[4] All Men under the Age of sixty Years "shall have Bows and Arrows for shooting".

Archery, which had been the key to Henry V's victory at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, had been required of the labourers, servants, artificers, or victuallers as early as 1388 (12 Ric.

[5] In fact, the law of 1409 had as punishment six days' imprisonment; and reference is made herein to an act in the Parliament at Canterbury of Richard the Lionheart.

The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 repealed Sections 11 to 13, part of Section 8, and the preambulatory words "by reason therof Archerie ys sore decayed, and dayly is lyke to be more mynished..."[6] Archery could not compete with the nefarious pursuits of cricket, dicing, and carding.

[8][9][10] The Act forbade all sport on Christmas Day with the exception of archery practice, meaning that footballers who played on Christmas Day before 1960, when the Football League routinely scheduled fixtures for 25 December, had technically broken the law.