Antient Scorton Silver Arrow: Swear bag, drinking while competing, the quirky rules of one of Yorkshire's oldest sporting fixtures in 350th year

The Antient Scorton Silver Arrow, held annually since 1673, apart from major wars, is open only to men over 21 shooting with a longbow or modern recurve bow - the type used in the Olympics.

The winner is the first to hit the three inch centre black spot at 100 yards. He becomes the 'Captain of the Arrow' and is responsible for arranging the next year’s meeting with the help of a Lieutenant - the first man to hit the red.

By happy coincidence the honours fell last year to Clive Roebuck and Ian Marr, both from St George's Archery Club in Harrogate - which this year celebrates its 55th anniversary. The hugely popular club based in Allerton Park has 140 members ranging from the age of eight to 79-year-old treasurer Geoff Oliver.

Geoff will be competing at the event on May 20, which has a number of quirky rules, including being able to have a drink while competing – he remembers one year a chap from Barnsley being “flat on his back” in the middle of the afternoon. But there’s a fine of up to a pound which goes into a swear bag for any “unseemly” behaviour, such as swearing.

The event was originally staged in Scorton, North Yorkshire, to try and maintain archery skills which had been in decline since the end of the English Civil War.

Geoff said: "One of the rules is that whoever wins it, it doesn't matter where they come from, must stage it in Yorkshire. An archer from Nottingham won it a few years back but it had to be staged in Yorkshire.” There is a cash prize but that invariably gets given to charity.

Archers also mark their own score card in a test of their honesty, reporting in to scorers in two tents on the field. "You go out and shoot in the morning, then come down and have a sit down lunch at which you are expected to wear a blazer and tie or cravat. Then you go back and shoot in the afternoon.

"There are more longbow archers than recurve simply because of tradition - it has such character.

"Compound archers (created by Americans for hunting) are regarded as having gone to the dark side.

"It's a major feather in Clive's cap to win the Scorton Arrow. It's something any archer would want to achieve. To have both Captain and Lieutenant from the same club we think that's unique."

May will be a busy month for the club which will again be offering people the chance to try firing arrows into a traditional straw target at the Northern Shooting Show.

Held on May 6 and 7 at the Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate, it attracts some 20,000 visitors looking to try out anything from shotguns, through bushcraft to metal target shooting with rifles. Last year demand for have-a-go archery experiences was non-stop and a record 400 people took part.