Archery

A film showing a field archery club during a shoot, featuring an interview with one of the club's members.

In a woodland clearing, four archers stood next to orange stakes in the ground raise and draw their bows in unison. A number of archers are shown shooting arrows from mechanically-assisted compound bows at black and white targets secured to hay bales. A teenage boy with blonde hair is shown shooting at a similar target using a more traditional recurve bow, with no mechanical assistance. An older lady with brown curly hair and glasses is shown drawing an arrow from a belt mounted quiver and nocking it to her compound bow, before shooting at the target downrange. In an interview the archer says that her intention is to keep shooting and enjoying it, and will go to the world championships in Scotland the following year if she is able. The interviewer asks how long she feels she can actively compete in the sport, and the woman replies that she has a very active 98-year old mother so hopefully should be going for some time yet.

Keywords

Archery; Sport

Background Information

"Field archery involves shooting at targets of varying and often unmarked distance, typically in woodland and rough terrain. As well as being a sport in its own right, it can be used to improve the techniques and abilities required for bowhunting in a realistic outdoor setting. Archers sometimes refer to the additional skills required to deal with challenging terrain and lighting as “fieldcraft”.[1] Events are usually conducted according to the rules of either the International Field Archery Association (IFAA)[2] or the World Archery Federation (WA). Others may be held under the rules of national organisations such as the UK's National Field Archery Society (NFAS) and the National Field Archery Association (NFAA) in the USA." - Wikipedia The woman interviewed in the film may be Dorothy "Dot" Southgate, who co-founded the Kings Forest Bowmen archery club in Suffolk in 1979. If so, it is likely that the club featured in the film is the Kings Forest Bowmen and the film was shot in the Kings Forest between Thetford and Bury St Edmunds. Southgate was the 1977 World Ladies Barebow Champion. Barebow shooting is a term used to describe a form of archery which doesn't use any form of sight attachment on the bow, with archers aiming purely by eye. The interviewee references the world championships being held in Scotland "next year". The International Field Archery Association (IFAA) World Field Archery Championships were held at Blair Athol in Scotland in 1986.