Conditions at Greeba on Sunday could best be described as challenging. It was sunny for most of the day, but temperatures were low and a gusting north-westerly wind made things difficult for the archers. The round of the day was a Metric I, essentially a Ladies WA 1440 – 36 arrows at each of four distances: 70/60/50/30m. Later in the season the Ladies will shoot a Gents WA 1440.
In the compound division regulars Colin Moore, Pete Mumford, Joy Gough and Rhys and Dave Moore were joined unexpectedly by Billy Lightfoot. Known as the Lesser Spotted Lightfoot at the Club, this particular specimen’s migratory habits are difficult to predict; preferring to spend most of its time in the south of the island it is rarely seen in northern parts and doesn’t hang around long when it does venture north. Sunday proved to be no exception. Mr Lightfoot was barely half way through the first distance when he made the declaration that he was leaving at lunchtime. His excuse was that he was freezing, and to be fair people of his age do feel the cold more. On further investigation however, it appeared that Billy had overdone it at the gym, hurting his neck and back in his efforts to get his body ‘beach ready’ for an upcoming holiday in Portugal. Billy was just a few points off the lead when he left at lunchtime. Colin Moore only ever shoots the morning session, so both men ended up shooting a Long Metric I (70 & 60m), with Billy Lightfoot taking the honours.
This left Rhys, Pete and Dave Moore the only Gents to complete the round. With the wind gusting and alternately either blowing the arrows off course at the boss, or blowing the archers over at the shooting line, it was obvious that scores were not going to be high. Rhys Moore managed to break 300 at the two longer distances but then had a miss a 50m on the much smaller target faces of the afternoon session. Since everyone else had a miss at the same distance it made no difference to the outcome and Rhys took the win by a comfortable margin. Dave Moore had relatively poor 70 and 50m distances but shot well at 60 and 30m to break 1200 and claim second place. Pete Mumford was so distracted by the cold that his maths went astray and he knocked 20 points off his score. The Records Officer replaced them when checking the totals, but it still could not save him from coming third.
Lone Lady Compound Joy Gough forgot scoring in such trying conditions and settled for having a laugh instead. She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself with boss companion Rhys Moore, though she claimed hysteria had set in at 50m as the wind caused her to have an unheard of 5 misses.
On the Recurve side of things Barbara Harris and Danny Cowin faced off in the Metric I, while Ralf Mitchell shot a Long Metric II (60 & 50m) in the morning session. Danny baled at the halfway stage, when he was 72 points off the pace, and hitched a ride home with Billy. Barbara carried on buoyed up by mini jaffa cakes and plenty of hot coffee. She was the only archer not to have a miss at 50m, which was about the best that could be said for her at that distance, but she rallied at 30m to break 1000. With conditions as they were, anyone finishing the full round could give themselves a pat on the back even though scores anywhere from 100 to 200 points down on the day.
In the afternoon Gareth Leather turned up to shoot a Short Metric (50 &30m), his first round since changing over to Compound. Chris Addy who was shooting his first round ever joined experienced junior Nathan Kinrade to shoot a Short Metric III (30 & 20m). Gareth soon realized that he was ill prepared for the conditions: not enough layers to his clothing, no hat or gloves and no hot drinks. This did not stop him from enjoying himself. Exasperated by several misses, Gareth nevertheless posted a decent first-time score and requires two more to be given a handicap. Chris Addy, who cycled to and from the shoot, managed to keep all bar two of his arrows on target which was an achievement given the conditions. The day however, belonged to Nathan Kinrade who happily munched his way through a packet of biscuits en route to adding 9 points to his pb for the round.
Results: Metric I – Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 143/1269/47/18, 2.D.Moore 143/1205/34/11,3.P.Mumford 142/1153/21/4. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 139/1115/20/5. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 142/1005/13/0. Long Metric I-Gents Compound-1.W.Lightfoot 72/621/21/6, 2.C.Moore 72/577/12/3. Gents Recurve-D.Cowin 65/406/5/0. Long Metric II-R.Mitchell 52/295/1/0. Short Metric-G.Leather 67/537/7/1. Short Metric III- 1.N.Kinrade 72/555/5/2pb, 2.C.Addy 70/432/0/0.
Isle of Man Archery Club 