We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. Henry V's words inspired a nation… with a little help from Shakespeare. But how true are they now? Well, if your letters are anything to go by, it's not just a few longbow archers any more and it certainly isn't just brothers.
In the spring edition we asked you to send in your longbow news - and you answered. Student Ben Johnson described an "explosion" of interest in longbows at Liverpool University Archery Club. The 23-year-old said that while it was still dominated by recurve archers, more and more were switching to longbows.
"I think it's due to a hardcore group of longbowmen in the club who are introducing what we thought was a dying skill to beginners and experienced archers alike," he said. "We recently went 'on tour' to the Isle of Man Student Sport Competition with a team of 14 - and half of them were shooting either longbows or the heavier duty war bows.
"The competition as a whole had 25 longbow archers and that, plus our club, shows there is a lot of interest in longbows and other less well-known classes of archery.
"'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers' is as relevant now as it ever has been. We may not have the highest scores at the end of the day, we might not have pinpoint accuracy - but we have earned the right to a little more respect from the archery community as a whole."
Kathryn Lester of Saints and Sinners Bowmen in Worcestershire is aiming to disprove Ben's point about pinpoint accuracy. She has only been shooting longbow for a year but managed to come second in the UK Indoors after a hardfought battle with Amanda Slack. In fact, within four days she broke three county records, three club records, notched up three personal bests won a gold medal - and beat the existing UK record score for a Warwick. Her proud husband Steve described it as "an interesting four days" in her archery career.
While Kathryn has been concentrating on dazzling individual performances, one club has decided to take the longbow to the masses. The Bowmen of Adel organises an annual tournament in Morley as part of the town's St George's Day celebrations. There is a full report of the event on page 36 but David O'Carroll, one of the tournament organisers, said the one of the
main aims was to make the community aware of archery - and to encourage them to have a go.
Not all longbow archers are happy though. There are concerns about the lack of a Society-run national ranking system and tournaments and a perceived lack of recognition.
Colin Milkins of the 1066 Archery Club in Kent wants longbow archers to be treated the same as all other archers. He called for regular coaching sessions to be offered to longbow archers, specific prizes at tournaments, four national tournaments spread around Britain each year leading to the declaration of a UK champion. He also wants recognition that there are no easy rounds in longbow. He said: "It's true, there are no easy rounds in longbow. In that case, perhaps master bowman and grand master bowman could be awarded for shorter rounds.
"If anyone who has never shot a longbow thinks that there are easy longbow rounds, let them attempt to shoot a 500 Western."
Mr Milkins, who has been shooting longbow for 10 years and holds Kent's longbow Western record, also called on Archery GB to agitate for longbow to be recognised as a bow class in the world championships.
David Reader, National Development Manager, said that his department would do all it could to help. "We don't differentiate between types of archers," he said. "We are here to help all clubs."
National Tournaments Chairman Geoff Malyon agreed there were no national longbow championships - but pointed out there were no national recurve or compound championships either. "We have the British Target championships which is all encompassing, at which there are awards for longbow," he said. "There are also awards for longbow at the UK
Masters, which again is an all encompassing shoot.
"To hold a shoot at Lilleshall there needs to be a turnout of 200 archers minimum to be cost-effective, and I can't guarantee that with compound or recurve. So it will be a mixed bag for the foreseeable future.
"We are currently seeing a downturn in numbers attending the GNAM, so it may well be viable to incorporate a national longbow championships into that shoot,
and the double York/Hereford would be a suitable challenge." He added that any moves on rankings would need to be proposed to the Target Committee.
Tim Swane, Chairman of Coaching, said most coaching courses introduced longbow but the technique was generallythe same as for shooting any other bow, so most of the basic technique was covered under recurve.
"Longbows have to have a higher draw weight than a recurve bow to get the same distance. The higher draw weight makes it harder for people to both hold the bow at full draw and aim it," he said. "It does not do a longbow much good to be held at full draw for too long but the same shooting principles apply. The better longbow archers generally shoot lighter poundage but well made bows and spend a lot of time tuning their arrows.
"It is almost impossible to coach technique changes on a normal weight longbow so, as a coach, the first thing I usually do when asked to coach a longbow archer is put them on a
lightweight recurve bow to work on their technique. Otherwise they would have to spend significant sums of money on a new lightweight longbow they are not going to use much.
"Are there enough to cope with demand? I do not know because I have no idea of the demand. Generally we do not have enough coaches to cope with demand for coaching so I would probably guess no.
"We have plans to train more general coaches but we do not have any plans to produce a longbow-only coaching course. My advice to any longbow archer looking for a coach who is good with longbows is to ask around their local area for recommendations. Usually a coach who shoots a longbow is likely to be a better longbow coach than one who does not -
but this is not always the case."
It is not usual for longbowmen to be shooting before a crowd of avid onlookers.
It is more usual for them to be tucked out of the way at the end of the shooting line or if shooting the traditional two ways to be shooting on a deserted school playing field.
Not so for the St George Longbow Tournament. It has been part of Morley's St George's Day celebrations for seven years and visitors to the wider celebrations quickly found themselves drawn in as spectators.
Celebrations of England's national day last for a weekend in the West Yorkshire market town and the longbow tournament for the Royal Armouries' Arrow, organised by the Bowmen of Adel, has become an integral part of the event.
The idea of setting up the national tournament came from Lou Radcliffe, who also convinced the Royal Armouries in Leeds to provide the trophy. It was first presented in 2005.
The Bowmen of Adel then invited other clubs and individuals to give trophies or subscribe as individual foundation members so it could strike a special medal for the competition based on the design of the medal of the Leeds Archers Society.
The nine best archers on the day are invited to take part in a shoot-off for the Arrow. They shoot three arrows at a wand - which looks like a barbers' pole - three at a 3D pig and three at an effigy of a knight behind an arrow slit in a castle wall.
This year it was won by Lewis Mitchell and presented by the Lord Paramount, the 2008 winner of the Arrow, Geoff Walker. The traditional longbow two-way Western, which underpins the contest for the golden arrow was won on hits - ladies: Jane Motson, men: Colin Hope (with only one miss) and juniors: Toby Johnson.
It was also great to see so many traditionally dressed archers taking part. Several of these found the temperatures too hot and had to dispense with steel helmets and heavy cloaks - the award for best dressed went to Jane Motson. The list of prize winners may be found on www.bowmenofadel.org.uk
