The number of archers turning up to shoot remains reassuringly high, with eighteen Club members competing over the course of Sunday. The round of the day was a WA 18 -single face for Recurves and Juniors, triple face for Compound- shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League.
With both Dave Moore and Billy Lightfoot unfit to shoot, Colin Moore, Pete Mumford and Rhys Moore were left to fight it out between them. Colin never really got his eye in and started and finished the round in third place. Rhys had the best start but his attempts to tweak the weight set up on his bow cost him, and by the end of the second dozen he found himself 3 points down to Pete. Mr Mumford was a model of consistency and as Rhys lost sight of the ‘10’, Pete eased away from him to finish 5 points clear and claim victory.
Joy Gough, while never feeling that the shoot was easy, put in a score just 1 point below her season’s best. Her new shooting style seems to be bedding in nicely ahead of the Outdoor Season.
Danny Cowin, having recovered from a back injury, was back in action against Josh Trafford, Alex Allen-Snell, Peter Howland, Greg Altham and Dave Berry in the Gents Recurve. Peter Howland once again found himself at the bottom of the pile as four misses put a serious dent into his score. Dave Berry attempted to fix a wrist problem by modifying the grip on his riser. The results were not what Dave had hoped for as he posted a season’s worst score that left him in fifth place. Greg appeared to be improving steadily over the course of the shoot, until a last-minute miss put a dent in both his score and his confidence. Josh Trafford who seemed to be back on form last weekend found himself struggling on Sunday and his efforts were only good enough for third. It was left to the two men who had had the least practice to fight it out for the top spot and at first nothing could separate them. Alex and Danny were tied after the first three dozen arrows until a wayward 6 by Danny at the beginning of the fourth dozen allowed Alex to get ahead by 1 point. Annoyed with himself about the 6, Cowin lost concentration and winged an arrow out into the 4 which handed Alex a 7 point lead. At the beginning of the last dozen Danny compounded his error by putting another arrow into the black and Alex rode the winner by a clear 8 points. Unhappy as he was with his performance Danny’s score was nevertheless a season’s best.
Chris Crompton put in another impressive round with his bare bow that was just a few points short of his best.
Kristen Joughin, Barbara Harris and Jane and Maddy Berry lined up in the Ladies Recurve. Maddy and Kristen were shooting the round for the first time and neither seemed entirely comfortable with the small target face. Maddy provided a moment of drama when her sight came loose and she ‘shot’ it down the hall -eyewitnesses claimed that it nearly scored a 10. When the shooting was over both women were tied on 337. Ties are decided by ‘countback’, that is on who has scored the highest number of Golds, and Kristen had three to Maddy’s one, and so took third place. Jane Berry changed her sight extension bar during the break which meant she had to find new sight marks. It took a while for her to get dialled back in and this was reflected in her score. Barbara Harris, a walking advertisement for KT tape, had rather stupidly forgotten to take painkillers before leaving the house and regretted it from the first arrow. Rhys Moore helped her to take some weight off her long rod at the break and Barbara managed to make it to the end of the round. She was rewarded with the win and a season’s best score of 512.
There was a three way shoot out in the Junior Gents Recurve between Toby Young, James Hill and Nathan Kinrade. Nathan was one of five archers who signed for an incorrect score on Sunday. In his case he had signed for a score that was 10 points lower than he had shot. This was picked up during verification by Joy Gough, who kindly checked the afternoon scores for the Records Officer who had to leave at lunchtime. It made no difference to the placings as Nathan still finished third, but it did represent a personal best score and a significant milestone as it meant Nathan broke 400 for the first time. Toby Young was a little out of practice and it showed in a score that in no way reflected his ability and he had to settle for second place. In what has been an incredible season for him, James Hill posted yet another personal best score, adding 16 points to his previous best to take the win.
Results: WA 18-Gents Compound – 1.P.Mumford 60/553/17, 2.R.Moore 60/548/11, 3.C.Moore 60/536/8. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 60/539/10. Gents Recurve-1.A.Allen-Snell 60/513/15, D.Cowin 60/505/15sb, 3.J.Trafford 60/479/12, 4.G.Altham 59/468/6, 5.D.Berry 60/436/7, 6.P.Howland 56/383/4. Gents Barebow-C.Crompton 60/428/3. Ladies Recurve-1.B.Harris 60/512/10sb, 2.J.Berry 59/411/4, 3.K.Joughin 58/337/3, 4.M.Berry 57/337/1. Junior Gents Recurve-1.J.Hill 60/484/8pb, 2.T.Young 60/461/7, 3.N.Kinrade 58/405/5pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 