There was a decent turnout at Onchan on Sunday for the first shoot of the New Year. The round of the day was a Portsmouth shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League, with a total of fourteen archers taking part.
The largest field of the day was in the Gents Recurve division. With Dave Berry enjoying the sun in Mexico Danny Cowin was left with Greg Altham, Ralf Mitchell and Peter Howland to shoot against. Danny lulled everyone into a false sense of security with a wild set of sighters but once the scoring began his arrows hit the central yellow with monotonous regularity. A dip in concentration after the break put a dent in Cowin’s score but he coasted to an easy victory, dropping only two points with his last six arrows. Ralf Mitchell put in a consistent round to add 14 points to his pb but had to settle for last place. Peter Howland added 6 points to his pb for the round to secure third place, just 4 points ahead of Ralf. Greg Altham, taking part in only his fourth shoot of the Indoor season, continued to make progress as he took second place by a comfortable margin.
It was great to see Kristen Joughin back in action after recovering from illness. The lack of practice took its toll on her score, but she was one of the few people not to lose focus after the break. Barbara Harris appeared to have no focus what-so-ever. Giving up alcohol and coffee as part of a post-Christmas health kick had done her no favours. Harris was grateful to Dave Moore who took pity on her and shared his flask of coffee which kept her awake long enough to finish the shoot.
Rhys Moore had a heavy date with a snooker table on Sunday, Colin Moore was AWOL, so there was a three way shoot off in the Gents Compound division between Dave Moore, Billy Lightfoot and Pete Mumford. Mr Lightfoot rarely makes it this far into the Indoor season and he was determined to make his presence felt. Using new arrows with, what appeared to be, medieval tips (leftover from boyhood no doubt) Billy led from started to finish. He was not happy with his performance, as usual, and felt he could do better, but became marginally less gloomy when he realized he had won. The real fight was between Dave Moore and Pete Mumford for second place. Pete was shooting with a strapped-up wrist but nevertheless made the better start of the two. Consistent dozen totals of 112 gave Pete a lead of 2 points after 36 arrows, but Dave was building momentum and he turned the 2 point deficit into a 1 point lead going into the final dozen. Pete then put in his highest dozen total of the day, but Dave remained solid and took second place by 2 points.
Joy Gough, the Club’s last remaining practising Lady Compound, made an excellent start to the shoot and was tied with Billy Lightfoot on 283 going into the break. Unfortunately, at the resumption, Joy ‘punched’ her first arrow and sent it into Kristen Joughin’s target. The miss and a couple of 8’s she posted before regaining her composure put a dent in her score.
Four Juniors also took part in the shoot with Jacob Brookes, James Hill and Nathan Kinrade in the Recurve division and Brandon Gough completing his third qualification round in the Compound. The Christmas break did not seem to have affected James Hill as he recorded another 500+ score to take an emphatic win. Jacob Brookes had a poor start but finished strongly, and was just nudged into third place by Nathan Kinrade who posted a season’s best score to take second.
Brandon Gough had a first go of shooting a three-face target like the adult Compounders and posted a commendable score to complete his third round. Brandon can now be given a handicap and is eligible to take part in the next Handicap League round.
Results Portsmouth Scratch: Gents Recurve – 1.D.Cowin 60/546/19, 2.G.Altham 60/524/18, 3.P.Howland 60/481/8pb, 4.R.Mitchell 60/477/4pb. Ladies Recurve – 1.B.Harris 60/527/20, 2.K.Joughin 60/372/2. Gents Compound – 1.B.Lightfoot 60/571/30, 2.D.Moore 60/562/21, 3.P.Mumford 60/560/20. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 59/553/25. Junior Gents Recurve – 1.J.Hill 59/501/14, 2.N.Kinrade 60/428/5sb, 3.J.Brookes 59/427/4. Junior Gents Compound – B.Gough 52/409/6pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 