During middle ages, archery became the lowliest form of warfare. Due to the cheapness of making a bow and arrow, Archers were usually the lowest paid soldiers and most of them belonged to the peasant class. The higher classes viewed the bow and arrow as being insufficient, or to use only for entertainment.

However, the Vikings used archery as their main weapon which gained them large success. By the time of the 100 years war, the English had learned how to use archers to their advantage, rather than using swords men, who could not fight from a distance.

By this time archers were recruited and trained as children until and throughout their adulthood. Every boy that was recruited was given a bow that was as high as he was, and expected to learn on it. During battle, archers were to shoot two arrows, one from a higher route and one from a lower route, in order to hit the enemy at two different angles, which made it difficult for the enemy to defend themselves.

Later on, the cross bow became popular and was used in battles. Cross bow had the same distance and power as a bow and arrow. The only drawback to using crossbows was that they took a long time to load and reload.

Once firearms were invented, the arrow became less and less popular until it became obsolete. Today, the use of a bow and arrow is no longer used for hunting or warfare, but is commonly used as sport.

Sports Fishing:

Sports fishing is big game fishing which can be an expensive hobby, if you think of buying your own boat that has to be fairly a large one. The boat must remain stable while you fight with fish that can weigh as much as 500kg. Some use a charter service where the boat and equipment are hired. This has the advantage of an experienced captain at hand.

The most common fish caught are marlin, tuna, tarpon, sailfish, shark and mackerel. Fishing is mainly carried out in open sea. The hook line rod and reel is used to catch the fish. Many of the fish caught are eaten, but some are weighed, photographed and preserved as trophies. Some sport fisherman after catching fish, record vital statistics and fit them with identity tags and release them – this system is known as tag and release.

Fly Fishing:

The idea is to catch fish with manmade flies which are cast with a specially designed rod and fly line. The flies are made in different sizes, colours and patterns to replicate the natural food of the fish you are trying to catch.

There are various casting techniques, ie., dry fly fishing, where the fly is kept on the surface, and wet-fly fishing where the fly is below the surface.

Coarse Fishing:

Coarse fishing is purely for pleasure. However, there are angling matches where anglers gather at a venue to catch as many fish as possible in allotted time.

Coarse fishing targets include carp, pike, perch, ream, rudd, tench. There are two basic techniques – float fishing where the bait is suspended under a float and legering, where the bait is held on the river bed or lake bottom by a weight.

In Coarse fishing there is also specimen hunting where fishermen wait for days targeting a particular species to weigh and photographed.

This year’s Glucofit Cricket Sixes tournament, starting on October 16, gives schoolboys from the once war-torn North and East the opportunity to rub shoulders with Colombo’s elite. This is further evidence on how much this tournament has gained popularity over the years. Six combined school sides will feature players from lesser known schools and districts like Jaffna, Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya, Polonnaruwa, Bandarawela, Moneragala, Ampara and Hambantota.

Another new concept is the Free Hit off a no-ball and also an arts competition where students of Wesley College will figure in the Glucofit Cricart. This competition will be extended to all schools around the country from next year.

The organisers will make use of the occasion to declare open on the final day of the tournament the newly re-laid turf pitches at Campbell Park which was supervised by Sri Lanka Cricket. The winners will receive the Munchee Glucofit Champions Trophy and the runner-up the Old Wesleyites SC trophy.

There are individuals awards for Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Best Fielder, Highest Number of Sixes, Man of the Tournament, Man of the Final, and Best Outstation Team. Another new trophy is for the Well Disciplined Team on and off the field.

Wesley’s oldest living cricket captain who resides in Sri Lanka, Edmund Dissanayake, will be the chief guest. Dissanayake, who captained Wesley in 1946 is 86 years old and is one of four cricketers from the Hambantota district to have led the schools at cricket. The others were TI Cassim (1944), Mahendra Dissanayake (1984) and Danesh Dissanayake (1989).

From – www.cricinfo.com ]]> http://www.outdoor-sports-guide.com/camping/golden-opportunity-for-schoolboys/feed/ 0 http://www.outdoor-sports-guide.com/fishing/sport-fishing/ http://www.outdoor-sports-guide.com/fishing/sport-fishing/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:18:21 +0000 admin http://www.outdoor-sports-guide.com/?p=9 Sports fishing which includes big game fishing is an expensive hobby if you were thinking of buying your own boat. The boats must be fairly large as they must remain stable while the fisherman is fighting fish that can weigh as much as 500kg. Most people therefore use a charter service where the boat and equipment are hired. This also has the advantage of the experience and expertise of the captain at hand

The most common fish caught are marlin, tuna, tarpon, sailfish, shark and mackerel. The big game fishing is mainly carried out in open sea off the coasts of Florida,. California, Hawaii, Eastern Australia, Caribbean, Mexico as well as off South America

Fish are caught using hook line rod and reel. The main purpose for fishing is the challenge of finding and catching the fish. Obviously many of the fish caught are eaten although some are just weighed, photographed and maybe preserved as trophies. However there are now sport fisherman who having caught the fish, record vital statistics and fit them with identity tags and release them – a system known as tag and release