There was a good turn out at Onchan for the first handicap round of the season. The round of the day was a WA 18 three spot, with the scratch scores being adjusted by handicap to allow all ages/genders/bow types to shoot against each other. The system allows the individual archer to see how well they are shooting relatively – if an archer shoots exactly to their handicap the adjusted score will be 1440. Anything above or below this will highlight just how on or off form the archer is. The Juniors shot on a larger single face target.
With Billy Lightfoot out of the way celebrating his birthday, it was left to Rhys Moore, Pete Mumford and Dave Moore to fight for the Gents Compound scratch honours. Dave, still getting used to the feel of his bow after winding some of the poundage off, struggled to find the 10 zone. A miss late on in the shoot did him no favours either but he was already out of contention. Rhys similarly struggled to find the 10’s that last season came so effortlessly, and it was ‘elder statesman’ Pete Mumford who led from first to last. After the handicap was applied Peter was the highest placed male archer finishing in sixth place. Lone lady Compound Joy Gough shot better than she done the previous week and felt she was heading in the right direction.
There were also surprises on the Recurve side of things. Pete Mumford had spent much of the previous Sunday’s lunch hour fixing Barbara Harris’ bow, after a catastrophic equipment failure. Barbara showed just how good his work had been by recording the highest Recurve scratch score of the day. After handicapping she had to settle for fifth place, but she was relieved to have recovered her form. Danny Cowin did a fair impression of the Big Bad Wolf as he huffed and puffed his way through a disappointing shoot. Peter Howland faired better as he added 14 points to his pb to finish joint eight with Rhys Moore. James Hill’s hard work paid off as he added 25 points to his pb to record the highest Junior scratch score of the day and finish in second place overall. Jacob Brookes had a good shoot to finish third after handicapping, but it was little Lily Priestnal who took the overall honours adding 7 points to her pb in the process.
The only result that didn’t come as a surprise to anyone was that Jane Berry pb’d once again, adding 62 points to her previous best and beating husband Dave Berry by a considerable margin. Dave was kind enough to list the reasons for his poor performance on the bottom of his score sheet for the benefit of the Records Officer. They included use of new arrows, adjustments to his sight bar and changes to his pressure button – all that was missing was that the dog had eaten his homework. The Records Officer can’t wait for next week’s instalment.
The Club was delighted to welcome Junior Compounder Brandon Gough to his first Sunday shoot. Brandon shot a Portsmouth round to good effect and needs to record two more to gain his handicap. Barebow archer Colin Moore elected not to shoot the round of the day and shot a Portsmouth instead.
Results WA18 Handicap – 1.L.Priestnal 1499 (59/388/1)pb, 2.J.Hill 1462 (60/468/10)pb, 3.J.Brookes 1449 (60/448/6), 4.J.Berry 1432 (56/463/9)pb, 5.B.Harris 1431 (60/512/15), 6.P.Mumford 1430 (60/558/21), 7.T.Ashton 1424 (58/430/6), 8.P.Howland 1417 (44/324/2)pb, =8.R.Moore 1417 (60/548/11), 10.J.Gough 1414 (60/529/8), 11.D.Moore 1407 (59/532/8), 12.D.Cowin 1385 (57/475/12), 13.T.Young 1376 (59/454/7), 14.D.Berry 1364 (51/410/7).
Results Portsmouth – Gents Barebow – C.Moore 60/457/5. Junior Gents Compound – B.Gough 60/445/2pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 