It was another Portsmouth round at Onchan on Sunday, this time shot as part of the Club’s Scratch League. The standard was pretty good, with one personal best and several season’s best scores being recorded.
With Pete Mumford away on holiday with partner Joy Gough, Colin Moore concentrating on Barebow and Billy Lightfoot yet to make an appearance this season, it was a straight head to head between father and son Dave and Rhys Moore in the Gents Compound. It was neck and neck all the way. Going into the final dozen Rhys only had a 2 point lead and Dave fancied his chances of closing it out. Unfortunately for Dave, his form dipped slightly, just as Rhys unleashed a dozen near perfect arrows, putting in his highest dozen total of the day to take the win. Dave had to be content with a season’s best score and second place.
The largest field of the day came in the Gents Recurve, with Alex Allen-Snell, Ralf Mitchell, Simon Kenyon, Peter Howland and Danny Cowin on the shooting line. After breaking 500 last week, Simon was looking to do even better, but it was not to be. A promising start and a strong finish were undermined by an average middle section and Simon ended up in last place. Ralf Mitchell continued his archery journey under the tutelage of Barbara Harris who was sharing a boss with him. Harris got Ralf to stop wandering backwards down the line and to come down off a shot if the set up wasn’t right. The result was that he added 32 points to his pb and would have broken 500 for the first time if he had not decided to loose an arrow he knew hadn’t been set up properly which winged into the 2. Ralf’s shooting was at least better than his maths, the Records Officer, somewhat forcefully, pointing out that Ralf could not have a two dozen total of 308 when the maximum score per dozen was only 120. Peter Howland followed up his pb of last weekend with another 500 plus score. He was disappointed not to have done better, but it is rare to find an archer who is happy with what they have shot. Both Danny Cowin and Alex Allen-Snell were concentrating on form rather than scores. Danny made a reasonable start but struggled for consistency. An adjustment to the bracing height of his bow at the half time break improved both his accuracy and his temper. His season’s best score was good enough for second place. Alex, historically slow in his shot making, was trying to improve his timing. He succeeded well enough to get through the shoot without having to reset once and still led from start to finish to take the win.
Barbara Harris struggled to get into a rhythm but still managed to record the highest Recurve score of the day.
Chris Crompton was back to winning ways in the Gents Barebow. Colin Moore finished strongly but Chris was just that little bit more consistent.
It was a case of highs and lows in the Junior Gents Recurve. Toby Young recorded a season’s best to take the win with a score that would have beaten all but two of the adults. Jacob Brookes improved upon his score of the previous week, his practice at the Zombie shoot on Hop Tu Naa paying off. Nathan Kinrade had a solid shoot with the exception of one arrow that seemed to banana out off his bow and into the wrong target. James Hill continued to struggle with his release. When he got it right the arrow went into the middle, and in fact, into the same hole every time. Unfortunately, the other arrows went consistently out to the left which put him out of contention.
Results Portsmouth Scratch: Gents Compound-1.R.Moore 60/574/34, 2.D.Moore 60/567/27sb. Gents Recurve-1.A.Allen-Snell 60/541/19, 2.D.Cowin 60/513/16sb, 3.P.Howland 60/502/13, 4.R.Mitchell 60/495/11pb, 5.S.Kenyon 59/475/10. Ladies Recurve-B.Harris 60/548/23. Gents Barebow-1.C.Crompton 60/483/8sb, 2.C.Moore 60/477/3. Junior Gents Recurve-1.T.Young 60/526/19sb, 2.N.Kinrade 59/463/6, 3.J.Brookes 60/408/1sb, 4.J.Hill 60/383//7.
Isle of Man Archery Club 