There was a respectable turn-out at Onchan on Sunday, though some familiar faces were absent. The round of the day was a Vegas – a triple face target arranged in triangular shape, one arrow per face shooting in a strict lower left, top centre, lower right pattern. It is the hardest of all Indoor targets and is generally hated by archers. The Juniors shot a triple face Portsmouth as practice ahead of the Northern Counties competition in Penrith on the 18th. The two minute Silence was observed by the archers at 11 o’clock.
The largest field of the day came in the Gents Compound with Rhys Moore, Pete Mumford, Colin Moore and Dave Moore all going for glory. After the first dozen Rhys had a 4 point advantage over his rivals. By the end of the second dozen he had extended it to a 6 point lead and it looked very much like business as usual. Rhys then put in a poor third dozen, while Colin continued to shoot consistently, and Dave put in his best dozen of the day to close the gap to 3 points. Unfortunately Dave followed up his best dozen total with his worst, and slipped from second to third place. Not even three perfect arrows to finish could save him and Colin, just 3 points short of his pb, took second place. Pete Mumford just never seemed to get off the ground as he hit a string of 9’s but just could not find the 10 zone often enough. Rhys bounced back after his dip in concentration to take the win by 9 points.
Joy Gough was finding the going much easier as she became accustomed to her back-tension release aid and finished just a few points behind Pete and Dave Moore.
It was a straight shoot out between Dave Berry and Peter Howland in the Gents Recurve division. Pere had never shot the round before and looked like he would rather never shoot it again, but his score was a creditable first effort. Dave Berry categorically declared that he hated the Vegas, and it appeared to hate him back as he put seven arrows wide of the mark. Nevertheless, Mr Berry took the win.
Barbara Harris found it difficult to find any rhythm, she had three misses and, although she posted the highest Recurve Vegas score of the day, was not happy with her performance.
In the Junior Gents Recurve, Toby Young continued to show improvement with his new bow to take victory by a comfortable margin. James Hill put in yet another personal best score to take second place. Nathan Kinrade added 1 point to his pb but had to settle for fourth place, while Jacob Brookes added 30 points to his pb for the round to take third.
Also shooting were Longbow archer Graham Makepeace-Warne, and Barebow archer Chris Crompton. Chris has just joined the Club after doing his archery at University in Sheffield and looks to be very handy with a Barebow. Both men shot a Portsmouth round.
Results Vegas Scratch- Gents Compound: 1.R.Moore 60/561/23, 2.C.Moore 60/552/17, 3.D.Moore 60/548/15, 4.P.Mumford 60/545/13. Ladies Compound -J.Gough 60/542/14. Gents Recurve- 1.D.Berry 53/412/6, 2.P.Howland 45/326/2pb. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 57/483/8. Portsmouth 3 spot Scratch – Junior Gents: 1.T.Young 60/531/13, 2.J.Hill 59/518/16pb, 3.J.Brookes 58/495/11pb, 4.N.Kinrade 51/393/3pb. Junior Ladies – T.Ashton 54/422/4. Portsmouth- Gents Longbow: G.Makepeace-Warne 53/280/3. Gents Barebow: C.Crompton 60/429/6.
Isle of Man Archery Club 