Conditions at Greeba on Sunday could best be described as changeable. It was sunny, overcast, windy, tranquil, cool, wet and scorching by turns and provided a real test to all the archers who turned out. The morning session was devoted to a WA 720 – a single distance round of 72 arrows shot at 70m for Recurves and 50m for Compounds, shot as part of the Clubs Scratch League.
After being alone on the shooting line last week in the Gents Compound, Pete Mumford had plenty of competition this time round with Colin Moore, Billy Lightfoot, and Dave and Rhys Moore all turning up. It soon became apparent that the fight for first place was going to be between Rhys Moore and Billy Lightfoot. Tied after the first dozen, Rhys went 3 points up after the second dozen, only to be pegged back by Billy at the end of the third. Rhys then managed to eke out a 1 point lead, before Billy made it all square again going into the final dozen. It looked as though it would go right down to the wire, but Lightfoot suddenly put one wide of the target which allowed Rhys to take the win by 8 points. Peter snapped up third place, Dave came in fourth and Colin had to settle for fifth. Lone Lady Compound Joy Gough had a couple of sub-par ends but still managed to break the 600 target she had set for herself. On the Recurve side of things there was no direct competition even though the three people involved were shooting the same distance. Toby Young, shooting in the u18 boys category, added 17 points to his pb for the round. Danny Cowin posted a season’s best score in the Gents Recurve, while Barbara Harris posted the highest score of the day in the Ladies Recurve.
The afternoon session saw a change to the shooting calendar with the Records Officer introducing an Albion into the mix. The Albion is an Imperial round consisting of three dozen arrows shot at each of three distances 80, 60 and 50 yards, with 5 zone scoring (9/7/5/3/1). The round had not been shot at the club for some time and was new to most of those competing.
Peter Mumford, holder of both the Gents Barebow and Gents Recurve Club Records was hoping to add the Compound Record to his haul. Rhys, Dave and Colin were unable to stay for the afternoon, but unexpectedly, Billy Lightfoot, who had spent all morning saying how ill he felt, decided to hang around. Phoning home Billy had some lunch dropped into him at the field. The fetching baby blue food bag decorated with pink roses it turned up in was much admired. Dave Berry arrived to give Danny Cowin some competition in the Gents Recurve, and James Hill turned out to do the same for Toby Young in the u18’s. That left Barbara Harris and Joy Gough with only the Club Records to aim for. Joy was trying to better her own Club Compound Record, while Barbara was trying to break the one set by Joy when she was still a Recurve archer.
As the competition got underway the skies darkened and the odd drop of rain began to fall. Halfway through the first distance the skies opened. The archers got soaked as the walked forward to collect their arrows; returning to the shooting line they found that end of the field was still dry. Then it started to rain on the archers but was dry at the targets. As soon as everyone and everything was thoroughly wet, the rain stopped, the sun came out and suddenly everyone was gasping in the heat! While the weather gods were pulling out all the stops, Peter managed to get four points ahead of Billy and Dave Berry opened up a 37 point lead over Danny. James Hill got off to a storming start in the u18’s and found himself 30 points up on Toby Young.
Nothing is certain in archery however, and by the end of the second distance Toby was only 2 points behind James, Billy had overturned his deficit and was 8 points ahead of Peter and only Danny was still looking out of it, 33 points behind Dave. At the final distance Toby shot well, but James was in the zone and he took the win and set a new Club Record into the bargain. Billy Lightfoot also enjoyed himself at 50 yards, dropping just 2 of points available Billy secured the win by 32 points, and also set a new Club Record. Neither Dave nor Danny were in record breaking mode but Danny was determined to avoid losing and he dug deep to produce his best arrows of the day. As Dave tired, Danny swept past him to take victory by 23 points – a swing of 56 points. Joy Gough equalled her old record with 18 arrows left to shoot and eventually added 156 points to the Club Record. Barbara Harris still had 32 arrows left to shoot when she broke the old Recurve record. Barbara left the field thinking she had even managed to break the Gents Record, but she had made a calculation error early in the shoot and had to settle for adding 272 points the Ladies Recurve Record.
Tilly Ashton shot a Short Windsor round which was identical in format to the Albion but shot over 50, 40 and 30 yards, and was also in record breaking form adding 158 points to the record previously held by Emma McDowell. Nathan Kinrade who, like Tilly and Toby, was heading off island to compete in the Junior National Championships at Lilleshall, practiced the round he would be shooting there, namely a Bristol III (72 arrows at 50y,48 arrows at 40y and 24 arrows at 30y). Nathan had never shot the round before and the thumping total he posted was both a personal best score and a New Club Record.
Results- WA 720: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 72/652/22/13, 2.B.Lightfoot 71/644/23/7, 3.P.Mumford 72/630/21/6, 4.D.Moore 71/625/19/4, 5.C.Moore 70/570/8/3. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 72/609/11/6. Gents Recurve-D.Cowin 72/478/2/0. U18 Gents-T.Young 69/418/3/1pb. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 71/536/9/1. Albion: Gents Compound- 1.B.Lightfoot 108/918/84NCR, 2.P.Mumford 108/886/69. Gents Recurve-1.D.Cowin 108/704/29, 2.D.Berry 107/681/23. U18 Gents-1.J.Hill 106/648/19NCR, 2.T.Young 102/628/26pb. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 108/900/73CR. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 107/809/50CR. Short Windsor- T.Ashton 108/790/40CR. Bristol III-N.Kinrade 143/1022/54NCR.
Isle of Man Archery Club 