The Hub, Onchan provided the venue for the Isle of Man Indoor Junior Championships on Sunday. There were several trophies up for grabs – overall boy’s and girl’s champion (awarded to the highest scores respectively) and sub categories according to age group. The Championships are based on a Portsmouth round with all ages and bow types shooting on a single face target.
For the first time this century there was an entrant in the Boys Compound division in the shape of Brandon Gough. Brandon had recently finished fifth at the Wigan and Orrell shoot at Preston on the harder triple face target and enjoyed himself on the larger single face. He didn’t have any direct competition but Brandon maintained his focus to shoot his second highest Portsmouth score of the season to lift the trophy.
The Junior Gents Recurve provided the largest field of the day with four boys: Toby Young, Nathan Kinrade, Jacob Brookes and James Hill aiming for glory. According to the form book the overall title race would be between James Hill and defending Champion Toby Young, and so it proved. A slow start by James allowed both Toby and Nathan to get ahead of him. A better second dozen arrows put James firmly ahead of Nathan but still left him trailing Toby by 6 points. Toby lost concentration briefly as he drifted out of the centre, while James put in another good round which cut the deficit to 3 points. It looked as though James was about to overturn things completely as Toby lost sight of the 10’s again, but James winged an arrow away into the 5 zone. Toby found the centre just as James let another arrow go into the low scoring blue zone of the target. James shot solidly but with the end in sight Toby suddenly caught fire and put in a stunning last dozen arrows to finish 10 points clear and lift the Trophy yet again.
Meanwhile Nathan and Jacob were engaged in a fight for the u14’s title. Nathan always had his nose in front but after two dozen arrows there was only 1 point between them. Nathan then put in back to back dozen totals of 101 to open up an 8 point lead, before he seemed to tire and Jacob responded with a 101 dozen total himself. After the scores had been checked, Nathan had added 10 points to his pb for the round and taken u14’s Trophy by 2 points.
The girls recurve had three entrants reigning Champion Tilly Ashton, u12’s Champion Lily Priestnal and newcomer Coaimhe Sleddon. Tiily did not have a comfortable shoot. Her timing seemed to be off and she had to re-set several times. Experience won out however, and although Tilly did not really show what she was capable of until the final dozen, she retained her title with ease.
Caoimhe, shooting in her first Championship, was understandably nervous at the outset. Having only shot once before from the back of the hall she was at a disadvantage to the more experienced girls. While no one expected her to outshoot Tilly, it did come as a surprise that Caoimhe was tied with Lily after the first dozen arrows. When Lily drew ahead by 3 points in the second dozen, it seemed that ‘normal service’ had resumed but Caoimhe was not finished. As she relaxed into the shoot Caoimhe found her range and she leapfrogged Lily to take a 4 point lead. Caoimhe’s fourth dozen was even better and with twelve arrows to go she had a 15 point cushion. Unused to shooting so many arrows Caoimhe began to tire, she had a miss but so too did Lily and no damage was done. Another miss from Caoimhe saw her record her lowest dozen total of the tournament. At the same time Lily suddenly remembered how to shoot and she took a huge chunk out of Caoimhe’s lead. It was not enough however, and Caoimhe added 36 points to her pb for the round to take u12’s title at the first attempt.
Results Indoor Junior Championships: Boys Compound Champion – B.Gough 60/431/0. Boys Recurve Champion – T.Young 60/533/18. U14 Boys Recurve – 1.N.Kinrade 60/488/9pb, 2.J.Brookes 60/486/7. Girls Recurve Champion – T.Ashton 60/494/12. U12 Girls – 1.C.Sleddon 57/325/1pb, 2.L.Priestnal 54/321/3.
The adults took advantage of the morning session to get some practice ahead of their Championships on the tenth. Most elected to shoot a triple face Portsmouth, but Josh Trafford opted for the larger single face as he sorted out a shoulder problem and Colin Moore shot a WA18 which is the round he will face on the 10th. Fortunes were mixed and Danny Cowin was so disgusted with his performance that he declined to enter a score. The results were as follows: Gents Compound – 1.D.Moore 60/575/35, 2.R.Moore 60/573/32, 3.P.Mumford 60/568/28, 4.B.Lightfooot 60/567/26. Ladies Compound – J.Gough 59/540/16. Gents Recurve 3/s – 1.G.Altham 60/520/11, 2.P.Howland 55/441/8. Gents Recurve single face- J.Trafford 60/541/20. Ladies Recurve 3/s – 1.B.Harris 60/554/20, 2.J.Berry 56/479/14. Gents Barebow WA18 – C.Moore 59/402/8.
Isle of Man Archery Club 