Boston Laval week 2011.
Boston has a twin-town in northern France called Laval. The twinning was started in 1958 and visits take place on a bi-annual basis, turn and turn about.
The archery link started in 1961 between Pilgrim Bowmen of Boston and Les Chevaliers de St. Georges, Laval and has continued ever since.
The Pilgrims have recently returned from there foray into France and this time, unusually, they won! I say unusually, because it is normal for the home team to have an advantage. The visitors are normally tired from travel and late nights and too much gorgeous food to say nothing of the wine!
When in France, we usually shoot a short metric but if there is a hint of rain Our French friends prefer to shoot indoors. This happened this year although the weather forecast was wrong! Another reason is, however, that a number of them only shoot during the twinning week and they were fearful of shooting at 50metres with no practice. Nevertheless, their indoor facility is superb where you can shoot 30 metres comfortably. The drill is that you shoot 36 arrows in the morning, retire for a leisurely lunch and then return for the remaining 36 arrows followed by beer and then on to more food. Keeping check of your weight is a real problem
We had a total archery group of 19 people this time although of those only 7 were actual shooters, the remainder being friends and family. It is a fact that in the early days we shot about 4 or 5 times in the week whereas now it is only twice. Friendship is the key but the archery is the catalyst which helps bind it together.
Our French friends organised a day out for us at the Ile de Nantes where they make fabulous machines, e.g. a mechanical elephant upon which we all could ride. In fact, if you type into the search engine on your computer ‘Machines, Nantes’ you can see it all. The Laval organising committee also organised a day out to the Castle at Angers and ‘Terra Botanica’ which pushes the Eden Project way down the list of things to see!
One accepts that twinning is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ but it can certainly be recommended as the perfect way to learn about a country, its people and the language and yours truly is looking forward to receiving our friends next year and have certainly booked my place to return to France in two years time.
Lincolnshire County Championships 2011
Pilgrim Bowmen hosted the 2011 Lincolnshire County Championships on 12 June. The tournament was also a match against senior and junior teams from Norfolk.
There were 22 targets on the field ranging across all distances from York to Bristol V. The field party was supported with help from archers of other clubs, and much thanks is given for this.
The day started off sunny and mild but by the end of the first three dozen arrows it started to rain. The bad weather soon set in with an accompanying breeze and cooling temperatures and it rained consistently until well after the shoot ended.
All the juniors on the field were a credit to their clubs, and especially to their parents, as they persevered throughout the adverse conditions like the champions of tomorrow.
The judges for the day were Kay Petchell and Richard Custance, Gentleman Patron was Barry Molsom.
Pilgrim Bowmen would like to thank everyone who took part, especially those who had travelled from all areas of Norfolk for the county match.
For a full report click here.