriff’s men’s game where the mercenary sheriff’s man must remain undetected until the end!

Sheriff’s men; please do not reveal who you are until I give you permission!  This is because there is one final game to play…

Based on the possible four correct answers each team will get a chance to nominate a champion archer to shoot for bonus points.  For each answer the chosen retinue champion will get one arrow per correct answer to shoot at a target and score bonus Retinue Points.  This means that there are potentially four arrows per team up for grabs.  I will be revealing how many answers were correct for each team but will not be revealing each team’s answers.  This will mean that a team could still potentially chose a sheriff’s man as their champion in the final game.  It’s therefore a clear advantage for teams not to let on with the other teams as to who they’ve picked!  If this is all confusing to you don’t worry, I’ll run through the rules again on the day.  Check out the scores (and a progress report on the mercenaries) in the Members Area.


Companions Trophy

This week’s two Companions Trophy games were guest captained by already qualified archer, Andy TB.  The first game was a three round clout shoot at 80 pace, 120 pace and 180 pace targets (metal posts with coloured buckets placed on top!)  The scoring zones were progressively larger the further the targets were away as well as the points; 4 points for the 80 pace target, 5 points for the 120 pace target and 6 points for the 180 pace targets.  Final scores are shown below.  Jenni got a bonus point for hitting the 80 pace bucked with one of her shots!