There was a low turnout at Onchan this week for the first Vegas of the season. The Vegas is the hardest of the Indoor targets, with three small faces scoring from 10 down to 6 arranged in a triangular pattern. The faces must be hit in the correct order starting bottom left and there is very little room for error. The juniors shot a three spot Portsmouth round as practice ahead of next week’s Northern Counties competition in Penrith. As always on Remembrance Sunday, the archers stopped shooting to observe the two-minute silence to honour the fallen.
Dave Moore shot unopposed in the Gents Compound division as Rhys was otherwise occupied and Pete Mumford had come down with a heavy cold. Dave didn’t stray outside the yellow centre until the last dozen when he allowed one arrow to drop into the 8 and punched another into the 7.
Joy Gough was, likewise, the only Lady Compound on the shooting line. Joy also had a cold but managed to get through the shoot in reasonable style.
Barbara Harris was not her usual ebullient self. Fatigue made the shoot somewhat gruelling for her and a miss in the last dozen did not improve her temper, but as usual she put in the highest Recurve score of the day.
The Gents Recurve division provided some actual competition with Danny Cowin, Peter Howland and Simon Kenyon all in action. All three men found the target challenging for different reasons and all three had multiple misses. Danny started well but was clearly feeling the after-effects of helping his Mum Doreen celebrate her 70th birthday at a surprise party the night before. He still managed to win. Simon had his v-bars on the wrong way and had to rearrange them at the halfway point, though this did not seem to improve things. Simon recorded a pb as this was his first attempt at the round and he took second place ahead of Peter.
Colin Moore’s form varied throughout the shoot in the Gents Barebow but generally seems to be getting back to the form he showed two years ago.
A resurgent James Hill took the honours in the Junior Gents Recurve. He was the only boy to break 500 on the Portsmouth three spot but periodic lapses in concentration saw him put three arrows wide of the target. Toby Young came in second well ahead of Nathan Kinrade in third.
Brandon Gough fell a little short of his best in the Junior Gents Compound but nevertheless recorded his second highest score of the season.
Results Vegas Scratch- Gents Compound- D.Moore 60/558/21. Ladies Compound- J.Gough 60/539/8. Ladies Recurve- B.Harris 59/513/20. Gents Recurve- 1.D.Cowin 52/429/6, 2.S.Kenyon 49/399/7pb, 3.P.Howland 49/383/3. Gents Barebow-C. Moore 60/417/7. Portsmouth 3/s Junior Gents: Recurve- 1.J.Hill 57/506/15, 2.T.Young 58/481/10, 3.N.Kinrade 53/418/6. Compound- B.Gough 57/464/2.
Isle of Man Archery Club 