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Thursday, 15 November 2012

The Archers


The Bingley St Ives estate is the home of Aire Valley Archers. It's a large club with over 130 members, ranging from beginners to very experienced archers. They shoot at targets using a variety of different bows. I didn't know anything about archery until I read the info on their clubhouse and on their website. As so often with these kinds of activities, it is all more complex and interesting than it might at first appear.

Image from web
It seems there are three different types of bow: traditional wooden longbows (like Robin Hood might have used) that shoot wooden arrows with feather 'flights'; compound bows that are shorter, have a complex pulley system and are more accurate; and recurve bows, which are the ones they use in the Olympics (and which seem to be what the guys in my photo have, as far as I can tell). You can only glimpse an arrow flying on one of the photos I took - they go so fast you really can't see them!

14 comments:

  1. I wouldn't want to get in the way of one of those arrows!!

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  2. Thanks jennyfreckles. Now I've got the theme tune running around in my head!

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  3. Modern day Robin Hoods, like your line up there Jenny.

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  4. I like to see them , the gesture of an archer is beautiful.

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  5. I wonder how many targets that they had set up for them. It must have been multiple arrows per target. It is a pretty fall day there.

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  6. I was expecting to see a picture of the cast from "The Archers"!

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  7. Cool to watch these Robin Hoods!

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  8. very cool pictures...would be fun to watch!

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  9. I love the autumn colours in your pic. I used to belong to an archery club when I lived in New Guinea years ago before they had invented the high tech bows and arrows. I found it a lot of fun but often ended up with a bruised arm where the string flings back along it sometimes. I can see the second guy in the line has an arm protector strapped over his jacket.

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  10. I had a bow and arrow when I was a child but haven't even seen one in many, many years. This looks interesting.

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  11. Our oldest daughter just took up this sport to have something to share with her son as he gets older. I am so intrigued and can't wait to get pictures of her during our next visit. Thanks for posting!

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