Sixteen archers showed up to shoot at Onchan on Sunday, though only fourteen of them shot the prescribed round. The round of the day was a Vegas for the Seniors and a Portsmouth Three Spot for the Juniors – shot as part of the Club’s Handicap League. Scratch scores are adjusted by an individual’s handicap to give the overall result. This allows all bow types, ages and genders to shoot against one another. If an archer shoots exactly to his/her handicap the score will be 1440 – anything higher or lower shows how well or poorly the person has done.
The Vegas is the hardest of the target faces to shoot as it is arranged in a triangle with a predetermined order of shot from low left, to high centre and down to low right. This forces the archer to make both vertical and lateral movements to create the shot and tends to play havoc with the mind. No one seemed particularly keen on shooting the round and fortunes, as usual, were mixed. On the Compound side of things, Rhys Moore took the Scratch honours even though he was using his Outdoor setup with much thinner carbon arrows. After handicapping he came in half way down the table. Pete Mumford lost focus while trying to coach Ralf Mitchell through his first ever Vegas and had to settle for second in scratch terms and eighth overall. Joy Gough continued her improvement and finished sixth overall.
Barbara Harris was clearly not in the zone on Sunday. An average start rapidly worsened after she discovered that Liverpool were 1-0 down to Burnley. Liverpool happily recovered to win, sadly Harris did not. Her scratch score was the highest Recurve Vegas, but it was nowhere near her best and she came in second last after the handicap was applied. Josh Trafford was, like Ralf, shooting the round for the first time, but his greater experience allowed him to finish higher up the leader board. Eric Lutes thought the targets looked rather small, but nevertheless managed to add 47 points to his pb for the round which was good enough for fourth place overall. Kristen Joughin did not enjoy herself at all, but she added 18 points to her pb and shot well above her handicap to secure third place. Peter Howland, in spite of one disastrous end, added 29 points to his pb to take the overall win.
Juniors James Hill, Nathan Kinrade, Jacob Brookes and Brandon Gough faced their own challenge in the shape of the Portsmouth Three Spot. James Hill took the scratch honours but was not up to his best and he slotted into eleventh place after handicapping. Jacob Brookes was a little out of practice and he had a few misses which neither he nor anyone else to explain. The misses cost him and he came in tenth. Nathan Kinrade likewise recorded several misses but finished strongly to tie with Pete Mumford in eighth place. The best result by a Junior was provided by Brandon Gough the Club’s only Junior Compounder. Brandon was very tired after a week-long school trip to Wales, and the misses began to mount up towards the end of the shoot. To his credit Brandon kept going and managed to add 21 points to his pb and claim second place overall.
Results Vegas/Portsmouth Handicap- 1.P.Howland 1493 (53/427/9)pb, 2.B.Gough 1462 (55/442/4)pb, 3.K.Joughin 1455 (38/282/4)pb, 4.E.Lutes 1447 (50/405/4)pb, 5.J.Trafford 1425 (54/447/9)pb, 6.J.Gough 1424 (60/539/9), 7.R.Moore 1423 (60/554/17), 8.N.Kinrade 1419 (54/443/9), =8.P.Mumford 1419 (60/547/17), 10.J.Brookes 1411 (57/465/9), 11.J.Hill 1408 (59/494/10), 12.G.Altham 1392 (56/458/9), 13.B.Harris 1388 (57/469/9), 14.R.Mitchell 1383 (39/290/2)pb.
Also shooting were Dave Moore (60/438/3) who broke out his Bear Paw trad bow to shoot a Portsmouth and Willem Keyser (54/315/1) who also shot a Portsmouth as he worked his way towards a handicap.
Isle of Man Archery Club 