history3

The bow was retained as a hunting weapon, and archery continued to be practiced as a sport in England by both royalty and the general public. The earliest English archery societies dated from the 16th and 17th centuries. The oldest continuously held archery tournament still extant, known as the Ancient Scorton Arrow, was founded in Yorkshire in 1673; and about 1790 the Royal Toxophilite (Greek toxon, “bow”; philos, “loving”) Society was formed to advance the sport. The prince of Wales, afterward George IV, became the patron of this Society and set the prince's lengths of 100 yards (91 m), 80 yards (73 m), and 60 yards (55 m); these distances are still used in the British men's championship York Round (six dozen, four dozen, and two dozen arrows shot at each of the three distances).

These recreational activities with the bow evolved into the modern sport of archery. In 1844 the first of the Grand National Archery Meetings--the British championships--was held at York, and the Grand National Archery Society became the governing body of the sport in the United Kingdom. International rules were standardized in 1931 with the founding of the Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc (FITA; Federation of International Target Archery) in Paris.

Archery events for men were held in the Olympic Games in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1920 and for women in 1904 and 1908. They were then suspended until the 1972 Games, when they were reintroduced for both men and women and continued thereafter. The tradition will be continued in 2000 in Sydney. World championship matches have been held biennially from 1931 (except during World War II), when FITA, the international governing body of the sport, was organized. FITA events (including Olympic Games from 1972) are shot at metric distances, and from 1957 to 1985 in double FITA rounds. In 1985, to improve archery as a spectator sport, a new championship round known as the grand FITA round, with single-elimination matches, was adopted. The grand FITA round first appeared in the Olympic Games in 1988, when team competition was introduced to the program. The 1992 Olympic Games saw the debut of the FITA Olympic round, a championship round of single-elimination, head-to-head matches.

Archery competition is divided into various categories, such as target, field, and flight shooting. The main events of a target-shooting tournament are called rounds, and the number of arrows shot and the range of distance are specified. In U.S. tournaments, target faces are made of paper and pinned to straw mats. The target is circular and has a series of concentric rings around a solid center, or bull's-eye. The center of the bull's-eye is suspended 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) above the ground. Ranging outward from the bull's-eye, the colors of the rings are gold, red, blue, black, and white. The rings are assigned point values for arrows shot into them; from gold to white, the values range from 10 (in the center of the gold) to 1 (in the outer part of the white ring).

Field shooting simulates hunting game, with small targets placed in natural surroundings at various distances.

In flight shooting the object is the distance traversed by the arrow rather than the accuracy of the shot.

Although archery has changed a lot over the centuries, without it history might have turned out much differently. Bows and arrows saved many people's lives, and even do today. As a means of hunting animals for food, as a defensive or conquering weapon, or as an instrument in competition, the bow and arrow has impacted the world. Physically, the structure of archery has developed, the circumstances for which archers use their bow and arrow has changed drastically, and the way in which warfare utilized archery has nearly come to an end. Archery has etched and will continue to etch an imprint on the world's mind—even if only in history, legends, and stories.

Here is a link to an interesting page; although aimed squarely at the pagans amongst us.

http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/archer.htm

Some of the information on these pages has been taken from;

And other bits from wherever I could get them !