Fifteen Club Members turned up on Sunday to enjoy a mixture of sunshine and banter, with a little archery on the side. Conditions were glorious at Greeba and no doubt contributed to the record breaking scores that two of the archers achieved. The round of the day was a WA 1440 – three dozen arrows shot at each of four distances (90/70/50/30m for the Gents, 70/60/50/30m for the Ladies), with juniors shooting distances appropriate to their age.
While the weather was an aid to shooting, the horseflies were not. Several archers were bitten and Danny Cowin’s hand became badly swollen as a result. This may have had an impact on his shooting as his performance was well below par in his usual face off against Dave Berry. For once Danny found himself trailing after the first distance notching up two misses to Dave’s one. Normal service was resumed as Danny carved out a decent lead at the 70m distance. Berry clawed some back at 50m but Cowin outshot him again at 30m to take the win in the Gents Recurve division.
In the Ladies Recurve Jane Berry had a poor 70m which effectively ended her chances but the shoot was not all bad news for her. She outshot Barbara Harris at 60m and broke the 300 barrier for the 30m distance for the first time. In response Barbara shot a tidy, if unremarkable round, to record her second highest score of the season to take first place.
Dave Moore found himself unopposed in the Gents Compound division as son Rhys caught up on some, much needed, sleep. Veteran Club members Pete Mumford and Billy Lightfoot contented themselves with a Metric I, known derogatively in the Club as a ‘girly Fita’ since it is shot over the same distances as the women use. Mr Lightfoot was clearly getting in touch with his feminine side if his pretty lunch bag and pink food flask and hand towel were anything to go by. Pete had a 6 point lead after the morning session and both he and Billy were keen to start quickly in the afternoon. The Records Officer pointed out that while they were free to shoot if they liked, their arrows would be scored as misses as she was in charge of the shoot. Mr Mumford muttered something about power going to peoples heads, while the beautifully housetrained Mr Lightfoot made no comment. The afternoon session commenced when the Records Officer had finished her lunch. By the end of the day it looked as though Billy and Pete were tied on the same score with Billy taking the win by virtue of a higher number of golds. After the scores were checked however, Billy’s maths proved to be incorrect and he had in fact won by 4 points.
An unusually quiet Rhys Moore turned up in the afternoon and let his arrows do the talking. He added 8 points to his pb for the Short Metric round (50/30m) which also broke the previous Club Record held by himself.
Lone Lady Compound Joy Gough was cruising along nicely when the heat caused her launcher to come apart. It was fixed only to come apart again forcing her to retire from the shoot.
Junior archers Tilly Ashton, Lily Priestnal and Toby Young had mixed fortunes on the day. Toby Young was encouraged to shoot a Metric 1 but was hampered by not having sight marks with his new bow for the longest distances. Tilly Ashton had a miss but still added 8 points to her pb for the Metric IV but the day belonged to Lily. Lily, who has not missed with a single arrow since the beginning of what is her first season, took full advantage of the conditions to break not one but two Club Records. Shooting a Metric V round (30/20/15/10m), she broke her own Club Record for the longest two distances by 19 points, before breaking her own Club Record for the whole round by 51 points.
Also shooting were Ralf Mitchell, Eric Lutes and David Smith who put in some practice on the Short Metric round. Eric Lutes took the win.
Results WA 1440 – Gents Recurve: 1.D.Cowin 142/988/11/14, 2.D.Berry 139/963/14/6. Ladies Recurve: 1.B.Harris 144/1056/14/5, 2.J.Berry 138/943/9/3. Gents Compound: D.Moore 144/1269/49/15. Jnr Ladies – T.Ashton(Metric IV) 143/1187/31/11pb. L.Priestnal(Metric V) 144/1280/44/10pb NCR. (Long Metric V 72/633/20/3pb NCR). Jnr Gents: T.Young(Metric I) 124/696/6/2. Short Metric – Gents Compound: R.Moore 72/686/44/18pb NCR. Gents Recurve: 1.E.Lutes 69/476/2/2, 2.R.Mitchell 63/378/4/1, 3.D.Smith 44/191/0. Long Metric – Ladies Compound: J.Gough 72/612/15/3.
Isle of Man Archery Club 