On a bright Easter Monday, Sway Bowmen held their second Red King shoot.
43 archers from across the South attended to shoot a two-way Western. This meant they shot 4 dozen arrows at 60 yards, and a further 4 dozen at 50 yards. The ‘two-way’ part is unusual because archers shot 3 arrows from one end of the field and 3 back again.
This shoot is primarily for long bows with other bow types graciously allowed to join the fun. This year the event attracted 14 longbows and their medals were awarded according to British Longbow Society rules, that is: Gold to the archer with most hits (scoring arrows of any denomination), Silver to the best score and Bronze to the most golds (bulls-eyes). Archers of other bow types were awarded on score as usual.
Last year’s winner, Brendan Reese, acted as ‘Lord Patron’. In the past this was the equivalent of a sponsor, someone who supplied a number of archers to the local Lord and saw that there was fair play. Brendan took his role seriously, dressing as the Red King (William Rufus), which turned out to give an interesting photo opportunity when he won again and had to be awarded his trophy by the Tournament Officer, Jem Mason (on the right of the picture), also dressed as the Red King! Jem joked that he wasn’t going to challenge Brendan for the crown as ‘Brendan is a bigger than me’.
