Sunday afternoon was devoted to the annual Junior championships but while the rest of the island was baking in the sun, Greeba remained resolutely overcast and dank. The gloomy conditions did not cast a damper on the Juniors’ spirits however and the shoot was good humoured throughout. The Championships were based on a Short Metric round, with distances being determined by age group.
Entry numbers were low this year as the Hill family were away on holiday, which left only club regulars Toby Young, Tilly Ashton, Nathan Kinrade and Jacob Brookes, along with newcomer Dylan Addy to compete. Proceedings got underway promptly at 2pm but almost ground to halt after six arrows when a fit of giggling seized the archers and they were unable to shoot for several minutes. The giggling was prompted by the antics of Peter Mumford who was reacting to an incident involving the Club Chairman Dave Moore. Pete claimed that Dave had tripped over one of the distance ropes, Chairman Moore claimed that he threw himself to the ground to examine an interesting species of clover. Whatever the truth of the situation Pete Mumford’s laughter spread to the juniors and Mr Mumford had to be called to order by the Records Officer Barbara Harris and guest Judge Dave Berry. The competition continued smoothly thereafter.
Toby Young, who had a limited run into the competition due to exam commitments, got within three points of his personal best score to take the u18’s title shooting a Short Metric of 50 and 30m.
Tilly Ashton was shooting the Short Metric III (30 and 20m) for the first time in the u16 division. Tilly not only took the title but broke the old Club Record by 93 points.
Jacob Brookes and Nathan Kinrade went toe to toe in the u14’s Metric III. Jacob Brookes had only shot a couple of times this season, while Nathan Kinrade was coming off the back of some excellent shooting at the Junior National Championships in England. The competition seemed likely to be one sided and so it proved. Nathan had a 22 point lead after the first dozen and extended this to 31 points after the second dozen. Not even a couple of misses from Nathan could put Jacob back into contention. Nathan was even better over the second distance, and he took the title by a margin of 44 points, adding 13 points to his pb into the bargain.
Dylan Addy was competing in the Championships for the first time. The 9 year old had only shot once before on a Sunday, and only managed to get a sight mark for 20m on the Thursday prior to the competition. The u12’s Short Metric IV (20 and 10m), was a real test for him. Dylan had a handful of misses at the first distance but settled quickly and as his confidence grew so did his scores. He excelled at the shorter distance and secured not only the u12’s Trophy but also the Novice Trophy into the bargain.
The Records Officer would like to thank Joy Gough, Dave Berry and Charlotte Harris, who gave up their afternoon to do judging/scoring duties.
The adults had amused themselves during the morning session by shooting a ½ FITA round. This is an obsolete round which consisted of 18 arrows being shot at each of four distances – 90/70/50/30m for the Gents and 70/60/50/30m for the Ladies. Danny Cowin got within 4 points of his pb in the Gents Recurve division, while Rhys Moore fell 21 points short of his pb to take victory in the Gents Compound. Dave Moore and Pete Mumford both added 9 points to their pb’s to come second and third respectively. Joy Gough broke her own Club Record by 23 points in the Ladies Compound, while Barbara Harris added 157 points to the Club Record in the Ladies Recurve. Ralf Mitchell shot the Ladies distances (designated a ½ Metric 1 for men) for the first time. Ralf had missed several weeks of shooting due to illness which may have accounted for the string of misses he had, but he was pleased to be back in action, nevertheless.
Results: Junior Outdoor Championships- u18 Recurve -T.Young 67/499/8/3. u16 Recurve-T.Ashton 71/592/14/9 CR. u14 Recurve- 1.N.Kinrade 70/568/9/4pb, 2. J.Brookes 72/524/10/3. u12 Recurve-D.Addy 68/486/6/2pb.
½ WA 1440 -Gents Recurve-D.Cowin 71/483/8/2. Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 72/660/32/12, 2.D.Moore 72/632/18/5pb, 3.P.Mumford 72/620/21/7. Ladies Compound-J.Gough 72/639/19/6 CR. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 72/581/6/0 CR. ½ Metric 1-R.Mitchell 65/325/1/0pb.
Isle of Man Archery Club 