Your basket is currently empty!
We write for you so you may write for us
Latest articles
1 – What is your favourite animal?
Cat. Independent, free spirited and deadly when required.
2 – What club are you a member of?
Lough Cuan Bowmen.
3 – What is your preferred shooting style?
Generally, anything with wooden arrows. I’ve shot traditional recurve with a field recurve and now, since age is making field courses a little more difficult, I’ve recently been shooting longbow target. But my real love is AFB. I just wish the style loved me back.
4 – How did you get into archery?
I had an old lemon wood flatbow as a boy so there was an early exposure even though the archery virus took a long, long time to mature. I did a beginners’ course with my elder son (who still shoots) and that replanted the seed for later. But my original degree is in history so there is a real satisfaction of being involved in a sport whose origins stretch back into antiquity, and which has produced some of the most amazing stories from history.
5 – Who is your favourite fictional archer?
Well not someone from the superhero / Hunger Games universes. I think I would go for Bernard Cornwell’s Nicholas Hook (from “Azincourt” or Thomas of Hookton (from the Harlequin series).
6 – What is your favourite competition type?
I always loved straight up field with target faces. I’ve never been a great 3D fan and recently I’ve come to enjoy indoor Portsmouth target rounds. And target WA 720 target rounds are quite a challenge.
7 – Would you rather do archery whilst riding a unicorn or a pegasus?
Unicorn of course. How could you shoot past a pegasus’ wings?
8 – What is the oddest thing you have seen during a competition?
Somebody fluffing a release, bouncing the arrow off two trees and still scoring three.
9 – What is the best shot you have made in a competition?
50m while standing on a ditch rampart, downhill, with a winter gale cross wind blowing and scoring a 4. There other two arrows missed.
10 – Which fictious archers would you want on your side for a team match?
Not Elves or anything fantasy. The three Robin Hoods: Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner and Russel Crowe.
11 – What are your goals in archery?
To get a little bit better each time I shoot.
12 – What is your proudest achievement in the sport?
I think the first time I won a competitive medal. I’m not an overly competitive archer but the first medal represented a transition from a newbie to an actual archer. And that was a good feeling.
13 – What is the best advice you have been given in archery?
Slow down and pause at the point of aim/release.
14 – How do you think you would have fared in the stone age with a bow and arrows?
Pretty well. I have a ‘creep-up-behind-and shoot-‘em-when-they’re-not-looking’ approach to life and I think that would help. None of this stand up and fight fair.
15 – What is the one thing you really enjoy in the sport?
The camaraderie, particularly among trad archers, is something I really enjoy. However, working to improve at something that is difficult is an enjoyment in itself (sometimes).
16 – What one thing in the sport irritates you the most?
Not much. Compounders take themselves very seriously but even they realise they are there for trad archers to make fun of.
17 – What would you like to see in terms of improvement within archery as a sport?
I would like to see more opportunity for traditional archers to shoot competitively outside of the field environment. There is no traditional bow style in WA target. I think it would enhance archery, and open it up to more people shooting, if there was less of a focus on Olympic styles and more on the wider archery family.
18 – What do you think would make a great mascot for the sport of archery?
A cat with a bow. Sums it up for me.
19 – Who is your most fervent supporter?
My wife supports me in archery participation but sometimes I think she is just nodding at the third retelling of the best shots of the day. But the cat is there for me.
20 – If you could shoot another bow style, what would it be?
I am tempted to return to Barebow but with a Border wooden riser and simple rest. Barebow is a great style for target and field crossover. The best bang for the buck.
21 – What is your favourite shooting venue?
Greenmount. Not only a great venue but the Ballyvalley shoots held there in the autumn can have a magical feel to them.
22 – What would make a great 3D target?
Boris Jonston.
23 – What would get more people into archery?
More ordinary club shoots, both target and field. Too many shoots are status competitions which puts the newer archer off. No Arrowheads or records, just club members shooting for the joy of archery and only wanting to have a good time. Friendly, unofficial, inter club competitions would also help.
24 – What lesser-known competition type should be more a popular/frequent event?
Clout. You do need a bit of ground but there is nothing more basic than seeing how far you can send an arrow. No worry about aim, just let it go.
