[Ansteorra-archery] the future??
Eadric Anstapa
eadric at scabrewer.com
Fri Jul 1 13:50:16 PDT 2005
When to go to an event and compete in an archery tournament you always
do your and and shoot your best. However, I think that sometimes doing
your best can mean deciding not to shoot anymore and stepping aside so
that an archer who can better serve as champion will be proclaimed champion.
It does a noble no good to have the best archer in the world as his
champion if that champion can not or will not fullfil the duties of the
office. When a person shoots and wins a championship tournament and is
never seen again, or poorly fullfills the duties of the office it hurts
us all.
When you travel to a championship tournament you should expect that if
you win there will be certain obligations that you will be honor bound
to fulfill. Those obligations vary from one group to another. If the
demands that will be placed on the champion have not been spelled out in
advance and you think that there is a chance that you will not be able
to meet those demands then call or email someone and ask. Every Kingdom
Calendar event must have an event announcement and that event
announcement must have contact information provided. Before you leave
home you have the opportunity to contact the event sponsors and ask what
demands they place on their champions.
Lord Alden mentioned earlier that while he currently holds a a title
from the Loch he would in December like to seek a similar title from
Stargate and that he intends to in advance consult with the nobles from
each group to make sure that is acceptable to them. I applaud Alden for
his approach and foresight.
I think the Carolingian approach of requiring that the champion be a
Carolingian to be a bit odd. However it is their tournament and they
have made these requirements so well and widely known that we are even
talking about it here in Ansteorra so I dont see big a problem. Arthur,
dont waste your gas money and time driving to Carolingia cause they wont
allow you to be champion.
The barons request that that his champion not have divided loyalties,
that they try their best to attend the Carolingian events, and all the
rest are I think perfectly acceptable requirements and a perfectly
acceptable set of duties for a Baronial Champion with one exception.
Moreover I think they should be a pretty NORMAL set of expected duties
for a champion and exactly what I expect with the one exception.
A few weeks ago Fergus d'Onray and I were discussing what Gate's Edge
required of our Champions and I basically said, attend our events if
you can, represent Gates Edge well and make sure that you bring us no
dishonor, display our banner with pride wherever you go, when Gates Edge
needs a champion to shoot for us in other competitions stand ready to do
so, shoot or fight with our shire and not against us, come back next
year and help to test the people seeking to replace you and defend the
title as best you can. Is any of that abnormal?
We dont ask that our champions organize, run, and provide for our
tournament for the next year because we think that is wrong. The
champion may not have archery range equipment, may not be a marshal, and
shouldn't be asked to cough up prizes out of his own pocket for next
years tournament. We sorta feel that if as a branch we can not
internally support and host a good championship tournament then we have
no business holding one in the first place.
I think archers and archery will get more respect if the community takes
these things more seriously. Look how seriously the Rapier Community
takes their responsibility to the Queen and Princess. To have the Queen
at an event without her Champion nearby or a Don standing in in nearly
unthinkable. I assure you that there a plenty of rapier fighters who
have not won queens champion or other championship tournaments, not
because they could not have won on that day, but simply because they did
not think they could serve as needed.
To have a our Princess at an event without a Cadet there to serve her is
becoming equally unthinkable. These cadets serving the princess have
not won any tournament that obligated them to such service, they simply
but on a red scarf and with that action obligated themselves to doing
what is necessary to make the rapier community stronger.
Look how seriously the typical rapier fighter takes his/her
responsibility as a champion and how seriously the leaders in the rapier
community take their service to noble ladies of this kingdom. Please
consider that is a large reason why the Queen and Noble ladies of this
Kingdom pay such attention to those people and why that community gets
the respect that it does.
I think we can all help the archery community of we make sure that when
we hold Baronial Championships we make sure that the Nobles know that
they can count on their champions. Moreover I think the champions need
to be there helping even if unbidden.
We can have lots of tournaments that are not championship tournaments.
These can be held before or after the champion tournaments at events, at
events where champion tournaments are not being held, at local fighter
practices, etc. Just get out and do it.
Yes nobles and branches may need to pay more attention to their archery
championships. But if their archery champions aren't going to be
meaningful for them then why should they? WE can make the office of
archery champion meaningful by our exemplary actions as champions.
Some branches do a good job with their champions. The nobles spend time
at the archery range, they make sure that at ANY event the B&B attend
that their champions have their hospitality, shade, water, and lunch.
The make sure that the champion has nice regalia and good keeper prizes
as payment for their service as champion. They make sure that they keep
published their lists of champions and that they send them a
complementary subscription to the branch newsletter and they waive site
or feast fees for their champions at local events when possible. None
of these are unheard of or even uncommon in some areas of the kingdom.
Encourage your branch to do as much of same as makes sense locally.
In short I think that having a strong set of of requirements and
responsibilities for a Champion is a good thing because it shows that
the group takes pride in those positions and pays attention to them.
Always in Service,
--
HL Eadric Anstapa
DSEM CA
/eadric at scabrewer.com/ <mailto:eadric at scabrewer.com>
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