Finsbury Mark Roving Shoot

The weather was glorious but with a nippy wind. Surprisingly there was a low turn out of only 10 archers! However this had the benefit of making it easy to chat to everyone and very friendly and informal.
The roving format is shooting at flags at varied distances up hill, down dale, over trees and hedges. We mostly roamed between two fields over undulating grassland also used for point to point horse racing.
One shot was at long range at mannequin, which we also shot at 20 yards.
It was glorious to see arrows at full range drifting across a blue sky on the wind and dropping in around the target.
I went with three other members of our club and Mick the Blacksmith actually won the event. The bows were mostly longbows of varying weight, there was one lady competitor and the ranges could generally be reached by all. With some shots it was very difficult to judge the distance if you couldn't actually see your arrows land. Big fat arrows with clearly visible fletchings are an advantage in that respect, but of course they don't fly as far as slim ones with small fletchings.
I shot my Bamboo backed Oregon Yew longbow, it's one I rarely shoot as I tend to go for my selfbows. This had the advantage of shooting my standard 28" arrows or my heavy 3/8" 32" arrows which I'd brought along so I could try the Elm warbow.
At lunchtime I shot 3 from the Elm warbow, and two other guys had a go too. It threw an arrow with some authority 190 yards uphill into a headwind. My first shot was great, but my bow arm tried to collapse on the second, so I stopped that attempt and had another go. I was very pleased with how it shot and would have liked to see a measured shot on the flat.
Anyone who wants to try a something a little different should check out the FinsburyMark. A great advantage is they not affiliated to any organisation but insure each event on an individual basis. This allows archers who don't have a club or affiliation to have a go. They run shoots all over the country, do have a look at the website, they are a friendly bunch, and although roving isn't really my favourite it makes a great change, and a good day's shooting with plenty of exercise and good company.
Oh yes, and it was only £8 ! Where else can you get a day's entertainment for that?