The sun came out at Greeba at the weekend and so did a host of Club Members, some of whom were shooting Outdoors for the first time. The round of the day was a WA 1440, three dozen arrows at each of four distances (90/70/50/30m for the Gents & 70/60/50/30 for the Ladies, shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League. Those just starting out, or only able to shoot for part of the day, shot either a Long or Short Metric depending on experience.
Only five archers actually completed the round of the day. Billy Lightfoot had stated his intention of honouring the field with his presence for the entire day but only stayed long enough to add 12 points to his pb for the Long Metric (90&70m). He then scuttled off home to watch Liverpool fail to win the Premiership, leaving Pete Mumford unopposed in the Gents Compound. Pete had a, for him, disappointing 90m but he rallied at the other distances and finished very strongly at the 30m.
Joy Gough, the Club’s sole practising Lady Compound, was joined in the morning by Colin Moore who shot a Long Metric I (70&60) these being the first two distances of the Ladies WA 1440. Joy relished having a little competition, but her attempts to utilize a new aiming technique caused some problems and had an impact on her score. Joy shot a few random, low scoring arrows and after two misses with her first three arrows at 50m abandoned the new aiming procedure and went back to her old style, with the result that she shot a season’s best total.
Danny Cowin also found himself unopposed in the Gents Recurve division. He had shot alongside Alex Allen-Snell in the morning session, but as Alex is still working his way back into the sport after a break of 9 years, he contented himself with shooting a Long Metric like Mr Lightfoot. Danny’s 90, and 50m distances were not good but his 70 was better and at 30 he looked to be getting his old form back.
The only direct competition took place between Barbara Harris and Jane Berry in the Ladies Recurve. Jane was a little out of practice but shot solidly in the morning session then struggled at 50m, sending a couple of arrows wide of the target. She recovered to finish strongly at 30m. Barbara, after a dodgy start settled into the shoot well. She followed up a reasonable 70m with good totals at 60 and 50m, but then went off the boil at the shortest. Harris broke 1100 for the fourth time this season but she knew it should have been better.
Tilly Ashton was the only junior to shoot for the entire day and shot a WA 1440 Cadet Ladies (60/50/40/30m) for the first time. She struggled at little at both 60m and 40m but did well at 50 and 30m to set a benchmark score.
Other Juniors in action on Sunday were James Hill, who shot a Long Metric II for the first time, Nathan Kinrade, who shot a Short Metric III and Caoimhe Sleddon, who was shooting Outdoors for the first time ever. Caoimhe, the u12’s Indoor Champion, had no difficulty tackling the Short Metric V even though she had no sight marks to begin with. She hit an X with her first arrow and was one of the very few people not to have a miss.
Also shooting for the first time were Kristen Joughin and Maddy Berry. They kept each other company in a Long Metric IV (40&30m), with Maddy taking the honours.
Rhys and Dave Moore had been absent from the morning shoot as Rhys was involved in a team triathlon in Ramsey and Dave had gone along to laugh and point. They were joined on the shooting line by Gareth Leather for a Short Metric (50&30m). Gareth added a terrific 57 points to his pb but had to settle for third place. Dave Moore suffered an unexpected miss at 30m when he was distracted by the Records Officer making an ornithological observation to Pete Mumford and he punched the release. It had no effect on the outcome as Rhys was not phased by running 5k in Ramsey and notched up another effortless victory.
Ralf Mitchell and Greg Altham also enjoyed the sunshine but did not complete a recognized round.
Results- WA 1440 Gents Compound-P.Mumford 144/1227/30/13. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 141/1226/44/13. Gents Recurve-D.Cowin 137/967/13/6. Ladies Recurve- 1.B.Harris 143/1107/18/6, 2.J.Berry 141/933/9/2. WA 1440 Cadet-T.Ashton 139/938/9/4pb. Long Metric-Gents Compound-W.Lightfoot 72/625/19/5pb. Gents Recurve-A.Allen-Snell 71/460/6/3. Long Metric 1-C.Moore 72/620/17/8. Long Metric II-J.Hill 71/457/4/1pb. Long Metric IV-1.M.Berry 70/455/4/4pb, 2.K.Joughin 67/420/3/2pb. Short Metric- 1.R.Moore 72/669/31/15, 2.D.Moore 71/630/22/8, 3.G.Leather 71/594/18/10pb. Short Metric III-N.Kinrade 71/532/7/1. Short Metric V-C.Sleddon 72/520/5/2pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 