33 Archery
The Milky Way, North Devon
Enjoyment - 50%
Success - 40%
Will try again - No
First timer’s recommendation – As first-time sports go it’s got to be one of the most straightforward to have a go at as you don’t need any specific clothing and can borrow the gear on the day. If you like your target sports then it’s worth a go, if you’re looking to get fit, try a Agincourt re-enactment instead.
It was mid-way through the Olympics and I had spent most of the week watching sport rather than playing any, and coupled with the fact that we were having work done on the house meant that I struggled to fit a sport in. A few months earlier we had tried archery whilst on a family holiday to North Devon, and it was mainly so Ena could have a try at emulating her favourite Disney character, Merida from Brave. She had a lot more fun than I did but it was still good to try out a real bow and arrow set and get a bit of coaching. My only previous experience with archery was in Tallinn, where we were killing time on the last day of a heavy stag do and ended up dressing up in medieval gear and loosing some arrows at some targets attached to straw bales.
This was in the centre of the city and it’s hard to imagine something similar going on in present-day London with the exception being the Olympics at the Woolwich Arsenal back in 2012. With the Rio Olympics increasing interest in minority sports, there has been a lot of discussion on which sports are still relevant today, with the announcement that surfing, skateboarding and climbing will be part of Tokyo 2020. Archery does seem like a sport from a bye-gone age, and its inclusion gives hope to jousting to one day join the games, but if I was in charge, it, and the dressage would make way for squash and maybe 20/20 cricket. I do stuggle a bit with sports where there is less a reliance on tactics and where what others do around can be almost irrelevant. In tenpin bowling, archery, shooting etc. if you can master a perfect game then you will win, simple as that , and there is also little if any room for flair, expression of individuality and also does modern archery even keep you fit? Maybe they should change it to archery on horseback, although I wouldn’t say any of this in South Korea.
