I dabble with archery in my back garden. Or I did, until a few years ago when a single stray arrow missed my well enclosed target by such a ludicrous distance as to have rendered all my protective measures entirely redundant. It hurtled enthusiastically over the fence and embedded itself into next doors shed, setting off what was to become a fairly long-standing 'danger to society' tirade.
Compliantly I busied myself with other hobbies for a while, and was happy enough to do so until Skybow popped up in my Groupon deals one sunny afternoon. It promised an afternoon of archery culminating with a couple of pops at a moving target (a foam one, of course. I do not subscribe to or condone hunting)
Situated in the Darenth area of rural Dartford, Firefly archery is but a short hop, skip and jump away from me. It is tucked away behind a couple of country lanes and if you are following a sat nav, the postcode alone will leave you stranded in an entirely unrelated carpark opposite a church. But once there you are greeted with a decent sized (though full) car park and a well catered food van before the event starts.
Bang on time we (myself and my current Go-To drinking buddy) along with nine others were marched en-mass round the corner to field overlooking a spectacular horizon of more greenery than I knew my local area to have. More importantly, there were archery targets a reassuringly achievable 20ft away. The plastic generic recurve bows set out before us were unsurprisingly easy to pull back, with practically no poundage behind them at all - the whole experience is geared towards those with no archery experience whatsoever, and though the amiable instructors guidance was clear and readily abundant, there appeared to be no real expectation from us to actually hit anything.
A good thing too. Most of us didn't. I aimed low. My comrade in arms aimed high. Some bird to my left practically aimed at 'me'. It was a stunning array of arrows flying in all directions but forward. The instructor discretely moved himself more behind us than beside us, and I still did not suspect him to be any safer.
Nonetheless, we each had four turns with six arrows at a stationary target, and we all improved in that short time. Not so much as to be ready though, when it was time to lay down our bows and move further down the field where a foam-disc filled trap awaited us beside a new batch of recurve bows. I struggled mostly with the fact none of the bows appeared to have an arrow rest so much as a 'ledge' upon which the arrow was to balance. I had a devil of a time keeping the bugger on it while I aligned my shot.
We were split into two teams of five and six, and had three turns each at shooting three arrows at the flying foam disc. We were instructed to follow the discs progress from the trap and to shot just as it began to make it's descent. In hindsight I am fairly certain I did none of these things, and was apparently in good company. Ultimately, only one of us hit it. It wasn't me.
It was perhaps a 30-45 minute affair for £25 for two people with the deal. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, but not a full way. We pootled thereafter to the pub for lunch where we bunced up the day with pints and backgammon and I would heartily encourage anyone to do the same.
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