[English Bowman]

Not strictly speaking archery, but close enough, I would like to nominate the man who shall be known
as "commentator" as he commentates when we do our archery displays.

We were doing mediaeval archery displays at The Royal Armouries, Fort Nelson.
For the last show of the day we decided to team up with "Ye Kynges Ordynaunce" to do a joint show. They use mediaeval gunpowder weapons. We also had the catapult from the film Gladiator to shoot as a finali.

We set up a rolling barrage. Our crossbowman was to start, as soon as he shot, the next archer in the line was to shoot, and so on, through to the guns and cannon then the catapult was to be shot by commentator to finish the day. Good plan.

The show starts in front of about 1500 people, and all goes well, the rolling barage went without a hitch, until we got to the catapult. Commentator pulled the chord to loose the catapult, and nothing happened. He pulled harder, still nothing. He put all his wieght against the chord, it snapped and he fell onto his back. He got up, looped a double thickness of chord through the release mechanism, and pulled again, still nothing. Royal Armouries staff came to investigate, and found that he'd left the safety pin in.

If you're going to mess up, do it in style in front of 1500 people.