Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to me new blog- no.3! The first is my wargaming blog. Second a selling blog. Now this one!

Why am I doing this? I've noticed that archery and LARP are rather strange bedfellows in the UK. So this blog is about my experiences, although I'm very open to other contributors.

How did I start? School, 5^th form and a pile of horrendous equipment. I was hooked. Family trip to Cardiff, a sports shop and a £7 fibreglass bow. I was starting work the next week and borrowed it off mum. Now we lived a hand-to-mouth existence, so that was the rent money.

I progressed, got more kit. Now this is pre-internet, so I ordered from Quicks or visited a specialist retailers like Tom Foy and Lillywhites in London. First longbow, over a year delivery and £100, say 3 weeks wages.

Young chap living at home messing with wargaming and archery. At age 17 I was required to teach my sister. She's a natural shot and soon required proper tuition. An archery club*, she became Dorset junior champion, I got chucked out!

The combination of hobbies brought Philip Mackie and Tony Pidgeon into my life, and they're still here. Tony being my regular wargaming partner today.

Reenactment. That was Phil's fault, he dragged me to an event in Longleat. He was doing Napoleonic, but there was the Norse Film and Pageant Society. Hang on, they have archers! And they're shooting people! Voom. Longbows, combat, arrow making (tried bowyery-total fail) British Plate Armour Society and even my own Fastoft's 1,000 archery-heavy society. I taught armed combat and archery for a few decades.

Work, business taking up 60-80 hours a week saw the end of that. But now, retirement gives me the time and some money to get into LARP. Way back when I booked Arrowcaster for an event at Shugborough Hall and got a crossbow in exchange. Great, got used for shoot-the-knight have-a-go stalls, ideal for youngsters and handicapped unable to pull a bow. But- the design is, well, flawed and getting it to launch a bolt with any power is beyond me-.

*Her tutor was an amazing chap, climbing trees and not showing his advanced years. He had an amazing war. During WW2, the government used the medieval laws to call up young archers. He was part of that trawl and trained for the Beach Clearance Squads. Wearing a wet suit and equipped with a steel bow his job was to protect the engineers who surveyed and sampled the invasion beaches prior to D Day. If disturbed by a sentry, or anyone else, he would dispatch them and take their bodies out to sea.

Come D Day he was one of the first on the beaches and they were returning in their old fishing boat. Every boat yelled “you're going the wrong way!” To get a reply of “F-we've done our bit!”

The Army in their wisdom sent him to the LRPG where he got a halftrack by shooting the driver through the vision slit. The vehicle promptly rolled over and they rushed in with knives. No bullet wounds, burnt out – an unfortunate accident.