After a break for the Club’s annual coaching weekend courtesy of Tony Drabble and Clive Jeacock, the archers were eased back into competition with a Portsmouth round. There was a terrific turnout, with twenty archers shooting over the course of the day. Some of the usual suspects were missing – Billy Lightfoot having gone to watch Steely Dan in Birmingham for example, but there were others, old and new, to take their place on the shooting line.
It was another close-run thing in the Gents Compound, with Rhys Moore ultimately taking the victory by five points although his form dipped just after the break. Colin Moore, Pete Mumford and Dave Moore were left to fight it out for the remaining places. It looked as though Colin would take second but a string of 9’s in the second last dozen dropped him to last place. Dave Moore managed to move from last to second, going into the final dozen with a 1 point lead over Pete Mumford in third. Dave managed to hold onto his advantage so that the standings remained the same after the last arrow had been shot. Only 2 points separated the three men finishing in second, third and fourth.
Shooting on the same boss as Pete Mumford when he is in one of his ‘chirpy’ moods is never easy, but Joy Gough managed to maintain her focus to post a score more in keeping with her high standards. Joy finally felt that she was making progress after being encouraged to alter her shooting style at the coaching weekend.
The largest field of the day was once again in the Gents Recurve, with newcomer Willem Keyser joining Dave Berry, Peter Howland, Greg Altham, Josh Trafford, Danny Cowin and newly returned Alex Allen-Snell. Alex re-joined the Club this week after a gap of seven years having previously been a leading light, bringing home archery medals from the Island Games in both Rhodes and Aland. Danny Cowin had picked up a back injury at work but thought he could get through the shoot. This, rather like Mrs May’s belief that she could get a good Brexit deal, proved not to be the case. Danny struggled from the first arrow, his trademark stubbornness got him to the end of the second dozen, but although he was in the lead, the pain prevented him from continuing and he had to sit out the rest of the session. This effectively left Josh and Alex fighting it out for first place. A slow start by Josh looked to have handed victory to Alex, but Josh improved with each dozen, while Alex was hit by fatigue after the halfway point. Josh overturned a 5 point deficit to take the win by 11 points. Greg Altham came in third. Dave Berry continued to struggle, posting a score that was woefully short of his best. Peter Howland shot generally well but a couple of wild misses dropped him to fifth. Willem Keyser shot some impressive arrows in places to post a decent benchmark score.
Kristen Joughin, Barbara Harris and Jane Berry were all in action in the Ladies Recurve. Kristen was coming back from illness showed that her time on the coaching weekend had not been wasted. Jane Berry who was still finding her feet after the coaches had re-jigged her bow posted a score of exactly 500 to take second place. Barbara Harris who had also had her bow re-aligned by Clive and Tony the previous weekend, found that it was now shooting high and right and she struggled throughout the morning to bring the pattern down and central. Harris made some progress in the final dozen to scrape the win.
Tilly Ashton had bad luck in the Junior Ladies Recurve, as her finger tab came apart during the final dozen arrows which put a dent in an otherwise promising score.
There was better luck in The Junior Gents Recurve with James Hill adding 11 points to his pb to take the win and Nathan Kinrade adding 5 points to his pb for the round. In the Junior Gents Compound, Brandon Gough shot a Worcester to catch up with a round he had missed earlier in the season.
Results Portsmouth: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/571/31, 2.D.Moore 60/556/25, 3.P.Mumford 60/565/25, 4.C.Moore 60/564/25. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 60/552/15. Gents Recurve-1.J.Trafford 60/543/23, 2.A.Allen-Snell 60/532/20, 3.G.Altham 60/521/16, 4.D.Berry 60/474/8, 5.P.Howland 58/458/6, 6.W.Keyser 58/381/6pb. Ladies Recurve-1.B.Harris 60/529/12, 2.J.Berry 60/500/9, 3.K.Joughin 60/446/5. Junior Ladies Recurve-T.Ashton 56/486/9. Junior Gents Recurve-1.J.Hill 60/536/17pb, 2.N.Kinrade 60/493/10pb. Worcester: Junior Gents Compound-B.Gough 60/213/17pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 