Queen's and King's Archery Championship May 30, 2015

Tournement winner and Queen's Champion: Master Li Kung Lo
King's Champion selected by His Majesty: Baroness Jehannine de Flandres

It was a hot and humid day in Carillion, as 55 archers took to the range to vie for the honor of serving Their Majesties as Royal Archery Champions. Queen Etheldreda gave Her encouragement to those gathered, Master Rupert the Unbalanced and Master Peter the Red (the retiring champions), and Captain General, Mistress Jehannine de Flandres provided instructions and thanked helpers, and the tournement commenced.

All participants could shoot the full course of 10 stations, each in keeping with the "Don Quixote" theme. The first shoot of the day was at a long distance "giant" (a windmill with moving blades), followed by a charging bull shoot (a traditional advancing soldier timed shoot, at 70 through 20 yards). After a break for lunch, shooting resumed, and the tests of skill included shooting the bars of a cage, killing scurvy sailors, slaughtering a wild boar, puncturing wine skins and flasks, herding sheep, and shooting through knot holes. Scores were then totaled and sorted. Captain General Jehannine reminded all present of the obligations and duties of serving as a Royal Champion, and as the top scorers were announced, each was asked if they wished to compete. Six finalists chose to step out of the competition:

Krakken Gnashbone (83)
Colin Ursell (78)
Phillip Reed the Facetious (73)
Radagast (59)
Kusunoki Yoshimoto (59)
Aaron the Arrowsmith (52)

The 16 finalists were addressed by King Omega and Queen Etheldreda . The overall winner of the competition would be the Queen's Champion (per usual), and the King said He would select His Champion from among the other finalists (as has been occasionally done in past years), then the shoot-offs between pairs of seeded competitors began. Each archer had to knock down six "books" from a shelf, and the first to shoot a final, center target would advance to the next round. Between rounds, the shooting line was moved, and several books were replaced by smaller ones. (It is worth noting that the "books" were such famous works as "Facing the Perils of Castle Anthrax" by Sir Galahad, "Distribution of Wealth in a Medieval Economy" by R. Hood, PhD, "How to be Very, Very, Quiet While Hunting" by Sir E. Fudd and other similarly lofty titles.) The final pairing was a hard-fought contest between Baroness Jehannine and Master Li; she was ahead by two targets, then he caught up and hit the final target a split second ahead.

Queen Etheldreda congratulated Her new Queen's Archery Champion, Master Li Kung Lo . Because of the excitingly close finish, King Omega selected Baroness Jehannine de Flandres as His King's Archery Champion.

For those who keep such statistics, the 16 finalists were evenly split between handbow and crossbow, and this year six of the final archers were women.

Here are the results:

	Top 16	Quarter-Finals	Semi-Finals	Finals
1	Alexandra Krakkensdottir (70)	Alexandra	Alexandra	Li	Winner
16	Alec Craig (43)	Miles	Jehannine	Jehannine	2nd
2	Mark Squirrelsbane (67)	Mark	Alexander
15	Tomaloc (47)	Li	Li
3	Nathaniel Wyatt (65)	Wyatt
14	Ygraine of Kellswood (48)	Alexander
4	Jehannine de Flandres (63)	Godric
13	Treya min Teanga (59)	Jehannine
5	Godric of Hamtun (62)
12	Siobhan Inghean Cormaic (50)
6	Alexander von Heisler (62)
11	Tamsin Whitlocke (53)
7	Li Kung Lo (59)
10	Otto Gottlieb (54)
8	Miles Boweman (57)
9	Conor O'Ceallaigh (55)

1. King Omega, Peter and Jehannine in front of the first two shoots.
2. Archers on the line for the long-distance "windmill" shoot.
3. Archers on the line for the charging bulls shoot.
4. The finalist pairings chart.
5. The target for the finals.
6. Mark vs Li in a quarter-final round, observed by Krakken, Rupert, King Omega and Godric.
7. Final pair: Jehannine vs Li.

Photos 1, 2, 3 & 6 by Baroness Arlyana van Wyck.
Photos 4, 5 & 7 by Baroness Ygraine of Kellswood.
(Click on thumbnails to see larger versions.)