Slingshots, solidarity and the Federation

It’s a gorgeous sunny Friday afternoon in August as we pull into the farm in Gloucestershire where the England Slingshot Federation meet-up and shoot will take place the next day. We follow the signs down a dusty track that leads to the camp site and park up, and Dan, our cameraman, gets his kit sorted and we go to find the organisers.

“The weather will make a big difference with it being sunny,” says Asa Wilson, a Federation committee member and co-founder who, along with Keith Dighton, set up the Federation over five years ago. “A lot will turn up on the Saturday morning as well. It'll be nice to get a 60 or 70 shooting, there's been a lot more shoots over the last three or four years, but this is the one to be at.”

The campsite is already filling up and many of the early arrivals will have knocked off work early to drive to the shoot. Some tents are already pitched, and some are still going up, including a massive bell tent that quickly falls down again to roars of laughter, beers are opened, fires are being lit, kettles are being boiled, and permeating all of this is as a the unmistakable sound of slingshots being repeatedly fired; the thwack of elastic followed by - if the shooter hits – the ‘ting’ of a steel ball-bearing smacking into a tin target. This sound will probably go on until the sun sets, as friends meet up and try their luck – and their skill - at various makeshift ranges set up among the vans, pickup trucks, cars and tents.

Alongside the love of slingshot shooting, integration also permeates everything the ESF strives to do. Although the Federation was founded by two Romany men, it has always been open to anyone and everyone who wants to shoot a slingshot.

“It doesn't make a difference what breed, seed, generation or creed you're from,” says Federation committee member Mark Miller. “You're here for the same thing. Initially, to have a good time camping, and then shooting in a competition and potentially maybe even win some silverware - and if you don't, you’ve still had a good time.”

Over at another camp we find Team Grizzly, who are sat outside their tents in a circle, no doubt looking forward to the evening dinner of “lamb, steak, gammon” cooked on the open fire. Team Grizzly have driven down from Wales.

“We're just going to enjoy ourselves,” says Andy Maund. “There’s plenty of food, plenty of drink, plenty of laughs and like-minded people all in one field. What more could you ask for? That's what life's all about.”

“It’s not all about the trophies, it’s about having fun and taking part,” adds Terence Hogan. “And to spend the time with great people, especially all the Travelling lads and that's why I really love coming to these shoots.”

The competition next day is a hunter’s course. Entry costs thirty quid and that includes camping for the weekend. Thirty five targets have been set up in woodlands surrounding a lake. The targets can be as small as a fifty pence piece and are set at ranges of up to seventy metres from the shooting marks – although a lot are much nearer and the standard indoor range shooting distance is usually twenty metres.

The rules are simple and the competitors form into fours and, along with an umpire and scorer, take around half an hour to move around the course and shoot at the targets. If you hit the target first time, its three points, hitting on the second attempt is two points, and failing to hit on the final third attempt gets you nil points. The course has a possible total score of 105 - which means hitting each of the 35 targets first time. The eventual winner in the 'Pro Category' is John Jeffries who gets 81 points. That's a lot of first shot tings.

“The course was outstanding last year,” says Andy Maund. “The quality of shooting is next level. The best in the country is here. So, to win anything, you really have got to be on your A game.”

Yet the course, with its different types of shots – some hard and some not so hard – is also fun, and beginners are always welcome at the England Slingshot Federation shoots.

Lee is here with his son Toby for their first ever competitive shoot. They first came across slingshot shooting on social media, and then brought a couple of basic frames online and have been practising together in their garden for a couple of months.

“Me and Toby were looking on Tik Tok and You Tube, and we came across some of the lads and we thought we would give it a go,” says Lee, adding that they then went on to Facebook and came across the England Slingshot Federation.

“We have never met (Asa and Keith) before, but they have been so helpful, and they are real genuine people.”

“The community is fantastic,” says Federation co-founder and committee member Keith Dighton. “You get people who come for the first time, and then they come again the next year. Five years down the line - you are forming friendships.”

“For integration, I think it’s fantastic, especially with the younger generation coming through,” says Asa Wilson.

“They say the stigma isn’t as bad as it used to be, but racism is still a major thing. Stigma, in certain situations, is as bad as it’s ever been. So, if we can do this small thing - and it’s a small thing in the grand scheme of things – but if we can bring young children together and you got young kids that aren’t from the Traveller community growing up with a different belief about Travellers when they have met young Travelling boys - surely that’s a good thing in the long run?”

As I wander around the camp as smoke starts to rise from various fires, I can count three Romani flags flying above the tents in the campsite. I approach one of the camps with a flag and mention to a man busy cooking a big stir fry in a pan on a fire that it’s good to see the flag flying from above his camp.

He tells me that the Federation shoots and Traveller-led things like it are the only place he can show it.

“If I put our flag up in a holiday campsite or caravan site and they worked out what it stood for they would throw us off,” he says.

He then tells me about one of his boys who he has had to take out of school and home educate. He adds that they have the support of their local council Traveller Education teacher in Cornwall and have all the education packs online to help them, adding that in the schools local to him there aren’t many Traveller children.

“In all his time at primary school – my boy never once got invited to another child’s birthday party or to go round to play at another boys house after school,” he tells me.

Before we leave for the evening, I borrow and try out a slingshot myself. The frame is a special miniature one called a pickle fork, and it feels tiny in my hand as I’m shown how to hold it using the ends of my fingers – which is harder than it looks because it doesn’t really have much of a handle to grip. It’s called a pickle fork because of its size and because the prongs at the top are very close together – in fact so close that the ball bearing won’t fit through them and instead the shooter shoots the ball above them rather than between them.

Gripping the ball bearing in its little pouch with my finger and thumb and holding my arm out at full length, I pull back the elastic, so the ball is just below my eye. My fingers start to shake with the effort of holding the pickle fork still. It’s not that the pull of the elastic is that strong – it’s that the tiny frame is so damn fiddly. I worry that the first thing I am going to hit is my face with the frame as I fumble it when I shoot. This isn’t going to be easy and the thought of hitting a fifty pence piece 20 metres away seems mind-blowingly impossible. It does feel good however, with the elastic at full length and the ball bearing under tension and ready to fly when my brain sends a signal to my fingers to release, but maybe I should practice with something easier first - like a more conventional frame and a barn door.

I am hooked though - and I fancy my chances.

By Mike Doherty for the Travellers’ Times

(All photographs and video by Dan Haworth-Salter for the Travellers’ Times)

If you want to find out more about how to take part visit the England Slingshot Federation Facebook page.

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