WE had another good turnout for our meeting on Thursday, July 3 which is remarkable given that we meet weekly.

It was noticeable that some relatively newer members occupied the back row this week. However, they clearly lack the heckling and repartee of the usual stalwarts remarked Messrs Jones, Ind and Sparrow.

Our speaker was Ian Shapter OBE, a retired Royal Signals Brigadier of Cheltenham. His subject was the Archer and his Long bow. The long bow reached its lethal peak during the Hundred Years war against the French and was instrumental in the victory at Crecy when the English were outnumbered five to one by the French. The French used crossbows, which took longer to load and lacked the range. English, or rather mainly Welsh, archers trained for over 100 days a year, could have four arrows in the air simultaneously and could fire fifteen to twenty a minute.

Ian showed us the construction of the bow, made traditionally from yew with the white wood supplying the elasticity and the dark wood the ability to be compressed. He also described the arrows and the bow strings, and emphasised that archers carried the arrows in their belts and not in quivers.

We were surprised to learn that many everyday expressions nowadays originate from the language of archers. These include keeping it under your hat (ie the bow string), having two strings to your bow (ie a spare), rule of thumb (to get the tension right), whipping boys (to whip the flights) and cock up (meaning to keep the cock feathers up on the arrow). After a number of questions, Tony Davies thanked Ian on our behalf.

The Honourable Gentleman’s award this week goes to Ron Tarry, John Doyle and Dennis Wright for having the courtesy not to eat the last Jaffa cake.

On Thursday, July 10 John Mason will tell us about the last voyage of U234 followed on Thursday, July 17 by Lim Ho on Three Gorges, Panda and Buddha.

We meet every Thursday at 10am at Ecgwins Club in Evesham.

CHRIS DONOUGH