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Friday, October 13, 2006
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How to.. archery
NOTHING has a sting quite like a bow string over the nipple.
That was just one of the things I learned when I tried my hand with a bow and arrow with the archers at Mitchell’s Sports and Social Club in Fengate.
It was the first time I had fired a bow and arrow that didn’t have a sucker on the end – and for that reason I received proper tuition from the start from club chairman Alan Wilkinson.
I was one of three beginners lined up close to the targets on the Tuesday night meeting, with a bow borrowed from the club and a set of six arrows.
The correct way to fire a bow and arrow is quite different from how you imagine in the movies.
Alan taught how to get my drawing hand under my chin and the string pulled back so far that it touches your nose.
When you see me pulling the string in the picture it makes perfect sense, but when you’re trying to do it yourself it seems quite an unnatural move.
But within a few shots my hand was up under my chin – something that apparently can take a long while with beginners – and I was hitting the target with every arrow.
I was properly kitted out from the club, with a bracer on my arm so if it slipped the string wouldn’t take the skin off, and a tab on my fingers to stop the string blistering my fingertips and to give me a bit more purchase when firing the arrow.
I was using a 30lb bow which sent the arrow, essentially a hollow aluminium tube with one sharpened end and plastic fletches on the other, flying at the same velocity as a 2.2 bullet.
For this reason, safety was very stringent at the club. Nobody fired an arrow until the first whistle was blown and you could only go to collect your hits, or misses, when the whistle blew a second time.
We had a go in three stages – the beginners who were closer to the targets and two sets of more experienced archers who fired from the back of the hall.
During the winter the archers are confined to the small clubhouse, but when the weather gets warmer and the nights lighter then the club use the land behind the clubhouse to practice.
It didn’t take me long to understand why the club had so many members. There was something very satisfying about lining up and loosing a shot.
And in the same way as a sport like golf you were always playing against yourself to get your shots on target.
And under Alan’s tuition I was soon improving with every shot, as my technique altered under his instruction. Believe me, I only caught myself once!
Alan, who runs the club with his wife Jill, told me that every fourth Monday the club was open to the more experienced archers only, who took part in a fun tournament.
In previous months they had played games of snakes and ladders using their shots to roll the dice and shot at pictures of the club emblem which was Disney’s fox version of Robin Hood, and seasonal targets such Easter bunnies and Christmas santas.
The shots from each night were added up to see who was the best shot of the year.
He said: “The club has archers of all ages, from 10 we go up to pensioners. We have enough club equipment for 14 bows.”
He was also a keen historian of archery through the ages. We were using 30lb to 36lb bows. Having tried a 36lb bow it felt really tough – almost like the string didn’t want to give. But in medieval times archers would use bows of more than 20 times that strength to fire into the air.
And Alan told me it is still on the statute books that Englishmen should practice archery on a Sunday.
I would certainly love to give it another try – not only was it good fun but it was also a very friendly club for people of all abilities. Mind you, my arms were aching by the end!