The archers were promised 19 degree temperatures and light winds on Sunday. What they got was a gusting 26km/h easterly wind which lowered the temperature considerably and made shooting a bit of a challenge. The round of the day was a WA 1440 (36 arrows at each of four distances-90/70/50/30 for the men, 70/60/50/30 for the ladies) shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League.
With Rhys Moore melting under the Malaga sun, Billy Lightfoot sweating it in the office to fix a computing problem, Dave Moore busy elsewhere and Colin Moore awol; Pete Mumford found himself the only competitor in the Gents Compound division. The windy conditions made life difficult for everyone, but Pete managed to keep all his arrows on target at 90m even if some of them were uncharacteristically low scoring. Danny Cowin and Dave Berry shooting in the Recurve division were not so lucky, as the lower poundage of the Recurve bows made the arrows more susceptible. Dave Berry’s lack of practice combined with the conditions meant that he notched up eleven misses. Danny on the other hand got through the first 33 arrows without a miss before having two in a row! Dave had another four misses at 70m but Danny was beginning to show a bit of form in spite of the weather.
Compounder Joy Gough shared a boss with Recurvers Jane Berry and Barbara Harris. All three women found their arrows being pushed over to the left, but they kept them all on target at the two longest distances. With the morning session behind them everyone breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward to the wind dropping as indicated by the various weather apps the archers had on their phones.
Unfortunately, by the time the afternoon session was due to start the wind speed had increased significantly: the targets were closer, but they were also smaller. Buffeted by the wind on the shooting line, the archers had to choose their moment to loose their arrows. Only Jane Berry and Barbara Harris managed to keep all their arrows on target at 50m. Dave had another five misses, Danny two, and Pete and Joy one each. The shoot was turning out to be, as Joy Gough put it, “hard work”. The final distance couldn’t come soon enough for everyone concerned. Dave Berry had one last miss but at least managed to finish the round. Danny Cowin started to look like he knew one end of a bow from the other to finish strongly and take the honours in the Gents Recurve by the huge margin of 227 points. Jane Berry, after shooting solidly all day, was appalled to have a miss at 30m but still finished with a season’s best score. Barbara Harris maintained a clean sheet to record her highest score at Greeba and take the win in the Ladies Recurve.
Four juniors also competed on Sunday, James Hill took on Toby Young in a Long Metric I (36 arrows at each of two distances – 70 & 60m) in the morning session. Both boys were shooting the round for the first time and so recorded personal best scores, but it was James who came out on top. In the afternoon session with the wind speed increasing, the Records Officer took pity on Nathan Kinrade and Jacob Brookes and allowed them to shoot a Short Metric III (30 & 20m). Nathan Kinrade made light work of the heavy conditions and kept all of his arrows on target. Jacob Brookes, who has been shining in his other sport of swimming, was a little short of practice and recorded several misses. He finished strongly but it was too late to prevent Nathan from taking the win.
Results: WA 1440- Gents Compound: P.Mumford 143/1222/34/7. Gents Recurve: 1.D.Cowin 140/950/12/1, 2.D.Berry 123/723/5/1. Ladies Compound: J.Gough 143/1204/24/7. Ladies Recurve: 1.B.Harris 144/1137/20/6, 2.J.Berry 143/971/10/3sb. Long Metric 1- 1.J.Hill 70/378/2/0pb, 2.T.Young 65/345/2/0pb. Short Metric III- 1.N.Kinrade 72/507/2/0, 2.J.Brookes 69/478/9/0.
Isle of Man Archery Club 